Matthew E. May

Internationally recognized thought leader on strategy, culture, and innovation

Matthew E. May counsels executives and teams through custom designed facilitation, coaching, and training using four basic ingredients: strategy, ideation, experimentation, and lean. He’s been counseling for 30 years, a third of it as a full-time advisor to Toyota. He is the author of four books, the latest The Laws of Subtraction (McGraw-Hill, 2013), and is working on his fifth book. His work has been appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and many other publications. May holds an MBA from The Wharton School and a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Thu, 05/17/2018 - 12:01
How Mighty Is Your Midsized Company? Smaller firms often run too lean too long
Wed, 10/29/2014 - 13:12
Of the more than 10,000 business books that are published each year, few, if any, focus their attention on the all-but-forgotten midsized company. Armfuls of books on startups and Fortune-level organizational practices won’t help a business moving…
You Can’t Craft a New Strategy Until... ...you’ve defined what the problem is with the old one
Mon, 08/18/2014 - 13:20
A new strategy requires that some conclusions be made about the old one. The old strategy must be reframed as a choice between at least two mutually exclusive choices, from which some initial possibilities can be considered through focused,…
You Know You’re Clear on Strategy When... ...you understand these 20 attributes and ask yourself five critical questions
Mon, 08/04/2014 - 14:42
‘If I had the key members of your executive suite all in the same room, would they all be able to articulate the essence of your business strategy clearly and consistently?” I asked the executive vice president of strategy. “Probably not,” she…
An Economist Walks Into a Bar… Real-life business lessons from the road
Wed, 07/02/2014 - 12:53
Except... it’s not a bar. And it’s three economists, not one. Three economists on a road trip to Maine after an academic conference in Boston wandered into a local shoe store looking to kill some time. Little did they know it would spark a…
An Exercise in Observation: Practicing Your Genchi Genbutsu Look at this!
Thu, 06/19/2014 - 10:40
One of my all-time favorite quotes is from UK-based urban designer Ben Hamilton-Baillie, a master of designing shared space intersections: “If we observed first, designed second, we wouldn’t need most of the things we build.”  The Japanese phrase…
Compression, Immediacy, and the Death of the Iron Triangle Two out of three doesn't do it anymore
Mon, 06/02/2014 - 14:20
It’s been well over a decade since Dan Pink predicted that the macro trend of automation would change the nature of just about everything in his bestselling book A Whole New Mind (Riverside Books, 2006 edition). The context of his message revolved…
Strategy’s Magic Question There is power in making bold assumptions
Thu, 05/01/2014 - 09:24
Your grand strategy seems airtight on paper. You’ve arrived at a winning aspiration. You’ve homed in on an open and attractive segment in which to play. You've identified the competitive advantages that will enable you to win in your chosen spaces…
Getting Unstuck How many of these sticking points have skewered you?
Thu, 04/24/2014 - 15:40
Everyone, in any endeavor, gets stuck at some point. All of a sudden, or so it seems, things aren’t going right. Or even going anywhere. Writers get writer’s block. Athletes suffer from losing streaks. Running a business is no different; what was…
Heads Up, Sleeves Up Scrapping the three-day vision meeting in favor of a three-hour strategy huddle
Tue, 02/18/2014 - 12:08
The constant rapid changes in today’s business climate demands on-the-fly gear shifting for teams and business units. Few can afford to wait until next year’s three-day strategic off-site meeting, a model fast becoming a relic of more halcyon days…
The Art of Replacing Systems How to change the world
Thu, 01/23/2014 - 09:46
“Business and human endeavors are systems... we tend to focus on snapshots of isolated parts of the system, and wonder why our deepest problems never get solved.”—Peter Senge Senge had it right. I have never, ever seen a systemic issue truly…