#137—Peter Compo: The Emergent Approach to Strategy

Outthinkers

Peter Compo is the author of The Emergent Approach to Strategy: Adaptive Design & Execution. Unlike many strategists from universities and consulting firms, Compo builds his groundbreaking work first as a musician and a scientist (he holds a doctorate in Chemical Engineering), and then gained experience in the “corporate trenches” at DuPont.
Hired as a research scientist, he held leadership positions in product, marketing, supply chain, and business management where he served as the Director of DuPont Ventures, focusing on new business ventures, and later as the Director of Corporate Integrated Business Planning, where he was responsible for overseeing the company's strategic planning processes. His varied background and passions inspired his unique perspective that business—particularly business strategy—often mirrors science and music, inspiring him to write The Emergent Approach.

Peter’s mission is to create a new level of clarity on strategy by debunking the idea that strategy is cascading and top-down. Instead, his concept of “emergent” strategy proposes that strategic planning is agile, constantly transforming as new information and situations present themselves.

In this podcast, we discuss:

• How strategy, similarly to evolution and scientific breakthroughs, isn’t just selecting what works, but rather a series of discarding what doesn’t work
• How execution isn't just about following a list and getting good results — but rather adhering to a strategy until new information proves the hypothesis or framework is wrong
• How leaders can help facilitate and guide strategic direction across teams and functions without putting too many constraints that hinder performance
• A preview of techniques and tools from his book that leaders can apply to jumpstart the emergent approach in defining your strategy

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Episode Timeline:
00:00—Highlight from today's episode
01:23—Introducing Peter + the topic of today’s episode
04:30—If you really know me, you know that...
06:20—What is your definition of strategy?
07:44—Can two organizations with the same goals have different strategies?
08:51—The meaning of "Emergent"
09:40—How did your background in music and science lead you to strategy?
13:22—Peter's musical background
14:25—Strategy mirroring music: structure precedes improvisation
17:24—Strategy is more than just goals and execution
18:26—Trade-offs between departments require strategic guidance
23:05—Strategy helps resolve conflicts between business functions
27:22—Lessons from sports: the role of strategy in team coordination
31:32—Strategic adaptation and innovation
33:37—Entrepreneurs and scientists share an obsession with solving bottlenecks
35:34—Strategy should focus on internalization
38:24—Five disqualifiers to test if you really have a strategy
42:35—How can people follow you and continue learning from you?__________________________________________________________________________
Additional Resources:
Personal website: https://emergentapproach.com/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/petercompo/
Link to book:

Thank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.
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