Why Most Companies Confuse Ambition With Strategy with Rupert Morrison

Strategy isn’t a wishlist—it’s a series of tough choices about where to play and how to win. In this episode, economist, entrepreneur, and Strategic Value Creation author Rupert Morrison joins Bill Banham to break down why so many organisations confuse goals with strategy, and how to build a simple, practical system that links strategy to plans, KPIs, and boardroom decisions.

Rupert walks through the core steps: define your unique value factors, map the capabilities that power them, and capture the activity system on one page. Then make it real with a plan-on-a-page showing today’s metrics, five-year targets, and the critical initiatives across customer, revenue, operations, finance, and people.

We also cover how to test for defensible advantage—network effects, brand strength, cornered resources, process power—so your organisation is building something competitors can’t easily copy.

For leaders wrestling with reporting, Rupert explains why most board packs fail and introduces a clear “view from the bridge” approach: start with highlights, lowlights, key issues, and explicit recommendations, then support the narrative with data. He also lifts the lid on private equity portfolio reporting and how tracking against the investment thesis can sharpen focus in any organisation.

If you want to turn ambition into a genuine advantage, this episode is for you! 

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Guest Setup
• 2:34 Why Work And Problem-Solving Matter
• 4:14 From Org Design To Strategy Gaps
• 6:10 Defining Strategy Versus Plans
• 9:45 Activity Systems And One-Page Strategy
• 12:45 Power In Markets And Defensibility
• 15:10 Plan On A Page And Prioritization
• 18:15 Board Packs That Drive Decisions
• 21:10 Top-Down Meets Bottom-Up Learning
• 24:00 Private Equity Portfolio Reporting
• 26:35 How To Connect And Further Resources
• 27:56 Closing And Subscribe Prompt

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Welcome to the HR Tech Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talented, tech enthusiasts, and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work. Subscribe to the show, follow us on social media, and visit hrgazette.com.

SPEAKER_02: 0:26

Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Podcast. Hello, listeners. This is your host today, Bill Bannham. And in this episode, I'm delighted to welcome back to the show after far too long. Rupert Morrison, economist, former manager and consultant, serial entrepreneur, and founder of Org View and Ahari. Rupert has spent his career helping organizations see themselves more clearly from all design and workforce planning to sharper board reporting and value creation. We talk about the idea behind his new venture, the thinking that shaped his latest book, Strategic Value Creation, and why so many organizations still confuse plans with strategy. Rupert also breaks down what makes a strong board pack, why weak ones derail decision making, and how his work with private equity firms on portfolio reporting connects back to the fundamentals of organizational clarity and capability. If you care about better decisions, better data, and better strategy, this conversation with Rupert will give you plenty to chew on. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Rupert Morrison. Rupert, it's my pleasure after after a while to welcome you back to the channel.

SPEAKER_01: 1:48

It's been way too long, quite a few years. How are you? You know, Bill, I'm always living the dream, just different dreams. Um I'm good, thank you. I'm really good.

SPEAKER_02: 1:58

I mentioned to you before we hit record today that I was watching uh your podcast on YouTube earlier, and I think you gave the same answer. Always living the dream. I know. It's a good answer.

SPEAKER_01: 2:09

But I am living the dream. I'm I I love what I do. So if you love what you do, then how many people can say that?

SPEAKER_02: 2:16

All right. Well, without giving the game away, because we're going to get into what you're up to these days in just a minute. Let's let's just pose that question. What why do you love doing what you do? What problems is it solving? What why does it why does it motivate you to get out of bed in the morning?

SPEAKER_01: 2:32

I just well, A, I'll be honest, I like working. So like when I was a child and I had to go and work in the wool shed or something, I was just I was happy. If I had to go and do, you know, work with the sheep and do docking or whatever. I loved it. So I just love working. So maybe I'd be happy doing anything. Um, and then I've somehow managed to manufacture a scenario where I can work on solving problems that I think are really interesting to solve. Um, so that started with org design and work was planning in my first business that I that I started, analytics. I love data, I'm an economist by education. So I've kind of geared my career around things that I'm interested in and problems that I like to solve. And that's true in with my new venture, Arahi, as well. You know, I'm I'm solving a meaty problem that I'm really interested in doing. And I think the other thing that makes work interesting is variation. So it's, you know, my clients are very, which is fascinating. Um, but also I spend a lot of time working with my developers, which is I love, I love developing software. Um, but I'm still doing some consulting work with clients, and I love being out there with clients and helping them. So it's that variation and mixture. I I'm not very good at following process, you know, so if I'd have to do the same thing every day, I'd that would be torturous. Um, don't idle well. So if you'd say to me, right here you go, you have all the money in the world, but you can't work again, I would, I would turn that away. I wouldn't, I would not take that that offer.

