Designing a Better Future for All: The Importance of Systems Thinking to Strategic Management

In this seminar, Tima Bansal will argue that the analytical methods used by strategy scholars and managers to tackle business problems is increasingly problematic. She will propose systems thinking as a complementary approach to analytical thinking. Even though the choice of approach depends on the type of problem being tackled, systems thinking is almost always more suited to strategy-related challenges. She will outline the fundamental assumptions that ground systems thinking and their implications to both management research and practice.

About Tima Bansal

Pratima (Tima) Bansal is a Professor and Canada Research Chair of Business Sustainability at the Ivey Business School, Western University (London, Canada). She has been investigating sustainability-related issues for almost 30 years, by applying the lenses of time, space, scale and systems to business strategy. Her research has been published in many top tier management journals and she has completed two terms on the editorial team as an Associate and Deputy Editor of the Academy of Management Journal. She founded the Network for Business Sustainability and Innovation North, which applies systems thinking to corporate innovation.

***Given Tima’s tight schedule on the day we will not be able to offer any 1:1 meetings.