Formulating a playscript to transform an organization

Michael G. Jacobides

Michael G. Jacobides has written an article, “Strategy Tools for a Shifting Landscape,” that appears in the January-February issue of Harvard Business Review. He asserts that, in an age when nothing is constant except change, strategy should be defined by narrative – plots, subplots, and characters – rather than by maps, graphs, and numbers.

He recommends that companies should “develop a strategy by writing a playscript that encapsulates the motives, decisions, and actions of the company (the protagonist) as well as those of all other organizations connected to it, regardless of the businesses in which they operate.”

Jacobides identifies four characteristics of effective playscripts:

Imaginative “Playscripts should explore all the opportunities that exist, whether within or beyond [the company’s] sector.”

Outward-Facing “They should focus on the links the company has with other entities, the way it connects with them, and how others perceive it in the market.”

Robust “They should not depend on too many assumptions about other actors’ behavior, but instead focus on the actions that lead to the creation and capture of value.”

Plausible “Companies should consider why they, rather than some other player, would be able to make a playscript succeed.”

He concludes the article, “Companies will be better served in the future by the dynamic capabilities of playscripts than by the static characteristics of maps.”

There is much to be said about the value of playscripts or scenarios but I think that any process by which to formulate an appropriate strategy also requires design thinking and analytics.

Jacobides is an associate professor of strategic and international management at the London Business School where he holds the Sir Donald Gordon Chair of Entrepreneurship and Innovation.