SPEAKER_02: 4:14

So today uh we are we're uh we're talking about strategy and um board reporting. Um you mentioned just a second ago, Ahari, your new business. Uh what's the what's the big idea behind the new business and and why did you start it?

SPEAKER_01: 4:29

A couple of things. First, you know, I mean, some of your listeners may know me. The last time you interviewed me, we were talking about org design. And you could ask the question, how do you go from org design to to strategy and board reporting? So um, whenever you do org design, the first question you ask is, what's the strategy? And you would expect that most organizations, most companies would have a very good answer to that question. Um, the the truth is they don't. The truth is org design is actually very hard to do because most of the time uh organizations don't have a clear, well-articulated, well-differentiated strategy. And I just thought that is a that's it just amazed me every time it amazed me. And you know, you mentioned my podcast, I I ask, you know, I mean, I've obviously done the work with lots of different clients. I'm got some gray hairs now, I'm getting older. Uh but I speak to other people who do org design a lot, and they have the same experience. So that was the first thing, and then it got me thinking from first principles, actually, what is strategy? Like, you know, I've been a management consultant, I've been a CEO, I've done, I've done this stuff. And I I I I asked myself the question, can I really articulate what it is and how to do it? And have I always always been good at creating, you know, I call it designing a strategy. Um and I probably wasn't great. So I went back and researched, you know, read over 50 books, did a lot of soul searching, a lot of reading, and you know, wrote another book, um, strategic value creation, in part, so I could answer that question. And we don't have enough time to go through it, but you know, basically I distilled it down to eight questions. But the simplest way to answer the question is, you know, where to play and how to win, um, which um you know wasn't it wasn't my phraseology, but that that's a nice way of thinking about it. But it's more than that because you need to understand your ambition, you need to understand your economic engine, how you make money that has to tie to to purpose and passion. So, you know, you can have all the right ideas, but if you're not extremely motivated, um obsessively motivated, you you're probably not gonna succeed, you know, in being the best of the world at doing the thing you want to do. So it's distilling all that down. And where people get confused is between that and a plan. So often say, so what is your strategy? And they will just have a list of aspirations. Oh, we want to be number one in this industry, or we want to grow by 25% or whatever, and like, okay, that's a goal. That's something you want, that's an outcome you want to achieve. That's a dream, living the dream. That's a dream. But how are you gonna get that? How you configure all your capabilities so that you can get there, um, that's a different thing. And and and that's where people get confused, and you know, overly simplistic in their thinking/slash not thinking. Um that's one element of it. The other element is is the board and board reporting, and I, you know, being a CEO of a P back business, you know, I had to build board packs. And I would ask numerous investors and other private equity firms, can you give me an example of a good board pack? And they all said no, they're we're too embarrassed to share. Um, you know, and and you know, looking around, it's most boards don't have a great pack and something that links to the strategy. I call it the red line from the strategy to the plan to what the board discusses and how you work through on a on a cadence. So you everyone is aligned and working to execute that strategy so you can maximize the chance of return. So it's it's that connection. Um, it was those two sort of ideas, really, and connecting those that led me to a Rahi and another SaaS platform, another you know, piece of software to help people do this.

SPEAKER_02: 8:42

I guess the most obvious question for what you just mentioned there is how how does an organization analyze their capabilities and and their human assets and and all the all the possible ways that they could get to what what they what they envisage the company should stand for. Um, you know, what are some of those processes to analyze?

