Can design thinking mitigate critical strategy implementation risks?

Failed strategy implementations are a key business risk, and we explore how applying design thinking can mitigate key risks in strategy implementation. Based on a literature review and exploratory interviews, we identify a set of key strategy implementation risks, and map these risks against the key principles of the design thinking methodology.

We discuss the usage of design thinking capabilities to tackle key strategy implementation risks and call for a situation-specific adaptation of strategy implementation. The paper concludes with an outlook on future research activities.