Playing to Win
Explains how companies must pinpoint business strategies to a few critically important choices, identifying common blunders while outlining simple exercises and questions that can guide day-to-day and long-term decisions.
Strategy That Works
How to close the gap between strategy and execution Two-thirds of executives say their organizations don’t have the capabilities to support their strategy. In Strategy That Works, Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi explain why. They identify conventional business practices that unintentionally create a gap between strategy and execution. And they show how some of the best companies in the world consistently leap ahead of their competitors. Based on new research, the authors reveal five practices for connecting strategy and execution used by highly successful enterprises such as IKEA, Natura, Danaher, Haier, and Lego. These companies: • Commit to what they do best instead of chasing multiple opportunities • Build their own unique winning capabilities instead of copying others • Put their culture to work instead of struggling to change it • Invest where it matters instead of going lean across the board • Shape the future instead of reacting to it Packed with tools you can use for building these five practices into your organization and supported by in-depth profiles of companies that are known for making their strategy work, this is your guide for reconnecting strategy to execution.
The Game-Changer
&Lsquo;A.G. Lafley Has Made Procter And Gamble Great Again&Rsquo;&Mdash;Economist &Lsquo;Ram Charan Is The Most Influential Consultant Alive&Rsquo;&Mdash;Fortune Magazine How To Increase And Sustain Organic Revenue And Profit Growth&Mdash;Whether You&Rsquo;Re Running An Entire Company Or In Your First Management Job. Over The Past Seven Years, Procter &Amp; Gamble Has Tripled Profits; Hugely Improved Organic Revenue Growth, Cash Flow, And Operating Margins; And Significantly Boosted Dividends. How? A. G. Lafley And His Leadership Team Have Integrated Innovation Into Everything Procter &Amp; Gamble Does&Mdash;Creating New Customers And New Markets. Through Eye-Opening Stories A. G. Lafley And Ram Charan Show How P&Amp;G And Companies Such As Nokia, Lego, And Ge Have Become Game-Changers. Their Inspiring Lessons Will Help You Achieve Higher Growth And Higher Margins, Tap In To Abundant Creativity Outside Your Business, Manage Risk And Integrate Innovation Into Your Decision-Making. In A World Of Unprecedented Change And Competitiveness, Innovation Is The Best&Mdash;And Arguably The Only&Mdash;Way To Win. Innovation Is Not A Separate Activity, But The Job Of Everyone In A Leadership Position And The Integral Driving Force For Any Business That Wants To Grow And Succeed. This Is A Game-Changing Book That Helps You Redefine Your Leadership.
Good Strategy Bad Strategy
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world. Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” In Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” He introduces nine sources of power—ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth—that are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can easily be put to work on Monday morning, and uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007–08 financial crisis. Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.
Creating Great Choices
Move Beyond Trade-Off Thinking When it comes to our hardest choices, it can seem as though making trade-offs is inevitable. But what about those crucial times when accepting the obvious trade-off just isn't good enough? What do we do when the choices in front of us don't get us what we need? In those cases, rather than choosing the least worst option, we can use the models in front of us to create a new and superior answer. This is integrative thinking. First introduced by world-renowned strategic thinker Roger Martin in The Opposable Mind, integrative thinking is an approach to problem solving that uses opposing ideas as the basis for innovation. Now, in Creating Great Choices, Martin and his longtime thinking partner Jennifer Riel vividly illustrate how integrative thinking works, and how to do it. The book includes fresh stories of successful integrative thinkers that will demystify the process of creative problem solving, as well as practical tools and exercises to help readers engage with the ideas. And it lays out the authors' four-step methodology for creating great choices, which can be applied in virtually any context. The result is a replicable, thoughtful approach to finding a "third and better way" to make important choices in the face of unacceptable trade‐offs. Insightful and instructive, Creating Great Choices blends storytelling, theory, and hands-on advice to help any leader or manager facing a tough choice.
