Rita McGrath

Rita McGrath

New York, New York, United States
47K followers 500+ connections

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Rita McGrath, one of the world’s top experts on strategy and innovation, is consistently…

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Experience

  • Valize Graphic

    Valize

    Princeton, New Jersey, United States

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    Greater New York City Area

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Education

  • Columbia University Graphic

    Columbia University

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    Activities and Societies: Phi Beta Kappa

    Magna cum laude

Volunteer Experience

  • Member, President's Leadership Advisor Council

    The World Bank Group - IMF / African Society

    - 1 year 10 months

    Poverty Alleviation

    Volunteering with World Bank President Jim Kim to provide strategic insights, advice, feedback and training.

  • McCarter Theatre Center Graphic

    Board Member

    McCarter Theatre Center

    - Present 4 years 4 months

    Arts and Culture

    Delighted to be part of the Board at a time when we have the opportunity to completely rethink what a regional Arts Center is all about.

Publications

  • Old Habits Die Hard, But Sometimes They Do Die

    Harvard Business Review

  • Old Habits Die Hard, But Sometimes They Do Die

    Harvard Business Review

    In this counterpoint to Roger Martin's article on habitual advantage, I point out that strategic inflections can completely change customer's behavior and illustrate with the example of the Dollar Shave Club.

    See publication

  • The End of Competitive Advantage: How to keep your strategy moving as fast as your business

    Harvard Business Review

    Are you at risk of being trapped in an uncompetitive business? Chances are the strategies that worked well for you even a few years ago no longer deliver the results you need. Dramatic changes in business have unearthed a major gap between traditional approaches to strategy and the way the real world works now.

    In short, strategy is stuck. Most leaders are using frameworks that were designed for a different era of business and based on a single dominant idea—that the purpose of strategy…

    Are you at risk of being trapped in an uncompetitive business? Chances are the strategies that worked well for you even a few years ago no longer deliver the results you need. Dramatic changes in business have unearthed a major gap between traditional approaches to strategy and the way the real world works now.

    In short, strategy is stuck. Most leaders are using frameworks that were designed for a different era of business and based on a single dominant idea—that the purpose of strategy is to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Once the premise on which all strategies were built, this idea is increasingly irrelevant.

    Now, Columbia Business School professor and globally recognized strategy expert Rita Gunther McGrath argues that it’s time to go beyond the very concept of sustainable competitive advantage. Instead, organizations need to forge a new path to winning: capturing opportunities fast, exploiting them decisively, and moving on even before they are exhausted. She shows how to do this with a new set of practices based on the notion of transient competitive advantage.

    This book serves as a new playbook for strategy, one based on updated assumptions about how the world works, and shows how some of the world’s most successful companies use this method to compete and win today.

    Filled with compelling examples from “growth outlier” firms such as Fujifilm, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Infosys, Yahoo! Japan, and Atmos Energy, The End of Competitive Advantage is your guide to renewed success and profitable growth in an economy increasingly defined by transient advantage.

    See publication

  • How the Growth Outliers Do It

    Harvard Business Review

    The study finds that companies who achieved consistent growth over a long period of time managed to create a remarkable blend of consistency and innovation.

    See publication

  • Learning to Live With Complexity

    Harvard Business Review

    Complex situations call for different management approaches than those that are merely complicated - in this article, we explore what that means for you.

  • Finding Opportunities in Business Model Innovation

    The European Financial Review

    Business model innovation, it is commonly thought, is for new entrants. This article shows how incumbents as well as new entrants can uncover new opportunities for growth, citing examples from organizations as varied as on-line banking and Germany's Deutsche Post. A diagnostic that one can use to assess the potential of a business model is incorporated.

    See publication

  • Failing By Design

    Harvard Business Review

    In uncertain situations, failure is inevitable. And yet most organizations do a dreadful job of benefitting from those failures that do occur. In this popular article, I describe how failures can sometimes be beneficial, and how leaders can create the conditions for intelligent failure.

    See publication

  • When Your Business Model is In Trouble

    Harvard Business Review

    All too often, leaders miss the early warning signs of impending business model erosion. In this interview, Sarah Cliffe and I discuss what leaders could do to improve their ability to take action in time. You can listen to a podcast version of this article by clicking on the link above.

