Roger Martin

Roger L. Martin is a business strategist, author, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. His work is closely associated with integrative thinking: an approach to decision-making that treats opposing models not simply as choices to be made, but as tensions from which a better alternative may be developed.

Before joining Rotman, Martin spent 13 years at the Monitor Company, including service as a director and, for two years, co-head of the firm. He was Dean of the Rotman School from 1998 to 2013, and later served as Academic Director of the Michael Lee-Chin Family Institute for Corporate Citizenship and Institute Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute. His official biography also identifies his academic training as an AB in economics from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Martin develops his account of integrative thinking in The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking, using management cases to examine how leaders work through conflicting ideas. His writing and research have also addressed strategy, business design, democratic capitalism, incentives and governance, and social innovation.

In 2017, Thinkers50 placed Martin first in its global ranking of management thinkers. He was also named Poets&Quants Dean of the Year for 2013, recognizing his completed tenure at Rotman. He continues to write and advise on strategy and management.