What is Strategy? A Lesson from a Restaurant in Copenhagen

Sometimes, all it takes is a dinner reservation to understand strategy.

Here’s what I learned at a small restaurant in Copenhagen.

The question “What is strategy?” has been addressed many times — famously by Michael Porter in his 1996 HBR article of the same name, and more recently by Roger Martin in his 2022 video “A Plan Is Not a Strategy.”

While they take different approaches, both agree on one thing: strategy remains widely misunderstood by managers.

Ironically, one of the clearest examples of strategy I’ve encountered came not from a classroom, a case study, or even a keynote at AOM2025 in Copenhagen, but rather from a dinner at a small restaurant in the city.

After a long day at the Bella Center, I had the chance to dine with my wife and friends at Krebsegaarden, a cozy and intimate spot in the Indre By district. Securing a table wasn’t easy. With limited seating, we had to visit in person to speak with Carsten, the head chef and co-owner, before finally landing a reservation for our last night in the city.

When we arrived, we were warmly welcomed by Mats, the other owner and sommelier. He walked us through the concept: the menu is compact — just twelve items, including starters, mains, desserts, and the breadbasket. Each quarter, the menu is reinvented, inspired by the art exhibition at the adjacent Gallery Krebsen.

What makes the experience unique isn’t just the art-infused menu. Mats explained that guests can create their own tasting menu — with or without wine pairings. There’s no fixed structure. Want just a few dishes? They’ll be larger. Want to try them all? Portions adjust accordingly. The wine pours? Up to you. Like a particular wine? Just ask for more. The only condition: the entire table must agree on the format.

We were in.

Our choices for the evening:

• Starters: Scallops with Jerusalem artichokes and apple; house crayfish salad

• Mains: Fried skate wings with hollandaise on browned butter; house bacalao

• Bonus: Guinea fowl in variations with summer beans and morel cream — for the gentlemen at the table

• Dessert: Chosen after the meal, as suggested

We didn’t ask for the price — we felt so at home that we just trusted them. The menu gave us a rough idea, and we were confident the value would match the care we’d already seen.

Each dish came with a story: Mats, with his deep knowledge of wines, told us about each pairing — the producer, the region, the logic. Carsten emerged from the kitchen to share the inspiration and preparation behind the food. It felt like dining in the home of close friends. We heard about Mats’s mom’s bacalao recipe, tasted sunflower root purée for the first time, and rediscovered familiar ingredients prepared in bold new ways.

It was, without exaggeration, the best dinner we had in Copenhagen.

And it was also a masterclass in strategy.

Because Krebsegaarden isn’t just a restaurant. It’s a living, breathing value proposition.

Everything — from the flexible menu to the art-inspired concept, the intimate service, and the trust-based pricing model — reflects strategic choices that reinforce one another. As customers, we felt like co-creators at the center of the experience. And yet, behind the scenes, the complexity of managing such flexibility was made invisible by flawless execution.

Carsten and Mats may not speak the language of strategic frameworks or academic models — but they live strategy where it matters most: in the experience, in the differentiation, in the choices they make, and in the trade-offs that come with them.

They remind us that strategy isn’t a set of documents or a plan — it’s a set of coherent choices, delivered with consistency, empathy, and excellence.

And yes, sometimes - or maybe even usually - the best strategy lessons come after a glass (or two) of wine.