    See publication

  • Business Models: A Discovery Driven Approach

    Long Range Planning

    New business model development, like any uncertain endeavor, requires discovery. The concept of ‘the business model’ is appealing because it suggests a change to the way that
    strategies are conceived, created and executed against. In highly uncertain, complex and fast-moving environments, strategies are as much about insight, rapid experimentation and evolutionary learning as they are about the traditional skills of planning and rock-ribbed execution.

  • Discovery Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process to Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity

    Harvard Business Press

    Discovery Driven Growth provides a field guide to leaders who seek to master the capabilities of innovation-fuelled, profitable organic growth. The book takes you systematically though a practical, easy to absorb process for identifying and screening opportunities and planning and launching new ventures. Clayton Christensen said "The ideas in Discovery Driven Growth are some of the most important tools of management and strategy that have ever been developed. Managers woh use these methods…

    Discovery Driven Growth provides a field guide to leaders who seek to master the capabilities of innovation-fuelled, profitable organic growth. The book takes you systematically though a practical, easy to absorb process for identifying and screening opportunities and planning and launching new ventures. Clayton Christensen said "The ideas in Discovery Driven Growth are some of the most important tools of management and strategy that have ever been developed. Managers woh use these methods will be able to navigate the uncertainties of growth ventures with confidence."

    See publication

  • The Value Captors' Process: Getting the Most Out of Your New Business Ventures

    Harvard Business Review

    The popular stage/gate method for structuring new venture reviews served to address the problem of runaway ventures. Unfortunately, it's go/no go approach leaves a lot of value on the table. This article presents an alternative approach, focused on capturing value, even from ventures that don't work out as planned.

    Other authors
    See publication

  • Marketbusters: 40 Strategic Moves that Drive Exceptional Business Growth

    Harvard Business Press

    Marketbusters describes practical, proven, ideas for insightfully identifying growth opportunities that will fill your innovation pipeline and create the platform for profitable growth. The book takes readers through five "lenses" for identifying opportunities: change the customer experience; reconfigure offers; change business models; capitalize on industry shifts and create entirely new markets. It is chock-a-block with specific and detailed instructions.

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  • The Entrepreneurial Mindset: Strategies for Continuously Creating Opportunity in an Age of Uncertainty

    Harvard Business Press

    The Entrepreneurial Mindset borrows from the practices of habitual or serial entrepreneurs to bring the power of innovation and entrepreneurship to established corporations. In its pages, readers will find guidance for developing their own entrepreneurial leadership, together with practical worksheets, exercises and checklists.

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  • Discovery Driven Planning

    Harvard Business Review

    This best-selling HBR article lays out a disciplined approach to planning for highly uncertain ventures that overcomes the pitfalls Clayton Christensen dubbed "innovation killers".

    See publication

  • The Entrepreneurial Strategist

    Inc. Magazine

    See publication

Honors & Awards

  • "Theory to Practice"​ award

    Vienna Strategy Forum

    Awarded to those highly valued for the rare ability to connect research to business problems.

  • Top 10 management thinkers in the world

    Thinkers50

    "Oscars of management thinking."

  • One of the top 100 people to follow on Twitter

    Huffington Post

    The 100 Twitter accounts will educate you on the very latest and best business, technology and leadership practices.

  • Top Professors on Twitter

    LDRLB - David Burkus

    Ranked as one of the top business school professors to follow on Twitter.

  • Dean of the Strategic Management Society Fellows

    Strategic Management Society

    Inducted in recognition of her impact in the field. The Fellows are recognized and honored for their significant contributions to the theory and practice of strategic management.

  • Most Influential International Thinker list

    HR Magazine

  • #1 Business book of the year.

    Strategy+Business Magazine

  • Distinguished Achievement Award for Strategy

    Thinkers50

  • #1 "General Business"​ book

    800ceoread

    Each book is judged on the originality and applicability of its ideas and the quality of content.

  • One of the 25 Smartest Women to follow on Twitter

    Fast Company Magazine

    The most influential and profound leaders across a diverse set of industries and interests.

  • Fellow of the International Academy of Management

    International Academy of Management

  • Fellow of the Strategic Management Society

    Strategic Management Society

    Election as a Fellow is the highest honor offered by the Strategic Management Society, bestowed only on those who have made a significant contribution to the field.

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