Your Key to Strategic Success

Having trouble viewing this email? Click here to see it in a web browser. The Secrets to Strategic Success HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy Is your company spending enormous time and energy on strategy development, with little to show for your efforts? We've combed through hundreds of HBR articles on strategy and selected the most important ones to help galvanize your organization's strategy development and execution. This collection includes 10 classic articles that will help you gain the competitive edge and achieve breakthrough performance for your organization. Save more than 60% off the price of the individual articles when you buy this collection. All 10 articles on strategy are yours for only $24.95!* Product #12601 • PDF or Softbound Collection ORDER NOW This specially priced collection includes: What Is Strategy? by Michael E. Porter Today's dynamic markets and technologies have called into question the sustainability of competitive advantage. Under pressure to improve productivity, quality, and speed, managers have embraced tools such as TQM, benchmarking, and reengineering. Dramatic operational improvements have resulted, but rarely have these gains translated into sustainable profitability. The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy by Michael E. Porter Porter undertakes a thorough reaffirmation and extension of his classic work of strategy formulation, which includes substantial new sections showing how to put the five forces analysis into practice. Only by understanding them can a company incorporate industry conditions into strategy. Building Your Company's Vision by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras Companies that enjoy enduring success have a core purpose and core values that remain fixed while their strategies and practices endlessly adapt to a changing world. The rare ability to balance continuity and change—requiring a consciously practiced discipline—is closely linked to the ability to develop a vision. Vision provides guidance about what to preserve and what to change. Reinventing Your Business Model by Mark W. Johnson, Clayton M. Christensen, and Henning Kagermann Why is it so difficult for established companies to pull off the new growth that business model innovation can bring? Here's why: They don't understand their current business model well enough to know if it would suit a new opportunity or hinder it, and they don't know how to build a new model when they need it. Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne In studying more than 150 blue ocean creations in over 30 industries, the authors observed that the traditional units of strategic analysis—company and industry—are of limited use in explaining how and why blue oceans are created. The most appropriate unit of analysis is the strategic move, the set of managerial actions and decisions involved in making a major market-creating business offering. The Secrets of Successful Strategy Execution by Gary L. Neilson, Karla L. Martin, and Elizabeth Powers When a company finds itself unable to execute strategy, all too often the first reaction is to redraw the organization chart or tinker with incentives. Far more effective would be to clarify decision rights and improve the flow of information both up the line of command and across the organization. Then, the right structures and motivators tend to fall into place. Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton The balanced scorecard revolutionized conventional thinking about performance metrics. In this article from 1996, the authors describe how the balanced scorecard can address a serious deficiency in traditional management systems: the inability to link a company's long-term strategy with its short-term financial goals. Transforming Corner-Office Strategy into Frontline Action by Orit Gadiesh and James L. Gilbert In this article, Bain consultants Orit Gadiesh and James Gilbert explore the concept of the strategic principle—a memorable and actionable phrase that distills a company's corporate strategy into its unique essence and communicates it across an organization. Turning Great Stratgy into Great Performance by Michael C. Mankins and Richard Steele Despite the enormous time and energy that goes into strategy development, many companies have little to show for their efforts. Indeed, research by the consultancy Marakon Associates suggests that companies on average deliver only 63% of the financial performance their strategies promise. Michael Mankins and Richard Steele of Marakon present the findings of this research. Who Has the D?: How Clear Decision Roles Enhance Organizational Performance by Paul Rogers and Marcia Blenko Decisions are the coin of the realm in business. But even in highly respected companies, decisions can get stuck inside the organization like loose change. As a result, the entire decision-making process can stall, usually at one of four bottlenecks: global vs. local, center vs. business unit, function vs. function, and inside vs. outside partners. To order by phone, call us toll-free at 800-668-6780 and mention referral code 00959. Outside the U.S. and Canada, call +1-617-783-7450. * Purchasers are responsible for all shipping charges, duties, taxes, brokerage fees, and/or import fees imposed by the country of import. Please check with your customs office for details. If you do not wish to receive special offer email messages from Harvard Business Review, click here. If you do not wish to receive any email messages from Harvard Business Review, click here. Copyright © 2011 Harvard Business School Publishing, an affiliate of Harvard Business School. All rights reserved. Harvard Business Publishing | 60 Harvard Way | Boston, MA 02163 Customer Service: 800-545-7685 (+1-617-783-7600 outside the U.S. and Canada)