The innovative and unique feature of this book is that it does not contain theoretical concept that cannot be translated into practice. The model which introduces this volume sets the stage for addressing the major phases of the strategic management process: environmental analysis, strategy formulation and development, strategy evaluation and control. Its conceptual and operational structure is described in the first part, together with a practically oriented definition of strategy, and a brief discussion of the logic and benefits of the judgmental modeling approach to decision making. The second part critically addresses the classical approaches to the analysis of the external and internal environmental factors, which have an impact on the “functioning” of the basic model, i.e. the structural characteristics of the industry context, and the companies’ technical, organizational, financial, and human resources, including the translation into operational models of otherwise rather theoretical concepts.
MBAs are old news. In this ground-breaking book, leadership expert Alicia McKay teaches leaders to focus on the things they don't teach you at business school.Leaders are made, not born. But they are not made in the lecture halls and seminar rooms; you don't need an MBA to be an effective leader.They need to get smart, be strategic about the next step and expand their range, to face a complex and uncertain future. They need paradox: clear values and open minds, high performance and meaningful space, dedication to detail and big picture perspective. They need to ask different questions, design different options and most of all, they need to do that with others on the same journey.In this thought-provoking book, Alicia McKay teaches you the five skills every strategic leader needs:* How to develop true flexibility* How to make good decisions* How to develop powerful systems* How to drive real performance* How to have meaningful influence Drawing on the latest global thinking on leadership, You Don't Need an MBA uses Plain English to demystify the skills leaders of the future need and outlines a way forward; united leadership that focuses on real outcomes, not quick-fixes.
The meltdown of stalwart companies from AIG to JAL to Lehman and government crises from Greece to Spain make it abundantly clear: With economic uncertainty and rapid innovation, empowered consumers and free agents, and the constant pressure to be faster, better and cheaper, the established wisdom on strategic planning works no more. Once hailed as “brilliant” by experts, it is the very approach that got so many companies into the mess in the first place. This path-breaking book shows how successful organizations of all stripes transformed their strategy paradigm based on Strategy-In-Action and the power of human capital: standing in the future, listening for vital intelligence in far-flung locations, giving voice to dissenting views, maximizing ownership by stakeholders, especially implementers, getting quick wins and screening out losers quickly in the action. Above all, successful companies of all sizes have ended the long-standing divorce of strategy—hatched by a select few behind closed doors—from action, the supreme test of strategy. Dr. Thomas D. Zweifel, strategy and performance expert, gamechanger and author of seven leadership books such as "Communicate or Die," "Culture Clash 2," "Leadership in 100 Days" and the award-winning "The Rabbi and the CEO," has teamed up with Edward J. Borey, CEO, corporate strategist and turnaround guru. Together, they bring to bear their combined half-century experience in innovating strategy design and execution at Fortune 500, midsize enterprises and startups as well as large public-sector and UN agencies. The result: a turn-key methodology for senior managers who need adaptive and people-centered strategy that yields quick wins and stands the test of time.
Strategy Execution is a core text combining the rigour of advanced research with the accessibility of practical experience and application to guide readers through this challenging, yet essential subject.
