Better, Simpler Strategy

Better, Simpler Strategy

Author: Felix Oberholzer-Gee

Publisher: Harvard Business Press

Published: 2021-04-20

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 1633699706

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Named one of the best strategy books of 2021 by strategy+business Get to better, more effective strategy. In nearly every business segment and corner of the world economy, the most successful companies dramatically outperform their rivals. What is their secret? In Better, Simpler Strategy, Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee shows how these companies achieve more by doing less. At a time when rapid technological change and global competition conspire to upend traditional ways of doing business, these companies pursue radically simplified strategies. At a time when many managers struggle not to drown in vast seas of projects and initiatives, these businesses follow simple rules that help them select the few ideas that truly make a difference. Better, Simpler Strategy provides readers with a simple tool, the value stick, which every organization can use to make its strategy more effective and easier to execute. Based on proven financial mechanics, the value stick helps executives decide where to focus their attention and how to deepen the competitive advantage of their business. How does the value stick work? It provides a way of measuring the two fundamental forces that lead to value creation and increased financial success—the customer's willingness-to-pay and the employee's willingness-to-sell their services to the business. Companies that win, Oberholzer-Gee shows, create value for customers by raising their willingness-to-pay, and they provide value for talent by lowering their willingness-to-sell. The approach, proven in practice, is entirely data driven and uniquely suited to be cascaded throughout the organization. With many useful visuals and examples across industries and geographies, Better, Simpler Strategy explains how these two key measures enable firms to gauge and improve their strategies and operations. Based on the author's sought-after strategy course, this book is your must-have guide for making better strategic decisions.


Seven Strategy Questions

Seven Strategy Questions

Author: Robert Simons

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press

Published: 2010-11-16

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 142213332X

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Simons presents the seven key questions a manager and his team must continually ask. Drawing on decades of research into performance management systems and organization design, "Seven Strategy Questions" is a no-nonsense, must-read resource for all leaders in any organization.


Good Strategy Bad Strategy

Good Strategy Bad Strategy

Author: Richard Rumelt

Publisher: Currency

Published: 2011-07-19

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 0307886239

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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.


The Strategy Book ePub eBook

The Strategy Book ePub eBook

Author: Max Mckeown

Publisher: Pearson UK

Published: 2013-07-31

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 0273757113

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Thinking strategically is what separates managers and leaders. Learn the fundamentals about how to create winning strategy and lead your team to deliver it. From understanding what strategy can do for you, through to creating a strategy and engaging others with strategy, this book offers practical guidance and expert tips. It is peppered with punchy, memorable examples from real leaders winning (and losing) with real world strategies. It can be read as a whole or you can dip into the easy-to-read, bite-size sections as and when you need to deal with a particular issue. The structure has been specially designed to make sections quick and easy to use – you’ll find yourself referring back to them again and again.


Strategy That Works

Strategy That Works

Author: Paul Leinwand

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press

Published: 2016-01-12

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1625275218

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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.


Be the Best at What Matters Most

Be the Best at What Matters Most

Author: Joe Calloway

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-02-26

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1118611187

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Winners in business aren't the ones who do the most things; the winners are the ones who do the most important things Be the Best at What Matters Most is about the one essential strategy for business leaders, entrepreneurs, owners, managers and those who want to be one. Simplify, focus, and win by outperforming all your competition on those things that create real value for the customer. This is about substance, not flash, and the ultimate "wow" factors of high quality performance, consistency and relentless improvement. Thought provoking questions, activities, and action steps are built into every section of the book Author Joe Calloway, an International Speakers Hall of Fame inductee, has been a popular business speaker for thirty years and worked with hundreds of companies to help them create and sustain success Be the Best at What Matters Most will help you and your team focus on taking the actions that maximize results, growth, and profit.


