Masterclass: Effective Strategic Thinking

1) About the Faculty:

Prof. Tejpavan Gandhok (Pavan) has an eclectic and international background as an entrepreneur
and “pracademic”. Pavan is a popular speaker and thought leader, making regular appearances in
popular business media and in various CXO/ Investor forums and corporate leadership retreats. He
is a Practice track faculty of Strategy & Entrepreneurship Indian School of Business and Visiting
fellow at U of Melbourne and the Anderson School at UCLA. His research interests are mainly in
Adaptive Strategy under highly dynamic and uncertain conditions.

Pavan is a serial entrepreneur with a strong track-record of high investor returns and successful exits. He actively
collaborates with several leading investor funds and start-ups as venture advisor/ angel investor. His track-record
covers a range of situations including start ups, high growth as well as turn-arounds; with both Consumer & Retail
themes as well as knowledge/ technology intensive businesses. Prior to his entrepreneurial stints, Pavan has more
than 15 years of international Senior Partner level corporate advisory experience in Country & Regional Head roles
across Australia, USA, South East Asia and India with Strategy consulting & Private Equity firms such as Halcyon
Partners, AT Kearney, Stern Stewart & co. and the Boston Consulting Group. In earlier career roles he worked in
corporate strategy; technology management and incubation, and as an engineer and research scientist.

He is an Indian born, US educated, Australian citizen, former Permanent Resident of Singapore and now an Overseas
citizen of India.

2) Instructions for Strategic Decision Making Simulation – a ‘flight simulator for budding strategists/
entrepreneurs’

We will give you a sneak peak of this simulation during the scheduled session. Please read through the below
instructions in advance of the session to better prepare you for the key decisions you will need to make.

a) A Learning Simulation - not a fantasy game for entertainment :

 treat as a realistic role-play for how you would approach such strategic business decision making
in your own venture / real world ( i.e. please ensure no distractions - eg you might prefer to
have your head phones on – to minimize any distracting sounds around you;
 ensure focused attention for effective listening, analysis, reasoning and synthesis based on
careful attention to both the verbal and visual information you are provided ;
 make choices as and when you see fit – likewise you decide how and how much you wish to
analyse or ignore the provided exhibits;
 Also make the strategic decisions based on your own critical reasoning skills + your judgement
and risk-reward preferences in the given specific context of the simulation

b) Make the simulation decision choices individually – i.e. not based on inputs from others;

3) Recommended Post Suggestion Issues for Reflection and Some Optional Readings

a) This intro session will only be ‘a sneak peak sampler ‘…. but hopefully it might give you some
issues that post session you should create time to more deeply reflect on: your learning journey
progress thus far and key priorities and milestones going forward:

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 Masterclass: Effective Strategic Thinking

 on developing your strategic thinking skills ( critical reasoning, effective listening, synthesis for
actionable insights, effectiveness under pressure, taking useful cues but avoiding ‘red herrings’ /
deliberate manipulations, cognitive bias/ narrow framing traps etc);
 your understanding of key strategic business concepts and their various sub-topics (financing,
strategy, business models, enterprise value, shareholder returns etc); and
 you ‘mental models’ that help you make sense of the world;
 as with real life – our attention and emotion focuses on what you chose and the outcome … but
the learning comes from ‘how and why you made those choices …and on the path of
opportunities/ constraints set by a combination of your previous choices, the external
environment; and what sense you do/ do not make of this combination!!’

b) Optional Readings - per your interest

Recent Examples of strategic thinking for business in a covid-19 world

 https://www.fortuneindia.com/opinion/rebuilding-economies-after-the-covid-19-crisis/104358
 https://bcghendersoninstitute.com/emerging-strategy-lessons-from-covid-19-c1e5f9a7ba83

Farnham Street – very useful blog with lots of great reads to help in ‘Learning to Learn’

 https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2015/08/william-deresiewicz-learn-how-to-think/
 The multi-tasking myth: https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2011/08/multitasking-2/
 https://fs.blog/mental-models/
 https://fs.blog/2015/09/meditation-why-bother/

Systems Thinking

 https://thesystemsthinker.com/a-lifetime-of-systems-thinking/
 Consider subscribing to “Beyond The First Order” newsletter by The Ken, a sample edition: https://the-
ken.com/bfo/19/

Judgement and Decision Making

 https://twitter.com/bhavinjan1978/status/1248478332670234626/photo/1
 https://hbr.org/2020/01/the-elements-of-good-judgment
 http://aboitiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/The-Art-of-Thinking-Clearly.pdf
 https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-lost-art-of-thinking-in-large-organizations/

Deeper Insights on Digital Business Strategies – beyond the hype

 https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-business-ecosystems-
rise-and-often-fall
 http://isbinsight.isb.edu/digital-winner-take-all-platforms-hype-
or-reality/
 Beyond Disruptive Innovation: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/nondisruptive-creation-rethinking-
innovation-and-growth/

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