Contents

1. The Imperative of Strategic Intent: Strategic intent is not just about where, why and the risk appetite of how a company competes. When markets mutate rapidly and technologies converge, intent must be more than ambition. It must be direction with commitment of resources to develop both tangible and intangible assets (product and market innovations, brands, distribution networks, IP) and market-facing process capabilities (e.g., leveraging technology to enable supply-chain and customer engagement integration) to develop defensible competitive advantages.

Amazon's 24% CAGR between 2010–2023 dwarfed Walmart's 3%. Yet Amazon wasn't merely a retailer—it built a technology-driven platform that fused commerce, cloud, streaming, and logistics. Walmart stuck to retail. Whose fault is that? Strategic intent today means willingness to enter adjacent markets, invest in intangible capabilities, and bet on asymmetric futures. In fact, the biggest risk in growth markets is not taking risks.

Thesis: Growth begins with ambition, clarity of purpose, and calculated risk-taking. Content:
·    Revisiting Ansoff's matrix with platform logic and information enabled technologies (blockchain, IOT, AI)
·          Integrating product-market expansion with tech-enabled risk mitigation
·          Why digital disruption demands a shift in mindset: from cost-control to customer- centric agility
·          Strategic role of marketing in shaping digital-first organizations
·          Recasting strategic decisions from EBITDA to growth in cash flows and ultimately market capitalization
·          How strategic intent shapes firm trajectory (Amazon vs. Walmart; Indigo)
·          Key argument: Strategy must drive competitive positioning and board-level strategy

2. Business Model Innovations: Redefining Product- Markets in an Information Rich Environment: Classic frameworks (like Ansoff's matrix and Porter's frameworks) assume a linear expansion into new products or markets. But in a digitized world, boundaries blur. What market is Microsoft in? Office software? Cloud infrastructure? AI platforms? Social collaboration? Can a tech company compete without marketing acumen. Or the reverse? Platform logic as driven by creation, flow, manipulation and use of information now dominates. Business model innovation requires development of new ways to create value for customers by leveraging technology to improve product development and customer engagement integration. It also requires capturing value for the company by developing better mechanisms to enhance profitability, accelerate growth and “lock-in” customers thereby developing immunity to competition through innovative financial models (e.g., Product as a Subscription – Yes, there was PaaS before there were SaaS models.) Business Model Innovations integrate value creation and value appropriation, helping redesign businesses.

Market capabilities are not confined to product categories but extend across applications (e.g., iOS across Apple products) where technological capabilities can be leveraged to expand into adjacent markets. Market power is hence based not on vertical integration and efficiency, but on the ability to manage eco-systems. These include strategic partners who provide applications, tech support, distribution and systems integration. The “best” products and technologies don't win. The best networked ones do. Winners dominate by sharing. This calls for redefining markets based on technological platforms, by developing customer solutions and not by historical industry definitions. An important conclusion: Managing MARKETS, not marketing.

Thesis: Business models are becoming more information based and require both value creation and value appropriation in dynamic information environments.
·    Go-to-market strategies that
·    Integrate upstream and downstream value chains
·    Are able to tap into the velocity, value and variation in information flow
·   Role of B2B marketing and Mar-Tech in neglected domains
·   Case for dual-capability models (product + platform; physical + digital)
·   Pricing, branding, and distribution as integrated levers of appropriation where information has primacy

Classic frameworks (like Ansoff's matrix and Porter's frameworks) assume a linear expansion into new products or markets. But in a digitized world, boundaries blur. What market is Microsoft in? Office software? Cloud infrastructure? AI platforms? Social collaboration? Can a tech company compete without marketing acumen. Or the reverse? Platform logic as driven by creation, flow, manipulation and use of information now dominates. Business model innovation requires development of new ways to create value for customers by leveraging technology to improve product development and customer engagement integration. It also requires capturing value for the company by developing better mechanisms to enhance profitability, accelerate growth and “lock-in” customers thereby developing immunity to competition through innovative financial models (e.g., Product as a Subscription – Yes, there was PaaS before there were SaaS models.) Business Model Innovations integrate value creation and value appropriation, helping redesign businesses.

Market capabilities are not confined to product categories but extend across applications (e.g., iOS across Apple products) where technological capabilities can be leveraged to expand into adjacent markets. Market power is hence based not on vertical integration and efficiency, but on the ability to manage eco-systems. These include strategic partners who provide applications, tech support, distribution and systems integration. The “best” products and technologies don't win. The best networked ones do. Winners dominate by sharing. This calls for redefining markets based on technological platforms, by developing customer solutions and not by historical industry definitions. An important conclusion: Managing MARKETS, not marketing.

Thesis: Business models are becoming more information based and require both value creation and value appropriation in dynamic information environments.
·  Go-to-market strategies that
· Integrate upstream and downstream value chains
·  Are able to tap into the velocity, value and variation in information flow
· Role of B2B marketing and Mar-Tech in neglected domains
· Case for dual-capability models (product + platform; physical + digital)
· Pricing, branding, and distribution as integrated levers of appropriation where information has primacy

Thesis: Multi-process integration across SCM, CRM, NPD, and MED (Market Ecosystem Development) drives durable market leadership.
· Four pillars of value creation: Product, Customer, Supply-Chain C Ecosystem
· Digital capabilities as enablers of customer lock-in and brand equity
·  The rise of bundled value propositions (e.g., Microsoft Platforms and Ecosystem; Cards and Experience)

