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  • Why Play Is Essential for Business | Martin Reeves | TED
    Why Play Is Essential for Business | Martin Reeves | TED
  • How to build a business that lasts 100 years | Martin Reeves
    How to build a business that lasts 100 years | Martin Reeves
  • How to maximise your imagination - with Martin Reeves
    How to maximise your imagination - with Martin Reeves
  • Martin Reeves: Your strategy needs a strategy
    Martin Reeves: Your strategy needs a strategy

Learn More About Martin Reeves

Martin Reeves is a leading thinker, author and speaker on strategy and innovation. He is the author of a dozen books, including “Your Strategy Needs a Strategy” (2015), “The Imagination Machine” (2021) and his latest, “Like: The Button That Changed The World” (Harvard Business Review Press, April 2025).

He is one of the most published authors in Harvard Business Review and other business publications, a frequent speaker at corporate events and a 3-time TED speaker. He has 35 years experience in advising leaders on strategy and founded and led the BCG Henderson Institute, BCGโ€™s strategy think tank.ย 

Reeves is a board member of Arabesque AI, a trustee of the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences and Co-chair for the Strategic Management Societyโ€™s annual global meeting.

Martin Reeves is available to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting meetings, interactive workshops and customized keynotes through the exclusive representation of Stern Speakers & Advisors, a division of Stern Strategy Groupยฎ.

Martin Reeves was last modified: October 7th, 2025 by Justin Louis

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Martin Reeves can deliver engaging, informative talks on a range of topics covering strategy, innovation and leadership, including but not limited to:

  • How Innovation Really Works
  • How to Reimagine your Company
  • Competing on Imagination
  • Competing with Technology
  • Why Your Strategy Needs a Strategy
  • The Biology of Strategy
  • Building a Company Which Lasts 100 Years
  • Competing on Resilience
  • Leading with Curiosity
  • Competing on Learning
  • The Playful Enterprise

Martin delivers highly interactive workshops on a range of topics related to strategy and innovation including but not limited to:

  • Building Effective Strategy
  • Reimagining Your Business
  • Your Strategy Needs a Strategy
  • Building an Imaginative Company
  • Building a Personal Learning System

Praise for "Like"

"โ€ฆinnovation very rarely takes the form of an entirely new idea; instead, it recombines existing ones. And people often reach the same conclusions independently. That is the message of 'Like,' an entertaining new book by Martin Reeves and Bob Goodson on the origins of the 'like' button."

The Economist

"โ€ฆ a stimulating inquiry into the creation and consequences of the 'like' buttonโ€ฆ. thought-provoking.

Publisher's Weekly

"Terrific, fun, and keenly illuminating. Reeves and Goodson tell the remarkable tale of the like buttonโ€”and use it as the foundation for a host of insights into innovation, the brain, and our species."

"A captivating exploration, revealing how this humble icon transformed the way people all over the world interact. A must-read for those intrigued by the power of simple innovations to influence society."

Karim R. Lakhani, Dorothy and Michael Hintze Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, Co-author, 'Competing in the Age of AI'

"This book isn't just about a buttonโ€”it's a compelling journey through the messy process of innovation and a must-read for anyone curious about the hidden stories behind the things we click every day."

Biz Stone, Co-founder, Twitter

"If youโ€™re looking for a book to 'like,' I strongly recommend this one. It's a can't-put-it-down page-turner. A fun and instructive read!"

Rita McGrath, Strategist; professor, Columbia Business School; and author, 'Seeing Around Corners' and 'The End of Competitive Advantage'

"'Like' is wildly original. Who would have thought that such a simple button could hide a deep understanding of technology, money and regulation?"

Niels Lunde, Editor in chief, Dagbladet Bรธrsen

"Fast-paced and full of original insights, this book will open your eyes to a much richer and more textured story of the rise of social media."

Anna Lembke, MD, New York Times bestselling author, 'Dopamine Nation'

"Innovation in technology is by no means orderly, planned and predictable. A riveting tale."

W. Brian Arthur, Author, 'The Nature of Technology'

"Like, WOW!"

Paul Buchheit, Creator, Gmail; co-founder, FriendFeed

Praise for "The Imagination Machine"

โ€œIn an age when corporations are getting ever larger, business models are evolving faster, and artificial intelligence is changing the way we work, companies need imagination more than ever. Rather than treating imagination as an unruly art, Reeves and Fuller convincingly show how companies can systematically cultivate and harness it.โ€

Gary Hamel, Visiting professor, London Business School

"We may not all be artists, but it's high time we started thinking like them. If you want to escape the tyranny of metrics and incrementalism, and if you're serious about confronting uncertainty with courage and creativity, this book is a great place to start."

Margaret Heffernan, Author, "Uncharted"

"In today's business environment, the capacity to move beyond cookie-cutter models and copies of what others are doing is critical. That requires putting known things together in unforeseen ways; the ability to wonder, to get inspired when things fail or don't work; and to see surprises as sources of ideas. This book fills an important gap in our knowledge about how to systematically apply imagination, creativity, and learning to business strategy."

Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, Executive chairman, LEGO Brand Group; former president and CEO, LEGO Group

"This book captures essential concepts of nurturing imagination as a sustainable organizational capability. Let's all ask active, open questionsโ€”and stay hopeful, as the book suggests."

