You’ve probably been in one of those "strategic planning" meetings. The ones with the endless PowerPoint decks, the vague mission statements about being "world-class," and a list of 25 different priorities that somehow all matter equally.
Honestly? That isn't strategy. It’s a To-Do list with a fancy haircut.
When A.G. Lafley took over as CEO of Procter & Gamble in 2000, the company was stumbling. The stock price had tanked, and the culture was stagnant. He didn't fix it by working harder or just "optimizing" what they already had. He fixed it by simplifying what strategy actually means. Working alongside advisor Roger Martin, he developed a framework that eventually became the book Playing to Win.
The core idea is almost aggressively simple: Strategy is about making specific choices to win. If you aren't making hard choices about what you won't do, you don’t have a strategy. You just have a hope.
The Strategy Choice Cascade
Most people think strategy is a vision or a plan. Lafley argues it's actually a "cascade" of five interconnected choices. You can’t just pick one; they have to flow into each other. If they don't line up, the whole thing falls apart like a cheap card table.
📖 Related: Why Your Display Shelves With LED Shop Drawing Are Actually Failing You
1. What is our winning aspiration?
This isn't just a fluffy mission statement. It’s a definition of what "winning" looks like in a way that actually inspires people. For P&G, it wasn't "sell more soap." It was "providing branded products and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world’s consumers."
Basically, if you aren't playing to win—to be the best in your chosen slice of the world—you’re just playing to play. And playing to play is a great way to go out of business slowly.
2. Where will we play?
This is the hardest part for most leaders. They want to be everywhere. They want every customer in every country.
Playing to Win A.G. Lafley teaches us that "everywhere" is a recipe for mediocrity. You have to pick your spots. This means choosing specific geographies, product categories, consumer segments, and even channels.
Take the Olay turnaround. In the late 90s, Olay was seen as an "old lady" brand. It was struggling. Instead of trying to please everyone, P&G made a radical "where to play" choice. They targeted women aged 35+ who were worried about the "seven signs of aging" but didn't want to pay $100 at a department store. They ignored the teenagers. They ignored the luxury "prestige" shoppers. They found a specific gap in the market.
3. How will we win?
Once you know where you’re standing, how do you beat the guy next to you? Lafley points out there are really only two ways to win:
- Cost Leadership: You’re cheaper because your operations are better (think Walmart).
- Differentiation: You offer something so unique that people are happy to pay a premium (think Apple).
If you’re stuck in the middle, you’re in the "death zone." Olay won through a "masstige" strategy—prestige quality at a mass-market price. They looked like a $100 cream but cost $25. That was their "how."
🔗 Read more: Miriam Wheeler: What Most People Get Wrong About Real Estate Financing
4. What capabilities must be in place?
You can't just wish a strategy into existence. You need the "machinery" to do the work. If your strategy is to win through innovation, but your R&D department is underfunded and slow, your strategy is a lie.
P&G identified five core capabilities that they had to be world-class at: consumer understanding, brand building, innovation, go-to-market ability, and global scale. If a project didn't leverage those, they usually didn't do it.
5. What management systems are required?
This is the boring stuff that actually matters. It’s the rules, the metrics, and the meetings. If you say you value long-term growth but your bonus system only rewards quarterly sales, your "management system" is actively killing your strategy.
The $57 Billion Gillette Bet
The acquisition of Gillette in 2005 is probably the ultimate real-world test of the Playing to Win A.G. Lafley methodology. At the time, it was a massive, risky deal. But for Lafley, it was a logical extension of the "where to play" choice.
P&G was dominant in "beauty" for women but had almost no footprint in male grooming. Gillette owned that space. By bringing Gillette into the fold, P&G didn't just buy a razor company; they bought a massive "how to win" engine. They could take Gillette’s technology and apply it to their own brands (like Old Spice), and they could take P&G’s massive distribution power to push Gillette products into new corners of the globe.
💡 You might also like: Peter Abbott LLP Ottawa: What Most People Get Wrong
It wasn't just about getting bigger. It was about becoming more "choiceful" about the categories where they could be #1 or #2.
Why "Playing to Play" is a Trap
A lot of companies fall into the "play to play" trap. They follow industry trends. They launch a product because a competitor did. They try to "optimize" their way to success.
Lafley is pretty blunt about this: Optimization is not strategy.
Being 5% more efficient at a business model that is fundamentally losing is just a slow-motion disaster. Strategy requires the courage to say "no." It requires the humility to admit you can't win everywhere.
Practical Steps to Apply This Today
If you want to move away from "hope as a strategy" and start using the Playing to Win A.G. Lafley framework, you don't need a consultant. You just need to be honest with yourself.
- Define Winning Specifically: Don't say "increase revenue." Say "become the #1 preferred skincare brand for suburban moms who shop at Target."
- List Your "No" List: What customers are you not going after? What countries are you staying out of? If you don't have a "no" list, you don't have a strategy.
- Check Your "How": If a customer asks why they should buy from you instead of your cheapest competitor, and your answer is "better service," you're probably in trouble. Everyone says they have better service. What is your actual competitive advantage?
- Audit Your Calendar: Look at where you spend your time and money. Do those investments align with your "where to play" and "how to win" choices? If you're spending 80% of your time on a "legacy" business that isn't part of your future, your systems are broken.
Strategy is a living thing. It’s not something you do once a year and put in a binder. It's a continuous process of checking if your choices still make sense in a world that is constantly changing.
Stop trying to do everything. Pick your field. Build your engine. Play to win.
Next Steps for Your Strategy
- Review your current "Where to Play" choices: Identify one customer segment or product line that is draining resources without a clear path to being #1.
- Draft your "Winning Aspiration": Write it in terms of the value you provide to customers, not your financial targets.
- Map your "Activity System": Visualize how your different capabilities (like R&D and Marketing) actually reinforce each other to make your "How to Win" possible.