Kim Warren, originator of the Strategy Dynamics approach
Kim is a Teaching Fellow at London Business School where he has taught Strategy since 1990.
His work focuses on how strategy and performance change over time - a critical issue largely
neglected by main-stream strategy approaches.
Kim has an engineering background, and both MBA and PhD from London Business School. His early
career was spent in the oil and petrochemicals industry. He was later retail strategy director
for Whitbread PLC where he was architect
of the group’s growth and domination of many restaurant, hotel and leisure sectors, a position the
company still holds to this day. This transformation totally replaced the company’s previous
position as a UK-focused beer producer – a rare example of a substantial corporation transformation.
Kim moved to London Business School in 1990,
where as Adjunct Associate Professor of Strategy he taught strategy on MBA and Executive programs.
He came to share the widespread dissatisfaction with the limited, abstract and static tools available
for developing, managing and teaching strategy (see for example
Wikipedia on strategic
management). He therefore built on certain core principles of
strategy to develop a powerful set of frameworks known as strategy
dynamics. This method focuses on the universal management challenge – delivering strong and sustainable
improvements over time in business performance. The method also provides a sound basis for
developing and managing strategy in public-services and non-commercial organisations.
Kim’s first book, 'Competitive Strategy Dynamics’ Wiley: July 2002 won the 2005 Jay Wright Forrester
Award from the International System Dynamics Society. This title has now been superseded by
'Strategic Management Dynamics', 2008, also published by
Wiley. Designed primarily as a new or supplementary textbook for MBA strategy classes, it is also
an indispensable reference for strategy consultants, analysts and other professionals.
An abridged version of the book is also available in electronic format only '
Strategy Dynamics Essentials'.
With Christina Spencer, he has developed a variety of simulation-based learning materials that
communicate this rigorous, fact-based approach to managing strategy through time. His course on
strategy dynamics and the learning materials that support it have been adopted by many international
business schools, and is also delivered online
If university credits are required it is also possible to do the course through
W.P.I.
Collaborations with leading consulting firms are extending the application of Strategy Dynamics
principles, notably in corporate strategy, equity analysis, technological disruption and
due-diligence for M&A and private equity deals. Consulting relationships enhance and develop
the approach, recent examples including Microsoft Inc, Visa International, BT plc, Barclays Bank,
PWC and Deloitte, as well as public sector and voluntary organisations.
Read an interview with Kim
published in Strategy magazine Spring 2009
Publications
Strategic Management Dynamics, 2008, Wiley: New York.
Improving strategic management
with the fundamental principles of system dynamics, 2006, System Dynamics Review, 21(4), 329 – 350.
Invisible ink, 2004, Business Strategy Review, 15(4), 57-65.
Why has feedback systems thinking struggled to influence strategy and policy formulation?, 2004,
Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 21(4), 331 – 347.
The Critical Path, 2003, Vola Press. Republished by
Business Experts Press, 2009
People Power, 2003, with Jeremy Kourdi, Vola Press. Republished by
Business Experts Press, 2009
Competitive Strategy Dynamics, 2002, Wiley: New York. (Superseded by Strategic Management Dynamics, above)
Operationalising the Impact of Competence-Building on the Performance of Firms' Resource-Systems, in Sanchez R. (ed.), 'Perspectives on Resources, Capabilities and Management Processes', 2001, Elsevier Science.
'Talent Growth Dynamic' (with others), McKinsey Quarterly, 2000, No.1, pp.106-115.
'The Softer Side of Strategy Dynamics', Business Strategy Review, 11(1), 2000, pp.45-58.
Reprint (PDF)
'The Dynamics of Rivalry', Business Strategy Review, 10(4), 1999, pp.41-54.
Reprint (PDF)
'The Dynamics of Strategy', Business Strategy Review, 10(3), 1999, pp.1-16.
Reprint (PDF)
'Designing your Growth Path: an Interview with Charles Farquharson (Mercury Asset Management)',
Jnl of the Operational Research Society, 50(4), 1999, pp.392-395.
'The Effective Communication of System Dynamics to Improve Insight and Learning in Management
Education' (with Paul Langley), Jnl of the Operational Research Society, 50(4), 1999, pp.396-404.
The end of Voodoo brand management, (with others), McKinsey Quarterly, 1998, No. 2, pp.106-117.
'The growth of service and the service of growth', Decision Support Systems, 19 (1997), pp.271-287 -
with A van Ackere and E Larsen.
'Building Resources for Competitive Advantage' in Mastering Management, Dickson T and G Bickerstaffe
(eds), 1997, FT Pitman: London
