HBR Strategy Summit 2026: Who Owns Strategy in Your Organization?

Why It Matters

By distributing strategy ownership across the executive team, companies can create more agile, data‑driven roadmaps that better anticipate market shifts, enhancing competitive advantage.

Key Takeaways

• Strategy ownership rests with entire executive team, not a single title
• Planning cycles integrate commercial, product, technology, and consumer insights
• Short‑term horizons (1‑3 years) rely on calculated assumptions
• Five‑year outlook focuses on behavioral trends and technology shifts
• Cross‑functional operating process ensures cohesive strategic decision‑making across organization

Summary

The HBR Strategy Summit 2026 tackled the perennial question of who truly owns corporate strategy, emphasizing that ownership is no longer the remit of a single “strategy” title but a collective responsibility of the executive leadership.

Speakers described a team‑driven process that pulls insights from commercial leaders, product and technology heads, and consumer behavior analysts. The organization maps its planning cycles into short‑term (1‑3 year) plans built on calculated assumptions and longer‑term (5‑year) visions shaped by industry trends and technological change.

As one executive put it, “just because you have the strategy title is not owned by strategy.” The firm’s five platforms feed external market wins and losses, tech landscape shifts, and consumer trends into a unified operating rhythm that guides strategic decisions.

This collaborative model signals a shift away from rigid five‑year plans toward agile, cross‑functional governance, enabling firms to respond faster to market disruptions and align resources with evolving consumer expectations.

Original Description

Who actually owns strategy? Not just the strategy team.

At the HBR Strategy Summit, Maran Nalluswami—EVP, chief strategy and business development officer at Synchrony—explains why strategy should be built across your entire leadership team, grounded in real signals from the market, tech, and customers.

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