The need for adding philosophy in strategy education

The need and significance of strategy is ever increasing. It is being in practice almost everywhere - across businesses, government, and social sectors. Strategy has a high failure rate – almost 90 percent! There needs to be more effort and initiatives to improve the strategy's success. One missing element in the strategy is a focus on philosophy and on drawing on it to strengthen it.

Strategy programs often claim to cover bits and pieces of philosophy, such as ethics, critical thinking, and innovation through specialised modules. These are reasonable efforts, but not sufficient in the current challenging times. Philosophy lays the groundwork for making all other strategic competencies coherent, responsible, and resilient in the face of future challenges. In a VUCA and BANI world characterised by complexity, technological change, and extraordinary ethical dilemmas, philosophy deserves to be a distinct course in strategy education.

To begin with, philosophy delivers the intellectual underpinnings for the concepts already taught in strategy programs. Ethics courses tend to revolve around case studies and compliance. Conversely, philosophy elucidates the reasons why particular actions are right or wrong. A separate philosophy course ensures that leaders cultivate judgment rather than merely awareness.
Additionally, philosophy nurtures a higher degree of critical thinking than what is typically found in strategy programs through detailed conceptual analysis, logical reasoning, and the identification of fallacies.

Moreover, philosophy helps in creating self-awareness and reflective thinking, traits vital for navigating today's intricate organisational environments. It guides strategists to reexamine their beliefs about work, success, others, and life.

Furthermore, philosophy prepares students to tackle unprecedented ethical dilemmas associated with emerging challenges such as AI. It provides the fundamental frameworks needed to address emerging challenges.

Finally, making philosophy a standalone, required course conveys the need and importance of philosophy in the strategy education. It might develop strategists who deliver what really matters, i.e. the right balance of prosperity, wellbeing and sustainability.

It might not be an exaggeration, that philosophy can play the role of adding soul to the strategy programs!

(This article is written by Dr Rajesh K Pillania, Professor, Management Development Institute, Gurgaon. This is an opinionated article; EPN has nothing to do with this editorial.)