HBR's 10 Must Reads On Strategy

Anyone who has ever attended a leadership offsite to develop a vision & mission statement will enjoy this book. Most offsites develop mission statements that are forgotten when everyone returns to work. This book does a great job of highlighting what most managers do not understand about strategy. All ten articles provide clear and actionable insight that can be helpful to any leader. The authors paint a picture of the differences between operational efficiency and strategic vision. Some articles discuss the need for communication across organizational boundaries. Other articles provide insightful questions that can be used to develop a sound strategic vision. Several of the articles use real world examples to illustrate certain points. Stated another way, the book not only defines strategy, it gives the reader some nice tools to evolve their own strategic thinking. Altogether, this book provides a nice comprehensive look at strategy. Since each chapter stands alone, the reader can finish a section, think about it, and then come back later for more. I certainly walked away from this book with a new way to think about strategy and where my organization should be headed.

No business can launch successfully or survive long-term without sound strategy. These ten articles from the Harvard Business Review provide invaluable tips for business strategy, but some of them can be applicable to one's personal life as well. The articles discuss what strategy is and how it can be used to create a position of competitive advantage and sustainability. In business as in wider life, one of the articles relates, strategy is what you decide to do, but perhaps even more vitally, it is what you decide not to do. The articles describe the forces that shape competition in response to which one must develop strategy. Core principles, missions, and reasons for being can remain the same for decades or even a century or longer, but methods and activities can and often must change over time to remain true to one's core principles. The process of setting goals is discussed, as well as how to have the vision to know when and how to expand into new markets. The articles note the all-important process of executing strategy once it has been developed, including the clarification of decision-making processes. This is another solid collection of articles from the Harvard Business Review.

There are plenty of books available on strategy, but most business leaders do not have a lot of time to read them. Where can you go to get a reasonably-priced introduction to the ideas of some of the leading experts on business strategy? This book provides one possible answer. It includes essays on strategy and the five competitive forces by Michael Porter, building a vision by Collins and Porras, blue ocean strategy by Kim and Mauborgne, and the balanced scorecard by Kaplan and Norton. Although I found the essays by each of the above-mentioned authors less inspiring and enlightening than their books on the same subjects, this compilation does give a good introduction to their ideas, and will help the reader discern whether to take the next step and read the authors' books. Each essay contains sidebars including an "Idea in Brief" sidebar which will help the busy reader further; however, in the Kindle version the sidebars simply appear in the main text, which interrupts the flow and can lead to confusion. Not all strategic advice is good advice. In my view the advice given in the essay "Transforming Corner-Office Strategy into Frontline Action" leaves something to be desired. The idea of distilling a company's entire strategy into "one pithy, memorable and descriptive phrase" may appeal to some, but I really struggle to see its value. Examples include AOL ("Consumer Connectivity first - anytime, anywhere"), GE ("Be number one or number two in every industry in which we compete, or get out"), Dell ("Be direct"), and eBay ("Focus on trading communities"). Do any of these actually communicate useful strategies, or are they meaningless mantras? On the other hand, I found the other essays on essentially the same topic (turning strategy into action) quite useful. "The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution" by Neilson, Martin and Powers and "Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance" by Mankins and Steele gave some very practical steps which a leadership team can take to make a strategy actually happen. All up, I recommend this book as a valuable introduction to strategy.

Great book for people who like to learn business strategy.

First of all HBRs 10 Must Read Series is a wonderful way to immerse yourself and to learn the relevant topics within a specific area of study. Students or practitioners will find books in this series useful and practical simply because the legwork of identifying 10 key thoughts/trends are provided in a condensed volume from which you can get an overview, identify key authors, and then do further reading. Strategy topics included: Definition (what is strategy, Porter) Competitive forces (Collins & Porras) - this is a good intro to thinking about external scenarios and factors influencing your business Business Models and uncontested market spaces (Johnson, Cristensen, & Kagermann and Kim & Mauborgne) Strategy Execution and Performance (Neilson, Martin, & Powers and Mankins & Steele) Performance Measurement - Balanced Scorecard (Kaplan & Norton) Linking strategy with daily sensibility, communication, and clear decision roles (Gadiesh & Gilbert and Rogers and Blenko) Ultimately this is a book about leadership and understanding various facets of strategic thinking, decision making, planning and implementation. Each chapter provides examples, a section entitled Idea in Practice, good summary tables/graphics. A rich resource.

Lots of knowledge is generic in these HBR books. If you want to kill time with an easy read, then it's OK. I like the fact that they have many articles instead of following a single person through the whole book.

This is a compilation of articles on various strategies adopted by different companies when dealing with various challenges and opportunities. A must read for any leader.

I LOVE HBR Must Reads and when it is a required book for a course, all the better. Each chapter begins with a case study example and then branches into the main points to be learned. The chapters are short and the key principles are easy to pick up on if you need to scan a chapter quickly. Each chapter also goes into depth so you can either scan quickly for the main concepts or dive deeper.