Making Great Strategy
Arguing for Organizational Advantage
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- $42.99
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- $42.99
Publisher Description
Making strategy requires undertaking major—often irreversible—decisions aimed at long-term success in an uncertain future. All leaders must formulate a clear course of action, yet many lack confidence in their ability to think systematically about their strategy. They struggle to apply the abstract lessons offered by conventional approaches to strategic analysis to their unique contexts.
Making Great Strategy resolves these challenges with a straightforward, readily applicable framework. Jesper B. Sørensen and Glenn R. Carroll show that one factor underlies all sustainably successful strategies: a logically coherent argument that connects resources, capabilities, and environmental conditions to desired outcomes. They introduce a system for formulating and managing strategy through a set of three core activities: visualization, formalization and logic, and constructive argumentation. These activities can be implemented in any organization and are illustrated through examples and case studies from well-known companies such as Apple, Walmart, and The Economist.
This book shows that while great strategic thinking is hard, it is not a mystery. Widely applicable and relevant for managers and leaders at all levels, especially executive teams charged with setting the course of their organizations, it is essential reading for anyone faced with practical problems of strategic management.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
S rensen and Carroll, faculty members at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, delve into the "difficult nature of strategic decision making" in this fresh guide to a much-discussed topic. Business strategy is so difficult, they assert, because it involves major and often irreversible decisions that will shape an uncertain future. They posit that executives often "describe trends, articulate grand goals, and make nice diagrams with pithy sayings" when they should instead be developing goals and articulating how those goals will be achieved. The authors offer a system of three core activities to put strategic argument into practice: "iterative visualization," which focuses on visually mapping and planning effective arguments for organization; "logical formalization," on translating that plan into a course of action; and "constructive engagement and debate with others." Numerous examples are offered, including Anheuser-Busch's marketing failures in the craft beer sector and Tableau's challenges marketing a free version of its business software, as well as takes on notable entrepreneurs such as Netscape founder Jim Clark (as an example of the importance of visualization) and Herb Kelleher, founder of Southwest Airlines, who exemplified the notion of creating value. Current and future executives will want to take note of these insightful strategies for navigating high-stakes business terrain.