SPEAKER_01: 9:02

So at the strategy level, it's it's probably more high level than what you're thinking about. So um Michael Porter talked about the activity system. Uh I I kind of distilled his activity system so into I think different constituent parts. So what one of the value, what value factors, what value do you provide to your customer that is differentiating and makes you unique? And it's the combination of those value factors. Um and then what core capabilities do you need so you can execute those? And that this all fits on one page, Bill. So these are you know, in terms of number of value factors, uh it might be three or four things that make you unique. It's it's not a long laundry list. Um what are therefore the the key processes, the key KPIs, the key policies that need to be in place? And that creates like a graph diagram or a web and you know, like a system on one page. And that's a for strategy, that's the level, that's all you need to go to. Um Porter wrote about this stuff, you know, 30 odd years ago. Like, so it's it's not complex, it's just just doing that, and that's that's one of the eight questions. Um it's really at that level, and then you know, you can always break these things down to you know, other strategies like a functional strategy or a business unit strategy, so these things can cascade, but they should always align to that overarching corporate strategy, you know, at the top of the tree.

SPEAKER_02: 10:45

Okay, so higher level strategy, and then you're getting deep into it with different plans. Can you define for us the difference between a plan and a strategy?

SPEAKER_01: 10:54

Sure. So a plan is how you're going to do this, how you configure the capabilities, the value you provide provide to the customer versus the competition. So it's in the context of a market, who you're selling to, so what segments you're selling to, and why they they would buy, say what's your value property into that, how you make money. So you all those elements have to be designed so they're all consistent together. It's it's a whole set of questions. Um, what is the crux? What's the key thing you need to overcome? Uh, versus a plan is what are the steps you need to do to execute on things, to change things, so you can do those things. So think of the plan is we're here today, we need to do A, B, C, and we'll get to this point. Um, and you can't do everything at once. So you it's prioritization, it's scheduling, uh, and and and so that's what a plan is. We're gonna do these things to get here. Now, like all these things, all things have to be true. So you you need to, if you don't have a good strategy, a differentiated strategy that's really compelling, you're going to fail. Um, there are other tests as well. Um, you know, how are you going to get power in the market? So, you know, are there network effects? Um, there's the Hamilton Halo seven um powers, which is another framework. Apologies, this framework's from headed um the wazoo, but you know, what what are the things that you have in the marketplace that give you power? So you can, if you want differentiated margins and returns, which often good strategy leads to differentiated returns because you you have something that is that is unique and that what people want, and that is defend defendable. A good brand is defensible. So um process power, cornered resource, those are all things that give you a network effect. These are all powers that you have that mean you can charge more money relative to what the competition can do. So that the competitive dynamics is really, really important. And then what we do is we I call it um a pope plan on a page. I'm a big believer, Bill, on getting stuff onto one page so you can have a proper conversation. And with the Pope, you say, well, where are we today? So, what are the KPIs today that matter the most? And on one page, one column, by the key swim lanes in the organization. So normally custom would be at the top, finance and operations at the bottom. Um, people will always be one swim lane typically. Where are we today? Where do we want to get to say in five years' time? And how do those metrics evolve over five years according to just a couple of stepping stones? And then what are the key initiatives? So, what are the things we need to do that are going to make a dramatic change so we can actually get there in time? Um, and so getting that on one plan, so a plan on a page we're finding is working extremely well with management teams. And a lot of this is around driving alignment and choice. You most people try and do too much too quickly, um, and that just leads to failure. So, what are the the things today, what are the bets today? If we do these things, it's gonna have the biggest impact, or it's gonna lay a foundation for the next phase. Um, so that's a big part of the planning process as well. As every most organizations have you know limited resources. Um, so how you optimize the the use of that is is is really important.

SPEAKER_02: 14:48

Okay, and you obviously have been involved with fast-scale companies as well. I wonder what the difference between a board pack for a uh a smaller, more agile, fast growing company that maybe wants to have an exit strategy and used you know five years uh earlier on as part of your answer uh in five years compared to what that would look like compared to an established perhaps larger company been around for a while, um, with with with uh plans to grow uh and and to and and build on their existing achievements. What would be the key differences between those business packs?

