IMD Pathfinder®

IMD Pathfinder ®

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Discover a selection of articles from our team.

Leaders need to think hard how to make

The power of divergent thinking lies in expanding the areas of choice beyond what is being done today, and to build concrete options for a company to remain relevant and succeed in the future.

purpose central to their strategy.

Put Purpose at the Core of Your Strategy

Power of divergent thinking

BY PROFESSOR THOMASW. MALNIGHT, IVY BUCHE ANDCHARLES DHANARAJ

BY PROFESSOR THOMASW. MALNIGHT, IVY BUCHE AND VICTORIAKEMANIAN

Purpose is oftenmentioned as a lever to create organizational alignment and boost employee

Tomanage for tomorrowwith a “leader” mindset, executives need to expand the areas of choice and shape the strategic options for the company going forward. For this, they must adopt a learning attitude and explicitly challenge themselves to step out of their comfort zone. The benefit of divergent thinking is that it encourages people to think frommultiple perspectives to open theoretically limitless options, followed by sense-making, ultimately resulting inmore innovative solutions or breakthrough possibilities to address the challenge at hand.

engagement. However, according to research into the key strategies of many high-growth companies, purpose has become a core success factor of their strategy.

Purpose plays two important strategic roles:

• It helps enable companies to redefine their playingfield, propelling themto expand into high-growth areas.

Readmore on the power of purpose in HBR’s article by our Business Transformation team

Readmore on the power of divergent thinking in IMD’s article by our Business Transformation team

• It allows companies to reshape their value propositionby developing innovativenew products, services, andbusinessmodels.

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