Your Strategy Needs a Strategy: How to Choose and Execute the Right Approach

Brief Description: "What approach does your company use to develop and execute its strategy? We are confronted with a plethora of different approaches and frameworks which purport to answer this question-from the classic Michael Porter approach to Kim and Mauborgne's blue ocean strategy to Steve Jobs' "build it and they will come" philosophy. The answer? There is no one approach that works for everyone-but there is a best approach for your specific context. And it has never been more important to choose the right one: not only has the number of different approaches proliferated ten-fold over the past 40 years, but the environments in which executives must formulate and execute strategy have become increasingly diverse and complex. The difference between winning and losing has never been greater. And using the right approach pays off: firms that successfully match their approach to their environment realize significantly better returns than those who don't. And, they avoid the common frustrations stemming from lack of perceived relevance and engagement around on the strategy process. How you choose and execute the right approach is the focus of this book. From Global BCG strategy experts Martin Reeves, Knut Haans, Janmejaya Sinha (and based on the bestselling article in Harvard Business Review), Your Strategy Needs a Strategy offers a practical guide to help you to match your approach to strategy to your environment and execute it effectively, to combine different approaches for companies which operate in multiple environments, and to lead your organization in making better strategic choices. Organizing approaches into five strategic archetypes-Be Big, Be Fast, Be First, Be the Orchestrator, Be Viable-the authors explain the conditions under which each is appropriate, when and how to execute each one, and how to avoid common strategy traps. They richly illustrate the idea with interviews with CEOs from different industries from around the globe. For anyone leading a business or charged with developing a winning strategy this book is for you. The world of strategy is thick with opposing ideas and frameworks; Your Strategy Needs a Strategy will help you cut through the noise and find clarity on which approach is your best bet"--Marc Notes: What approach does your company use to develop and execute its strategy? We are confronted with a plethora of different approaches and frameworks which purport to answer this question-from the classic Michael Porter approach to Kim and Mauborgne's blue ocean strategy to Steve Jobs' build it and they will come philosophy. The answer? There is no one approach that works for everyone-but there is a best approach for your specific context. And it has never been more important to choose the right one: not only has the number of different approaches proliferated ten-fold over the past 40 years, but the environments in which executives must formulate and execute strategy have become increasingly diverse and complex. The difference between winning and losing has never been greater. And using the right approach pays off: firms that successfully match their approach to their environment realize significantly better returns than those who don't. And, they avoid the common frustrations stemming from lack of perceived relevance and engagement around on the strategy process. How you choose and execute the right approach is the focus of this book. From Global BCG strategy experts Martin Reeves, Knut Haanaes, Janmejaya Sinha (and based on the bestselling article in Harvard Business Review), Your Strategy Needs a Strategy offers a practical guide to help you to match your approach to strategy to your environment and execute it effectively, to combine different approaches for companies which operate in multiple environments, and to lead your organization in making better strategic choices. Organizing approaches into five strategic archetypes-Be Big, Be Fast, Be First, Be the Orchestrator, Be Viable-the authors explain the conditions under which each is appropriate, when and how to execute each one, and how to avoid common strategy traps. They richly illustrate the idea with interviews with CEOs from different industries from around the globe. For anyone leading a business or charged with developing a winning strategy this book is for you. The world of strategy is thick with opposing ideas and frameworks; Your Strategy Needs a Strategy will help you cut through the noise and find clarity on which approach is your best bet--; Provided by publisher."Review Quotes: ADVANCE PRAISE for Your Strategy Needs a Strategy Ian C. Read, Chairman and CEO, Pfizer Reeves, Haanaes, and Sinha s strategy palette deftly illustrates the core approaches that can lead to success within the complex world of global business. Clear and comprehensive, "Your Strategy Needs a Strategy" is a must-read for business leaders seeking a fresh take on strategy and implementation. Marco Airoldi, CEO, Benetton Group Finally, a business book that does not oversimplify strategy, proposing the next recipe or tool that will solve everything. On the contrary, it rightly acknowledges the variety of different business contexts and provides a rigorous framework to navigate this complexityand take advantage of it! Klaus Schwab, founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum The business world will be transformed in an unprecedented manner in the coming years, and this requires completely new strategic thinking. This book provides the conceptual tool for leaders who want to succeed in this new world. Ruimin Zhang, founder, Chairman, and CEO, Haier Group "Your Strategy Needs a Strategy" provides a compelling and timely guide to strategy and execution. It explains how strategy is contingent on the environment and why, especially in unpredictable environments, some companies will need to delegate decision-making power and resource-allocation power to self-organizing teams and encourage everyone to create value for their users. Deepak Parekh, Chairman, HDFC We finally have a book that can help CEOs and their top teams decide the right strategic approach for their companies in today s volatile business environment. A must-read. "Biographical Note: Martin Reeves is Director of the BCG Bruce Henderson Institute and a senior partner based in New York City. Knut Haanaes is the global leader of BCG s Strategy practice and a senior partner in the Geneva office. Janmejaya Sinha is chairman of BCG Asia Pacific, a member of BCG s Executive Committee, and a senior partner in the Mumbai office."Publisher Marketing: You think you have a winning strategy. But do you? Executives are bombarded with bestselling ideas and best practices for achieving competitive advantage, but many of these ideas and practices contradict each other. Should you aim to be big or fast? Should you create a blue ocean, be adaptive, play to winor forget about a sustainable competitive advantage altogether? In a business environment that is changing faster and becoming more uncertain and complex almost by the day, it s never been more importantor more difficultto choose the right approach to strategy. In this book, The Boston Consulting Group s Martin Reeves, Knut Haanaes, and Janmejaya Sinha offer a proven method to determine the strategy approach that is best for your company. They start by helping you assess your business environmenthow unpredictable it is, how much power you have to change it, and how harsh it isa critical component of getting strategy right. They show how existing strategy approaches sort into five categories"Be Big," "Be Fast," "Be First," "Be the Orchestrator," or simply "Be Viable"depending on the extent of predictability, malleability, and harshness. In-depth explanations of each of these approaches will provide critical insight to help you match your approach to strategy to your environment, determine when and how to execute each one, and avoid a potentially fatal mismatch. Addressing your most pressing strategic challenges, you ll be able to answer questions such as: What replaces planning when the annual cycle is obsolete? When can weand when "should" weshape the game to our advantage? How do we simultaneously implement different strategic approaches for different business units? How do we manage the inherent contradictions in formulating and executing different strategies across multiple businesses and geographies? Until now, no book brings it all together and offers a practical tool for understanding which strategic approach to apply. Get started today."