SPEAKER_01: 15:24

The dimensions of analysis is is really the the difference. So I call them KODs, key organizational dimensions. So as an organization grows, you add geographies, you add business units, you know, you add channels. So you and and and as you grow, you have levels of accountability for those different things. You have more functions and more functions at scale. So in a way, if you think of it, uh each unit is is not too dissimilar. You have a leader of that unit, um, that smallest thing with the CEO at the top. And and the a key to a good board pack is I I call it the you know, the view from the bridge. So a one-page summary of everything that's going to follow, the key things that are going to follow. And I I like to have what are the highlights, because people are very bad at celebrating success. So, what are the highlights? What are the lowlights? Um, given that, and given the what are the key issues we need to discuss, what and what are the key recommendations and why? And getting that on one page. And so that means you know, what are the three key highlights and the three key lowlights? So, again, this is communication theory. You can have reams of lowlights and highlights, but it's it's helping the reader and in the meeting for people to focus their time. And in a way, Bill, if you're a small organization with 20 employees, or you're a massive organization with 200,000 employees, it's human beings that are digesting information, trying to make decisions to push something forward. It's it's prioritization, it's prioritizing what are the issues we need to discuss, what decisions do we need to make, and and and with that, what recommendations, if I'm attending a board meeting, what recommendations are you making management team and why? So, and and then having that clearly laid out and summarized at the beginning. So, you know, huge, you know, you'll you'll see a theme here, which is the power of one page. Because when you're in a meeting, you you want it's the it's the conversation and it's getting to and it's getting to action. What are we going to do? Um, if the meeting is structured as people sitting, stepping through reams and reams and reams of pages being presented to, it's you, you know, you cognitively you're just gonna tire. Um but Barbara Minto, who's one of the you know, the leaders of uh communication in the management consulting world, have the pyramid principle, which is have the biggest biggest things at the top and it cascades from there. What is the big issue that we have to discuss? Cascade from there. So it's leveraging that kind of thinking, really. Um, and and I don't care what scale you are, what industry you are, that that is just good practice, and everyone's trying to get better, everyone's trying to grow. So if you're a a startup, which you know I've been, or you're a scale-up, which I've also you know, complexity might grow, but in that meeting, actually, it's distilling down to those things, and it that just takes thought up front.

SPEAKER_02: 18:55

Okay, as part of your answer just a moment ago, you were uh talking about it kind of sounded like uh you are uh pro a top-down approach in terms of um steering the ship, leading the company. Where do you stand on bottom-up communication and how that shapes a company culture as well? Is that fine for company culture? But actually, strategy should be top-down.

SPEAKER_01: 19:16

I don't quite see them so mutually exclusive. Great insight comes from everywhere. Um, it's not and and strategy is not just a one-and-done, one-off thing either. So if you're not listening to the market, if you're not listening to customers, if you don't see the process, you you're going to fail. I I guess I see I said buy modal, buy, you know, without the bottom up, if you're just in an ivory tower, you're gonna be in deep trouble. You don't have all those all that information flowing, and and vice versa. Um I I think often good strategy, it comes from a kernel of insight about something, about a market. Um, now where does that come from? You know, that might come from the founder or the CEO, but but not always, and often not. And and as you, you know, you asked about scale, and as you become larger, it it bec you know that there's a trap of become becoming more and more divorced from the market and you know, from the end customer, um, from the processes, from the you know, the things that make you great. And uh and and then you'll you'll if you lose contact with that, you will fail. I think this is another one of the dilemmas, Earl, is that there's there's a whole set of paradoxes in good strategy, which I've actually I won't bore you with all, but there's a whole bunch of things that have to be simultaneously true that seem like they're contradictions. So um you have to have your head in the cloud and your feet on the ground. You know, both things have to be true, and and I think it's true. You you you need a top-down vision for the market and a thesis about why how you're going to win and why and where and all these sorts of things, but simultaneously you need to be constantly learning and iterating. Um, so I the world is dynamic. I don't care how large or small an organization is, you live in a dynamic world. You know, that the average lifespan of a of an organization and the standard poor S ⁇ P 500 is halved in the last 20 odd years, 20, 30 years. Um, you know, so I don't care who you are, uh, you know, Jeff Bezos was famously, famously said, I I I know Amazon will cease to exist at some point, I just don't know when I'm trying to push that date date out. You know, he I don't care what organization you're in, you're probably the organization's probably gonna fail at some point um and and and struggle. And and so if you if you think that any of this is a one and done and you you can rest in your laurels and and that's it, um you know statistics will say that you that's not gonna happen. You know, it's just very rare. So I I I think these it's it's not a it's not a bottom-up, top-down, it's both. It has to be both. You have to have your head in the clouds, you have to be dreaming, and you've got to wash your, you know, be on your cash. And and what one of the things that like successful founders do over and over again is they're very prudent with money, they're very careful what they spend. You know, cash management is key. Um, you know, so both things have to be true, and that's just with a lot of, you know, if people are looking for one panacea, like there's one thing, you do that one thing, then happy days, then guess what? The the world's just not that simple. Um all the cliches are true, and a lot of cliches are in total contradiction to each other.