YOU HAVE A BRILLIANT NEW STRATEGY. NOW IT'S TIME TO EXECUTE. Businesses spend a combined total of $47 billion annually on strategy consulting. Approximately 90 percent of strategic change initiatives fail to deliver the intended results. Something isn't adding up. As companies all over the world concentrate on revisiting, revising, and remaking their strategies, they forget the next step: making sure the strategy happens. So it turns out that billions of dollars are spent on brilliant ideas--but not brilliant results. In this groundbreaking book, business strategy experts Liz Mellon and Simon Carter provide a solution: THE STRATEGY OF EXECUTION. The authors break down the process of ensuring that your new strategy translates into measurable profits and growth into five fundamental and profoundly important steps: MOBILIZE THE VILLAGE: Get your senior executives to embrace the new strategy and actively engage with it. GATHER THE ELDERS: Build a small team of the very highest figures in the corporation to lead strategic change. POWER UP FEELING: Don't overthink it; trust your instincts as much as your intellect. ENERGIZE PEOPLE: Create a culture of communication, ownership, and followthrough of strategic objectives. BUILD ENDURANCE: Drive individual and organizational resilience to play the long game and hardwire change throughout systems and organizational structures to maintain momentum. In the final chapter, the authors illustrate their process in action through a detailed case study of BPB PLC--a century-old building material company that applied these five steps to make extraordinary strategic change happen. You can lead positive change in your company. A strategy is just words on paper until it's executed with care and smarts. Use The Strategy of Execution as a blueprint for long-term business success. There are a lot of smart people coming up with innovative business strategies today. Very few of them, however, are executing them. The gap between strategy and execution has never been wider. The Strategy of Execution provides a practical approach to the work that must be done after a business strategy is agreed upon. "This is a highly readable guide to one of the most under-researched areas of strategy; execution. Strategists have always had more solutions than there are problems, but the issue of what to do when they leave the building has not been satisfactorily addressed. Liz Mellon and Simon Carter have put together a clear framework for execution illustrated with countless examples. Industry leaders are called ‘executives’ for a reason. This crisp and accessible book should be their mandatory reading." -- PAUL WILLMAN, Professor of Management, London School of Economics "This is a clearly written and very readable book, with key insights into the challenges of implementing a strategy and good examples from individuals and organizations that have brought about successful change." -- ANDREW HOBDAY, Chief Sustainability Officer, Mars Incorporated "One aspect of leadership that has always puzzled me is how a leader directs change for the good of the organization and the people. Too often, when a leader talks about change, employees expect the worst. This insightful book lays out a step-by-step guide on how to execute a strategy with warmth and conviction, bringing people with you rather than dragging them, fearful, behind you." -- KEVIN KELLY, former CEO, Heidrick & Struggles
Strategy as Action presents an action plan for how firms can build, improve, and defend their competitive advantage at every stage of their life cycle. For start-up firms entering a market, it provides a model for exploiting competitive uncertainty and blind spots; for growth firms who have established some market advantages, it provides an action plan for exploiting relative resources; for mature firms, it explains how to exploit market position; finally, for firms that have no decisive resource advantage, it provides an action plan based on firm co-operative reactions.
In today's competitive global markets, simply making a great product is not enough. To achieve profitable growth and stand out among competitors, you must start to strategically compete through service and innovative solutions for business customers. Professors Christian Kowalkowski and Wolfgang Ulaga guide you how to shift your business from a goods-centric to a service-savvy model. The authors' proprietary twelve-step roadmap to profitable service growth will help you break out of a narrow product-centric logic and discover how to � determine if your company is "fit-for-service," � make the most of your existing services, � innovate and create value-added services and customer solutions beyond your products, � embed a true service-centric culture in your organization, � drive change and align your service strategy with corporate goals, � transform your product-centric sales force into a service-savvy sales organization, � design an organizational structure that promotes service growth, and � align your interests with distributors and partners. Kowalkowski and Ulaga's twelve-step roadmap is based on rigorous research and long-standing experience working with businesses. They have worked with hundreds of managers in industrial and professional services companies, conducted research projects, led executive workshops, and published numerous articles in scientific and managerial journals, including Harvard Business Review, among others. Here, they share not only their own insights but the lessons learned from successful case studies and years of extensive research.
Written by experts in Luxury and Fashion Management at SKEMA Business School this exciting new book offers a new perspective that challenges the established rules of the luxury and fashion industry. The authors and contributors examine the evolution of luxury strategy and how the luxury industry is being redefined in the twenty-first century.
Get competitive by learning to think strategically.The inability to set good strategy can sink a company¿and a leader¿s career. A recent Wall Street Journal study revealed that the most sought-after executive skill is strategic thinking, but only three out of ten managers have this skill set.Horwath explains the three keys to strategic thinking, breaks them down into simple, attainable skills, and gives you practical tools to apply them every day, providing managers with a clear path to mastery of the three disciplines: 1. Acumen¿generate critical insights through a step-by-step evaluation of your business and its environment2. Allocation¿focus your limited resources through strategic trade-offs 3. Action¿implement a system to guarantee effective execution of strategy at all levels of your organization Based on new research with senior executives from 150 companies and the author¿s experience as a thought-leading strategist, Deep Dive is the first book to focus on the most important level of strategy¿you. Armed with this knowledge and dozens of effective tools, you can become a truly strategic leader for your organization.--Rich Horwath is the president of the Strategic Thinking Institute, a former chief strategy officer, and professor of strategy at the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. As a thought-leading strategist, he has worked with such giants as Adidas, Amgen, and Pfizer. He is the author of four books and more than fifty articles on strategic thinking and has been profiled in business publications around the world, including Investor¿s Business Daily.
