Strategy Is NOT a Plan! Porter's Forces & Strategy Masterclass for Leaders

Most executives, project managers, program managers, and portfolio leaders misunderstand strategy. In fact, PMI's own research has repeatedly highlighted business acumen as one of the greatest capability gaps within the project management profession. Years ago, recognizing this need, PMI invited renowned strategy scholar Michael Porter to address its global community. At the time, PMI's CEO, Mark Langley, understood that project professionals needed a deeper connection to strategy if they were to become true organizational leaders rather than merely project executors. That presentation resonated deeply with me. As an engineer by training, I was immediately drawn to Porter's structured thinking, analytical rigor, and practical approach to competitive advantage. His ideas challenged many of the assumptions I had encountered in organizations around the world. I became a student of his work, studying not only the Five Forces, but also strategic positioning, value chains, trade-offs, generic strategies, and activity-system fit. Over the years, however, I observed a recurring challenge. While Porter's frameworks brilliantly explain what strategy is and how to diagnose competitive realities, many organizations still struggle with a more fundamental question: "How do we actually build a strategy?" Working with organizations across industries, I encountered leadership teams that were unable to clearly articulate their strategic position, competitive advantage, critical trade-offs, or long-term direction. Many confused strategy with goals, plans, initiatives, aspirations, or mission statements. That realization led me on a journey to create a practical bridge between strategic theory and organizational execution. Drawing upon Michael Porter's body of work, my experience advising organizations, and the leadership principles I learned through the John Maxwell Team, I developed a set of pragmatic frameworks designed to help organizations become more strategy-literate, strategy-capable, and strategy-confident. These frameworks—ACME for Vision, CASH for Mission, and PACTS for Strategy—provide leaders with a structured yet practical approach to understanding where they compete, how they win, what they choose not to do, the tensions they must overcome, and how all activities ultimately fit together. My goal is simple: help organizations move beyond strategy as a buzzword and transform it into a clear, actionable discipline that guides portfolios, programs, projects, and people toward meaningful competitive advantage. If strategy has ever felt vague or disconnected from execution, this masterclass will help you see it differently. My new book on STRATEGY is now available for leaders to grow and learn how to THINK strategy, leadership, vision and mission. lnkd.in/gCSXSPsS #Strategy #Leadership #MichaelPorter #PortfolioManagement #ProgramManagement #ProjectManagement #BusinessStrategy #PMO #PMP