A Primer on Strategy Choice Chartering

Strategy Choice Chartering is a disciplined way to cascade high-level strategic choices down to the people who execute them. Martin shows why simply stating a goal is useless without a clear charter that tells sub-leaders what they must decide, what constraints exist, and how they will be supported.

In the first example, the new EMBA director was given a choice charter that demanded the program become #1 in the GTA and align with the school's global ambition. By defining that the program could be redesigned, compressed, and focused on student pain points, the director rebuilt a two-year program into a thirteen-month intensive that captured market share.

The second example tackles financial governance. Martin required a framework that gave Rotman predictable revenue splits with the university while remaining palatable to UofT. The resulting "resource center management" system gave multi-year certainty, enabling revenue growth from $13M to $130M and setting a model the university later adopted.

The third example turns a drab alumni magazine into a self-funding intellectual brand. The charter demanded the magazine compete with HBR, SMR, and CMR, become subscription-and-advertising funded, and serve as a vehicle for Rotman's ideas. The editor delivered themed issues, attracted high-profile contributors, and secured newsstand distribution, even earning reprint rights on HBR's site.

Martin wraps up with five practical steps for any leader: make only the choices you can own, explain them thoroughly, spell out the key features, promise support, and stay willing to revisit. Repeating this process at each level builds a culture where strategy becomes actionable work, not just a statement on a slide.