Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works
by A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin
Former P&G chairman A.G. Lafley and former dean of University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management Roger Martin explain, “in our terms, a strategy is a coordinated and integrated set of five choices: a winning aspiration, where to play, how to win, core capabilities, and management systems.”
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2021 Castlin Manifesto: Strategy in Polemy
by JP Castlin
JP Castlin is a strategic thinker and consultant based in Sweden. Major themes in his Manifesto are complexity and emergent strategy. In the chapter on marketing, he is not shy about challenging prominent figures. The paper is 71 pages including an impressive 9-page bibliography with academic papers, articles, and books cited throughout the text.
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Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points that Challenge Every Company
by Andrew S. Grove (1936-2016)
“A strategic inflection point is a time in the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change. The change can mean an opportunity to rise to new heights. But it may just as likely signal the beginning of the end.”
Andy Grove (1936-2016), former chairman of Intel, describes six categories of 10X changes: competition, technology, customers, suppliers, complementors, and regulation. “When a Wal-Mart moves into a small town, the environment changes for every retailer in that town. A 10X factor has arrived. When the technology for sound in movies became popular, every silent actor and actress personally experienced the 10X factor of technological change. When container shipping revolutionized sea transportation, a 10X factor reordered the major ports around the world.”
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Stragility: Excelling at Strategic Changes
by Ellen R. Auster and Lisa Hillenbrand
“Tragically, more than 70 percent of change efforts fail and in most cases the organization emerges weaker—exhausted, demoralized, and confused.” To combat this, authors Auster and Hillenbrand have coined the portmanteau word “Stragility” to represent a skill set for “strategic, agile, people-powered change… Without ongoing agility, even good strategies will fail.”
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Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters
by Linda J. Popky
Grounded in fundamentals and guided by strategic objectives, Linda Popky puts the hype around social media and big data in perspective. “It’s time to move the discussion away from today’s latest hot marketing tools and tactics to what really counts: convincing customers to trust you with their business—not just once, but time and time again.”
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The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization
by Peter Drucker et al
This book offers a strategic planning framework for nonprofit organizations. It can help board members set the direction by asking five questions.
What is our mission? The mission must reflect opportunities, competence, and commitment. Drucker cautions, “Never subordinate the mission in order to get money. If there are opportunities that threaten the integrity of the organization, you must say no.”
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Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
Execution is about linking people, strategy, and operations. “Execution is not just tactics—it is a discipline and a system. It has to be built into a company’s strategy, its goals, and its culture. And the leader of the organization must be deeply engaged in it.” A significant portion of this book deals with managing people, including recognizing and developing future leaders.
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Bottom-Up Marketing
by Al Ries and Jack Trout
Tactics should dictate marketing strategy. While this may sound backward, the authors explain why it makes sense.
The tactical battle takes place in the consumer’s mind. Ries and Trout define a marketing tactic as “a competitive mental angle.”
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The Key Point 