A.G. Lafley

Roger L. Martin

Are you just playing—or playing to win? Strategy is not complex. But it is hard. It’s hard because it forces people and organizations to make specific choices about their future—something that doesn’t happen in most companies. Now two of today’s best-known business thinkers get to the heart of strategy—explaining what it’s for, how to think about it, why you need it, and how to get it done. And they use one of the most successful corporate turnarounds of the past century, which they achieved together, to prove their point. A.G. Lafley, former CEO of Procter & Gamble, in close partnership with strategic adviser Roger Martin, doubled P&G’s sales, quadrupled its profits, and increased its market value by more than $100 billion in just ten years. Now, drawn from their years of experience at P&G and the Rotman School of Management, where Martin is dean, this book shows how leaders in organizations of all sizes can guide everyday actions with larger strategic goals built around the clear, essential elements that determine business success—where to play and how to win. The result is a playbook for winning. Lafley and Martin have created a set of five essential strategic choices that, when addressed in an integrated way, will move you ahead of your competitors. They are: • What is our winning aspiration? • Where will we play? • How will we win? • What capabilities must we have in place to win? • What management systems are required to support our choices? The stories of how P&G repeatedly won by applying this method to iconic brands such as Olay, Bounty, Gillette, Swiffer, and Febreze clearly illustrate how deciding on a strategic approach—and then making the right choices to support it—makes the difference between just playing the game and actually winning.

How Strategy Really Works

Playing to Win

Harvard Business Review

Clayton M. Christensen

Rita Gunther McGrath

Michael E. Porter

Do you have the right strategy to lead your company into the future? Get more of the management ideas you want, from the authors you trust, with HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy (Vol. 2). We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you combat new competitors and define the best strategy for your company. With insights from leading experts including Michael E. Porter, A.G. Lafley, and Clayton M. Christensen, this book will inspire you to: Choose a strategy that meets the demands of your competitive environment Identify the signals of disruption and take steps to avoid it Understand lean methodology and how it is changing business Transform your products and services into platforms Instill your strategy with creativity and purpose Generate value for your company, while also contributing to society This collection of articles includes "Your Strategy Needs a Strategy," by Martin Reeves, Claire Love, and Philipp Tillmanns; "Transient Advantage," by Rita Gunther McGrath; "Bringing Science to the Art of Strategy," by A.G. Lafley, Roger L. Martin, Jan W. Rivkin, and Nicolaj Siggelkow; "Managing Risks: A New Framework," by Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes; "Surviving Disruption," by Maxwell Wessel and Clayton M. Christensen; "The Great Repeatable Business Model," by Chris Zook and James Allen; 'Pipelines, Platforms, and the New Rules of Strategy," by Marshall W. Van Alstyne, Geoffrey G. Parker, and Sangeet Paul Choudary; "Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything," by Steve Blank; "Strategy Needs Creativity," by Adam Brandenburger; "Put Purpose at the Core of Your Strategy," by Thomas W. Malnight, Ivy Buche, and Charles Dhanaraj; "Creating Shared Value," by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer.

A.G. Lafley

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