Kai-Fu Lee, Chairman and CEO, Sinovation Ventures

"Creativity and imagination have increasingly become the key sources of outsized business success. Yet creativity and imagination aren't taught in most business schools, they're not encouraged in most business cultures, and they tend to be stifled by most popular management processes. Reeves and Fuller have written a delightful exploration of the imagination in business that should be read by any leader aiming for long-term success."

Alan Murray, Former CEO, Fortune Media

โ€œ'The Imagination Machine' is insightful and timely. As the pandemic has altered many work habits for good, and when the boundaries between management and leadership blur, imagination indeed becomes an increasingly necessary corporate resource.โ€

Marco Alverร , CEO, Snam

โ€œ'The Imagination Machine' is a fascinating and practical guide on how to harness imagination to develop and implement transformational ideas, which are so needed in these fast-changing times.โ€

Susan Hakkarainen, Chairman and CEO, Lutron Electronics

โ€œ'The Imagination Machine' explains how the power of imagination can be kindled and harnessed. Itโ€™s a must-read for every corporate leader or employee.โ€

Steve Blank, Adjunct professor, Stanford University

โ€œ'The Imagination Machine' belongs in the library of any leader who is serious about developing an industry-leading innovation capacity.โ€

John Haley, Former CEO, Willis Towers Watson

โ€œA truly inspiring and beautiful book. It not only explains how renewal from within is the key to sustaining long-term business success; it also gives business leaders the hands-on tools and methods to go about it.โ€

Georg Kell, Chairman, Arabesque; founder, United Nations Global Compact

โ€œMartin Reeves has done it again. With Jack Fuller, he maps the future for business leaders with 'The Imagination Machine'โ€”an incredibly practical and thought-provoking read on stoking imagination within corporations. In order for our companies to flourish in this post-Covid era, it would behoove us to act on these powerful concepts without delay.โ€

Jim Loree, Former CEO, Stanley Black & Decker

โ€œIn the era of the Internet of Everything, competition between enterprises will become a competition to fuel the imagination of employees. Therefore, only by believing in human value maximization and turning employees from tools of implementation into autonomous entrepreneurs can we win. 'The Imagination Machine,' which puts forward some powerful questions and propositions, is well worth reading.โ€

Zhang Ruimin, Chairman and CEO, Haier Group

โ€œIn 'The Imagination Machine,' Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller take us on a jolly jaunt from cave paintings to AI-generated images, from the Princes of Serendip to the worldview of the Umwelt, from LEGO to Play-Doh and the founding ideas of Amazon and Disney. Prepare to be inspired.โ€

Bob Goodson, President, NetBase Quid

โ€œBefore you can build the Next Big Thing, someone has to come up with the idea on which it is based. In this charming but thorough exploration of the role of imagination in business and society, Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller take us on a tour of what imagination is, why itโ€™s so essential, and how you can cultivate it. A tonic for these highly uncertain times!โ€

Rita McGrath, Professor, Columbia Business School

โ€œIn an age of VUCA, especially in light of the coronavirus pandemic, it is challenging for organizations in any sector, including NGOs, to innovate and keep innovation alive. Drawing on multidisciplinary insights, this book argues that imagination is upstream of innovation, and articulates a six-step methodology for managing and stimulating imagination, providing a powerful set of tools to enable organizations to get the โ€œimagination machineโ€ up and running.

Xu Yongguang, Founder, Hope Project in China

Praise for "Your Strategy Needs a Strategy"

โ€œBe bigger or faster? Blue Ocean Strategy or aggressive? ... But what strategy do YOU need? ... According to this framework, there are five approaches: be big, fast, first, the conductor or simply be viable. You just have to choose. At Business Digest, we could not miss this book in which three experts from BCG offer you to slow down the pace to choose the strategy that suits you better.โ€

Business Digest

โ€œIn depth explanations of each of these approaches will provide critical insights to help leaders match their approach to strategy to their environment, helping to determine when and how to execute each one, and avoid a potentially fatal mismatch.โ€

Consulting Magazine

โ€œReeves, Haanรฆs, and Sinhaโ€™s โ€˜strategy paletteโ€™ deftly illustrates the core approaches that can lead to success within the complex world of global business. Clear and comprehensive, 'Your Strategy Needs a Strategy' is a must-read for business leaders seeking a fresh take on strategy and implementation.โ€

Ian C. Read, Former chairman and CEO, Pfizer

โ€œFinally, a business book that does not oversimplify strategy, proposing the next recipe or tool that will solve everything. On the contrary, it rightly acknowledges the variety of different business contexts and provides a rigorous framework to navigate this complexityโ€”and take advantage of it!โ€

Marco Airoldi, CEO, Benetton Group

โ€œThe business world will be transformed in an unprecedented manner in the coming years, and this requires completely new strategic thinking. This book provides the conceptual tool for leaders who want to succeed in this new world.โ€

Klaus Schwab, Founder and executive chairman, World Economic Forum

โ€œ'Your Strategy Needs a Strategy' provides a compelling and timely guide to strategy and execution. It explains how strategy is contingent on the environment and why, especially in unpredictable environments, some companies will need to delegate decision-making power and resource-allocation power to self-organizing teams and encourage everyone to create value for their users.โ€

Ruimin Zhang, Founder, chairman, and CEO, Haier Group

โ€œWe finally have a book that can help CEOs and their top teams decide the right strategic approach for their companies in todayโ€™s volatile business environment. A must-read.โ€

Deepak Parekh, Chairman, HDFC