HBR Strategy Summit 2026: Who Owns Strategy in Your Organization?

Key Concepts

• Collaborative Strategy Ownership: The shift from a centralized "Strategy" department to an executive-team-led model.
• Strategic Time Horizons: The distinction between tactical planning (1–3 years) and trend-based forecasting (5 years).
• Cross-Functional Input: Integrating commercial, product, and technology perspectives into strategic planning.
• Adaptive Planning: Moving away from rigid long-term plans toward flexible, assumption-based frameworks.

Ownership of Organizational Strategy

The speaker argues that strategy should not be siloed within a specific "Strategy" department. Instead, ownership must reside with the entire executive team. This approach ensures that strategy is not merely a document created by a single function but a collective commitment from the leadership team responsible for the organization's positioning.

The Collaborative Planning Framework

The organization utilizes a "team-driven event" model to formulate strategy, relying on three primary pillars of input:

1. Commercial Leaders: Provide an external perspective, identifying specific market wins and losses.
2. Product and Technology Teams: Offer insights into the evolving technological landscape and product innovation requirements.
3. Consumer Behavior Analysis: Tracks shifts in end-user needs to ensure the strategy remains market-relevant.

By integrating these functions, the organization ensures that the strategy is grounded in both operational reality and future-facing trends.

Strategic Time Horizons

The speaker highlights a significant shift in how companies approach planning cycles, noting that traditional 5-year plans are largely obsolete in the current business environment. The organization employs a bifurcated approach to time horizons:

• 1–3 Year Horizon (Tactical/Calculated): This timeframe is treated as highly calculated and assumption-based. It focuses on concrete objectives and actionable steps.
• 5-Year Horizon (Behavioral/Trend-Driven): At this distance, the focus shifts from specific metrics to industry trends and behavioral shifts. The goal is to position the company to align with future market conditions rather than predicting exact outcomes.

Synthesis and Conclusion

The core takeaway is that modern strategy is an iterative, cross-functional process rather than a static, top-down mandate. By decentralizing ownership to the executive team and utilizing a dual-horizon planning framework, organizations can remain agile. The speaker emphasizes that while 1–3 year plans require precision and data-backed assumptions, 5-year outlooks should serve as a compass for navigating technological and consumer-driven industry shifts.