Thesis: Mar-Tech based models must simultaneously serve profitability, growth, and resilience
· SaaS and PaaS models: strategic implications for lock-in and revenue streams
· Why marketing must be viewed as capital investment, not operational expense
· Case: TBD

3. Business Innovation: From Market Driven to Market Driving: Traditional strategy works backward: build a product, then find a market. In contrast, market driving works forward: envision a future product-market solution and map the steps needed today. Tesla didn't just build cars—it imagined an electric vehicle (EV) future with charging stations, AI-integrated vehicles, software-defined user experiences, direct-to- customer distribution that expanded profit margins to four times the average for ICE (internal combustion engine) automobiles and built and drove the eco-system towards its goal. It built the brand and the infrastructure simultaneously

The world's most valuable companies today don't just sell products—they envision and build platforms. Apple's bundled ecosystem (iPhone–iPad–iWatch–iCloud) increases switching costs, creating customer lock-in. Strategic intent, therefore, isn't only about market share—it's about share of life

Thesis: Business Innovation as Strategy, Not Afterthought. Innovation is not RCD alone—it is systemic business reinvention.
· Eco-system management to build moats
· Driving the market is about imagining a future and creating it” (Tesla case)
· Public vs private platforms: Can India Stack disrupt Visa-Mastercard oligopoly?
· Case Study: How Razorpay and Whatfix drove business innovation as strategy and drove the market in imagined directions

4. Strategic Change Management by Driving Behavioral Change: Developing and implementing platforms and customer solutions and managing change is not easy. It involves reinventing the future while managing existing, often core, businesses. Often, since success depends on deciding what not to do, it involves forgetting the past.
Revision of business processes, organization structures and implicit assumptions regarding our business requires reworking solutions and managing behavioral change. This program shares a framework identifying “Tyrannies of Mindsets” that must be overcome – and mechanisms for doing so. It requires an understanding of how people think and feel and the skill to leverage the understanding to develop and implement behavioral nudges. Else, we will dwell in the past

Thesis: The biggest barrier to transformation is not strategy—it is organizational inertia.
· Cultural, structural, and incentive misalignments (e.g., Sales and Marketing vs Ops metrics)
· Frameworks for managing change: Behavioral Change, Resource Fluidity
· The paradox of success: why yesterday's winners resist tomorrow's game
· Case study: Samsung Marketing Operations

5. Building Customer Based Brand Equity in the Brain and Using Marketing Metrics for Resource Allocation: 

Competitive advantage today comes from:
·          Brands and customer equity
·          Data and distribution networks
·          Human capital and developer ecosystems

These are market-based assets. Treating them as investments rather than costs can realign incentives, reshape capital allocation, and reposition marketing at the core of corporate value creation.

Thesis: What gets measured gets managed—but what if we're measuring the wrong things?
·          Marketing-to-Finance bridge: MFOX model (Marketing, Finance, Ops eXchange)
·          From ROE to CLV: reframing performance metrics in intangible-asset-rich firms; looking at metrics based in 
           customer attitude and behavior
·          Building resilience and growth via strategic reallocation (e.g., Samsung case)
·          Visualizing value migration from operations to platforms to ecosystems based on information flow
·          Governance Beyond Compliance: Bringing Market and Customer Metrics to the Board.

Case: Current and Past Projects of the Center for Behavioral Science at IIMA and MDI Gurgaon

Strategic intent begins with a narrative—a compelling, purpose-driven story about the firm's role in a changing world. The narrative is built around how one connects different elements of events and actions in different arenas that impact the business of the firm.

Purpose guides resource allocation, frames risk tolerance, and aligns the organization

Thesis: The new age of turbulence requires leadership to be multi-faceted, open to change, problem-driven, and action-oriented.
· Top management must explore ways of driving business performance by investing in dynamic capabilities
· Market intelligence is the central nervous system of the firm. Informed strategies will drive future performance & survival, increasing reliance on AI/ML, blockchain, and digital twins in shaping future market strategy by connecting the dots
· The boardroom role of marketing: influencing capital allocation and strategic growth
· The firm of the future is designed for agility, connectedness, and customer value— not control

Venue & Duration

The programme is scheduled during February 15-17, 2027 on a residential basis at MDI Gurgaon Campus, Mehrauli Road, Sukhrali, Gurugram. Accommodation for participants would be available at MDI Gurgaon Campus from the noon of February 14, 2027, to the forenoon of February 18, 2027.

Registration & Fees

Participants should be nominated by their organizations. The enclosed nomination form should be completed and returned with all the details. The fee of the program is Rs. 1,26,000/- (Rupees One Lakh Twenty Six Thousand only) per participant which includes a professional fee and all charges for boarding, lodging and supply of course materials during the programme. GST as applicable will be charged extra in addition to the programme fee. Payment should be made by Cheque/NEFT/RTGS.

Discount Policy
With a view to our long-term relationship with your esteemed organization, we are pleased to introduce the discount policy in this programme. The discount will be observed in the following conditions: (discount is applicable in NEPAL also)
·    10% Discount against 3-5 nominations
·    20% Discount against more than 5 nominations

Important Dates

The last date for receipt of nominations is February 01, 2027. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is February 02, 2027. Any withdrawal received after this date will be subject to deduction as per the Institute's rules. However, substitution may be permitted.

Nominating organizations are advised to await confirmation of acceptance of nominations(s) before sending the participants to the programme venue.

For enquiry, please contact at [email protected] or +91-124-4560008.