Strategy Pure & Simple II: How Winning Companies Dominate Their Competitors

Strategy Pure & Simple II: How Winning Companies Dominate Their Competitors

Author: Michel Robert

Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional

Published: 1997-11-22

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9780071368896

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Drawing on his 20 years of pioneering research and work with some 400 top companies, Robert offers today's executives guidance in strategy formulation, implementation, and deployment. Filled with examples drawn from the experiences of today's commercial leaders and interviews with CEOs of companies in a variety of industries, this updated edition of a revolutionary and inspiring best seller offers a sure-fire process of strategic thinking that's been tested and refined in the "war rooms" of America's most successful corporations.


Playing to Win

Playing to Win

Author: Alan G. Lafley

Publisher: Harvard Business Press

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 142218739X

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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.


The World's Simplest Stock Picking Strategy

The World's Simplest Stock Picking Strategy

Author: Edward W. Ryan

Publisher: Harriman House Limited

Published: 2021-11-16

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 0857199447

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Every investor needs an edge. Professional investors on Wall Street have the best education, the deepest knowledge of company accounts, the latest technology, and teams of analysts at their disposal to help them identify the best stock investments. That is their edge. As a part-time, individual investor, you cannot compete on their turf. What can you do? This is where The World’s Simplest Stock Picking Strategy comes in. As you go about your life, there are companies you interact with regularly as a consumer. Some companies will stand out to you as having remarkable products or services, which you use time and again, and which you imagine yourself using long into the future. You may not have realised it, but you have an excellent knowledge of those companies. This is your edge. This is where you should invest. In The World’s Simplest Stock Picking Strategy, Wall Street equity adviser Edward Ryan describes the investment strategy he has used for his own personal investments for the last ten years and shows you, step by step, with full practical guidance, how to put it into practice yourself. You do not need to know how to read company accounts, you do not need an MBA, and you do not need to spend hours each weekend reading the business pages. The strategy is simple and accessible to anyone who is a regular consumer of products and services in their daily life. What’s more, The World’s Simplest Stock Picking Strategy also has built-in steps to help the investor construct a balanced portfolio, invest during market pullbacks when other investors are fearful, avoid overtrading, and deal with the sticky problem of when to sell an investment. These are all things that professional investors struggle with, but they are taken care of by The World’s Simplest Stock Picking Strategy. If you are ready to take a strategic approach to investing in stocks and start out on the road to building long-term wealth, The World’s Simplest Stock Picking Strategy is your essential guide.


Fad-Free Strategy

Fad-Free Strategy

Author: Daniel Deneffe

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-09-06

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 100030082X

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Fad-Free Strategy provides a ground-breaking approach to making better business strategy decisions: more efficient, open to out-of-the-box opportunities and evidence-based. Most strategy books focus on Grand Strategy, the process that leads to high-level recommendations or, more accurately, hypotheses about where and how to compete. While this book briefly covers critical Grand Strategy practices, it deep dives into Operational Strategy, the process of validation, adaptation and possible rejection of those hypotheses. Operational Strategy is based on an in-depth understanding of customer preferences and anticipating the choices they make. Those choices rather than managers’ ambitions determine whether a strategy will generate the aspired financial results. The book explains, by means of detailed real-world cases across industries, how to generate validated solutions to any strategic problem such as: how to enter successfully into new markets, either as an innovator or as a latecomer? How to defend one’s position against aggressive new entrants? Or how to sustain margins when price is the only thing customers seem to care about? This remarkable book contains expert advice from accomplished strategic advisors and thought leaders Daniel Deneffe and Herman Vantrappen. Fad Free Strategy will be a useful tool for smart business executives at mainstream companies who are disappointed with strategy fads and simplistic solutions based on cherry-picked, anecdotal evidence from today’s hero companies. It will also appeal to economics faculty members teaching graduate courses in business strategy who are looking for an economics-based strategy textbook that is both rigorous and comprehensive. The book’s core ideas have been taught successfully in continuing and executive education programs at Harvard University and Hult International Business School.