Imagination will be the defining capability of the early AI era.
Bold strategy guided by imagination is the only way to deliver real impact in the AI era.
Matt Hamnett, founder and CEO
In an era where geopolitics can pivot on a single social post, communities are polarising, and AI is turning science fiction into everyday business practice, strategy has never mattered more. When change accelerates, clarity drives advantage.
The trouble is, most strategies aren’t strategies at all. They’re wordy aspirations that fail to make real choices and offer no roadmap for execution.
The arrival of AI doesn’t change the fundamentals of good strategy. Lafley and Martin’s five questions will continue to guide organisations into the future:
- What’s your aspiration?
- Where will you play?
- How will you win?
- What capabilities must you build?
- What systems do you need?
These simple questions cut through the noise, straight to the heart of what matters. The questions themselves don’t change with AI, but the bravery with which we answer them must. In today’s era, vague or watered-down strategies are more dangerous than ever. Only market leaders can put real distance between them and their competitors, or build a ‘moat of defensibility’ around their market position.
And how do you dig those wide, deep moats? Imagination. Imagination will be the defining capability of the early phases of the AI era. It allows us to explore markets through new lenses, solve old problems in innovative ways, and revisit challenges once considered too costly, risky, or time-consuming. Those with the creative courage and strategic foresight to approach familiar challenges with inventive solutions are the organisations that will define the future.
“Imagination will be the defining capability of the early phases of the AI era.”
Your aspiration must match the systems and capabilities you’re willing to invest in. And for today’s challenges, that means more than small adjustments. Reinvention is the only route to real change in the public sector and long-term commercial advantage, and it is imagination that will guide organisations through that transformation.
