1338 Posts Found

An organization’s strategy represents the desired pattern of organizational attention, on which everyone should share a degree of focus, each in their particular way. A given strategy makes choices about what to ignore and what matters: Market share or profit? Current competitors or potential ones? Which new technologies? When leaders choose strategy, they are guiding attention.

Content: Quotation | Author: Daniel Goleman | Source: European Business Review | Subjects: Attention, Strategy

Preparing for the inevitable interactions between global forces can help you stay ahead of the competition.

Content: Article | Authors: David Lancefield, Richard Boxshall, Robert Vaughan | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Strategy

A fine-grained approach to growth is essential for making the right choices about where to compete.

Content: Article | Authors: Mehrdad Baghai, S. Patrick Viguerie, Sven Smit | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Best Practices, Management, Strategy

The context for make-or-buy decisions has become more dynamic, as manufacturers face dramatic swings in demand and the relative costs of sourcing locations. To maximize their resilience and value creation, leading manufacturers use a scenario-based approach to assess the implications of a broad array of sourcing decisions simultaneously.

Content: Article | Authors: Claudio Knizek, Daniel Küpper, Daniel Spindelndreier, Michael Zinser | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Management, Operations, Outsourcing / BPO, Strategy

Stanford’s Robert Sutton discusses the mind-set and strategies of companies that are most adept at building and spreading high standards.

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Robert I. Sutton | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Strategy

Strategic decisions should be the ultimate output of a strategic-planning program. That is, the strategic plan should clearly set forth the critical issues currently facing a company or division in terms of alternative courses of current action. If there are more than five or six issues, they are probably the wrong ones. If the decisions do not involve major risks or investments and/or changes in … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Louis V. Gerstner | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Strategy

Does following best practice in strategy, marketing, operations, and organization generally make it possible for companies to increase their revenues consistently—or does that kind of growth usually require something more?

Content: Article | Authors: Caroline M. Thompson, S. Patrick Viguerie, Sven Smit | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Best Practices, Finance, Management, Strategy

Organizations are moving forward along an evolutionary spectrum, toward self-management, wholeness, and a deeper sense of purpose.

Editor’s Note: Definitely read the comments which discuss the original source material for the foundation of this article, notably Dr. Clare Graves and Don Beck (Spiral Dynamics)

Content: Article | Author: Frederic Laloux | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Strategy

We cannot discount the daily demands of running a company, which traditional hierarchies and managerial processes can still do very well. What they do not do well is identify the most important hazards or opportunities early enough, formulate creative strategic initiatives nimbly enough, and (especially) execute those initiatives fast enough.

Content: Quotation | Author: John P. Kotter | Source: ChangeThis | Subject: Strategy

Joint ventures can be an effective way to enter new markets, gain expertise, increase production capabilities, and expand distribution. Given these potential benefits, it’s no wonder that these partnerships have regained popularity. But despite their advantages, they often fail to deliver value. BCG’s research into what it takes to succeed revealed eight important lessons.

Content: Article | Authors: Alex Dolya, Alexander Roos, Dinesh Khanna, Gaurav Nath, Nikolaus Lang, Sharad Verma, Tawfik Hammoud | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Management, Mergers & Acquisitions, Strategy

In Strategy: A History, Sir Lawrence Freedman, one of the world’s leading authorities on war and international politics, captures the vast history of strategic thinking, in a consistently engaging and insightful account of how strategy came to pervade every aspect of our lives.

The range of Freedman’s narrative is extraordinary, moving from the surprisingly advanced strategy practiced in primate groups, to the opposing strategies of Achilles … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Lawrence Freedman | Subjects: History, Strategy

As volatility and complexity rise, transformation has become an imperative for most companies, meaning fundamental changes to the strategy, operating model, organization, people, and processes. To transform, companies must take three steps: funding the journey, winning in the medium term, and establishing the right team, organization, and culture.

Content: Article | Authors: Jim Hemerling, Lars Faeste, Martin Reeves, Perry Keenan | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Change Management, Management, Strategy

Organizations have always depended on data — to manage operations, to communicate with customers, to pay employees and suppliers, to plan their futures, and so forth. Those with the best data have enjoyed distinct advantages — in commerce, for example, better understanding the market leads to better products offered at better prices, and so forth. Data has enabled strategy, but, with few exceptions, neither driven … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Thomas C. Redman | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Strategy

In “What Is Strategy,” [Michael] Porter argues against a bevy of alternate views … At a fundamental level, all strategies for Porter boil down to two very broad options: Do what everyone else is doing (but spend less money doing it), or do something no one else can do.

A tour de force by any measure, “What Is Strategy?” is certainly required reading for all … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Andrea Ovans | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Strategy

Business model innovation is complex and challenging. By understanding four distinct approaches—and the success stories of companies using those approaches—executives can make effective choices in designing the path to growth and uncovering a lasting competitive advantage.

Content: Article | Authors: Margaret Ayers, Zhenya Lindgardt | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Strategy is not the inevitable outcome of a process of analysis: it is a choice of where a firm wants to play and how it will win there going forward. Yes, a working knowledge of the industry and its likely evolution, the customers and their likely preferences, the firm itself and its potential capabilities and cost structure, and its competitors and their likely responses and … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Roger L. Martin | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Strategy

Anyone taking the time to delve into the literature of strategy quickly realizes that there are two fiercely opposed camps.

In the red corner we have the “positioning school” (TPS) and in the white we have the “resource-based view of the firm” (RBV). Michael Porter is credited with (or more often accused of) creating TPS in 1980—positing that a firm should think about positioning itself in … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Roger L. Martin | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Strategy

Smart executives know that sustaining great companies requires both strategic consistency and reinvention. But how do you achieve each without sacrificing the other?

In my experience, the answer lies in being able to answer — and act on — two important questions: what capabilities set your company apart from everyone else? And, are there changes happening in your world that will make those capabilities obsolete or … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Ken Favaro | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Management, Strategy

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.

Content: Quotation | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Efforts to grow blur uniqueness, create compromises, reduce fit, and ultimately undermine competitive advantage. In fact, the growth imperative is hazardous to strategy.

Content: Quotation | Author: Michael E. Porter | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Growth, Strategy