Your Strategy Needs a Strategy - by Martin Reeves & Knut Haanaes & Janmejaya Sinha (Hardcover)

About the Book

"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"--

Book Synopsis

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 win--or 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 important--or more difficult--to choose the right approach to strategy.

In this book, The Boston Consulting Group's Martin Reeves, Knut Haanæs, 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 environment--how unpredictable it is, how much power you have to change it, and how harsh it is--a 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 we--and when should we--shape 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.

Review Quotes

"In terms of business strategy books, one of my favourites this year was Your Strategy Needs a Strategy by Martin Reeves, Knut Haanaes and Janmejaya Sinha, HBR Press." -- The Irish Times

"Be bigger or faster? Blue Ocean Strategy or aggressive? ... But what strategy do YOU need? ... According to this framework, there are five approaches: be big, fast, first, the conductor or simply be viable. You just have to choose. At Business Digest, we could not miss this book in which three experts from BCG offer you to slow down the pace to choose the strategy that suits you better." -- Business Digest

"In depth explanations of each of these approaches will provide critical insights to help leaders match their approach to strategy to their environment, helping to determine when and how to execute each one, and avoid a potentially fatal mismatch." -- Consulting magazine

"Reeves, Haanæs, 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."-- Ian C. Read, Chairman and CEO, Pfizer

"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 complexity--and take advantage of it!"-- Marco Airoldi, CEO, Benetton Group

"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."-- Klaus Schwab, founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum

"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."-- Ruimin Zhang, founder, Chairman, and CEO, Haier Group

"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."-- Deepak Parekh, Chairman, HDFC

About the Author

Martin Reeves is Director of the BCG Bruce Henderson Institute and a senior partner based in New York City.

Knut Haanæs 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.