SPEAKER_02: 22:58

Okay, I think you were gonna say wash wash your hands as well, which actually is very important for a farmer, I would imagine. There you go. Um, just two more questions before we do wrap up for today. Um, just very briefly, very briefly, you you're doing portfolio reporting now for private equity firms too. Uh, how did that come about and how does it relate to value creation and and board reporting?

SPEAKER_01: 23:20

Yeah. So it was it was a little bit by accident. I I have to be honest. I it was not the plan. And I was just meeting uh um the managing partner and some partners of a private equity firm talking about value creation and board reporting, and they said this is really interesting, but we have a problem with portfolio reporting. And portfolio reporting for listeners that don't understand is a PE firm wants to understand the performance of each of their investments, and because private equity, it's active capital inside that. So they have board seats, they often have majority shareholding. So when when a private equity firm makes an investment, they will have an investment thesis, they'll have a thesis for today the valuation is X, let's call it 100, and we want to get that to 300 or 400. How are we going to do that? And then the investment committee will sign off that investment thesis to make that investment, and so they will have that signed off, which they have to report up to their um LPs, the people that give them money to invest in these companies. And so they need to track how they're doing against that plan that they set at that investment. And then what they'll do with management when once they've um acquired the business or acquired a major stake in the business, they'll do a thing what's called a hundred-day plan or create a value creation plan. And a lot of that is is going back to basics. So, you know, what is the strategy, what's the plan, how are we going to you know get a 4x return or 25% IRR in this period? And portfolio reporting is tracking, you know, all the management accounts, PL, cash flow balance sheet, all of those standard things, but also the KPIs. And then what will happen in a PE firm is they will review that and they say, where are there issues? And what's interesting when you look across the portfolio, are there things? Are there things in each of the portfolio? And they will try and learn that and then help each of the portfolio companies and improve. And that's part of the value add. It's why, you know, the LPs, the people that invest in private equity, um, it's part of what they're paying for. Uh, so and it's all about value creation. It's all about we're here and how do we create value with this? And different PE firms have different theses and they invest in different markets and different geographies at different stages, but that that pattern is the same across, and the reporting and portfolio reporting is very similar to the board reporting, it just has less detail and it's slightly more financially oriented. So the board pack will have, let's say, more sales data and customer data and operational information. Um, this is has less of that, but then it's across all the portfolio. So it was a natural extension for the platform we could do it, and it was interesting. So that's that's how we got involved.

SPEAKER_02: 26:29

Okay, very, very good. And just finally for today, Rupert, how can our listeners connect with you? How can they learn more about a hurry? And how can they get a copy of your latest book or any of your books for that matter?

SPEAKER_01: 26:42

So you can get a copy of the books on Amazon or through Kogan Page, my publisher. Uh the latest one is called uh Strategic Value Creation. Um, there's also data-driven organization design, which is my first book, second edition, um, and organizational planning and analysis uh is is my second one. So um you can find me on LinkedIn, it's probably the easiest way. Um the uh new company is a Rahi, that's A-R-A-H-I. So that is Mari for to lead or to guide. Um, so Rahi.com. And and obviously there's also Orgview, which I'm still very involved with, um, orgview uh.com as well. So, you know, going back to your early question, like keeping busy, Bill. Um you know, if you want to if you want to get in touch, if you found this interesting, then um please let me know.

SPEAKER_02: 27:33

Well, that just leaves me to say for today, uh, Mr. Morrison, don't leave it so long next time, okay? Let's get back on sooner. Um it's been fantastic. It's great to hear that you're you're you're keeping so busy and everything's going so well and you're doing all these new things as well. So um good to catch up with you. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00: 27:55

Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show. If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette? And remember, for what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media, and visit hrgazette.com.