Reinventing Strategy

Are you prepared to conquer the single greatest leadership challenge facing any corporate executive in the new economy? To compete in today's ever-shifting landscape, you need to drive your company beyond one-time improvement and achieve continual adaptation and renewal. In Reinventing Strategy, the creator of the Strategic Learning process shows how this proven system enables business leaders to repeatedly develop superior insights and transform them into winning strategies.

Unlike many books on business strategy, this completely practical guide combines clear explanations of what your company needs to do with a unique four-step process for getting it done: Learn, Focus, Align, Execute. Refreshingly concrete examples show you how to use Strategic Learning to consistently outthink, outmaneuver, and outperform your competition.

This comprehensive guide features dozens of real-world stories from major companies such as Seagram, Unilever, Sony, and more, vividly illustrating Strategic Learning’s effectiveness in do-or-die situations. It also demonstrates practical procedures for mobilizing an organization to capture and act on insights, transform corporate culture, and overcome resistance to change.

The time to adapt and innovate is before change is thrust upon you. Reinventing Strategy supplies the leadership tools and techniques your company needs to stay ahead of the curve and achieve superior performance while everyone else is struggling to cope with unexpected shifts in the competitive environment. No one who leads an organization — or aspires to do so — can afford to ignore this compelling book.

• Prologue: The New Leadership Challenge
• Introduction: A Journey of Discovery
  • A New Game
  • From One-Time Change to Continuous Adaptation
  • The Need for Practical Tools
  • From the Front Lines to the Classroom
• Chapter 1: The New Playing Field
  • The Three Leadership Questions in the New Economy
  • Understanding the New Economy
  • Eleven Hallmarks of the New Economy
• Chapter 2: The Challenge of Change
  • "Shift Happens"
  • The Sigmoid Curve
  • Leaping to the Second Curve
• Chapter 3: The Search for an Answer
  • Starting with Strategy
  • Strategy as Making Choices
  • The Dead End of Strategic Planning
  • The Learning Organization
  • Complexity Theory
  • The Adaptive Enterprise: Nature as Teacher
  • The Killer Competencies
• Chapter 4: The Strategic Learning Process
  • The Four-Step Process
  • Implementing Strategic Learning as a Leadership Process
  • Step One: The Situation Analysis (Learn)
  • Step Two: Strategic Choices and Vision (Focus)
  • Step Three: Align the Organization (Align)
  • Step Four: Implement and Experiment (Execute)
• Chapter 5: Winning the Battle for Insight: Doing a Situation Analysis
  • No Substitutes for Insight
  • Vision versus Insight
  • The Golden Rules for Situation Analysis
  • Searching for the Scoop
  • How to Do It
  • Customers
  • Competitors
  • The Firm's Own Realities
  • Industry Dynamics
  • The Broader Environment
  • Case Study: A Situation Analysis of Med-Surg
• Chapter 6: Defining Your Focus
  • A Winning Focus Begins with Insight
  • The Meaning of Focus
  • Making the Strategic Choices
  • Customer Focus
  • The Winning Proposition
  • Five Key Priorities
  • Simplicity Is Not a Shortcut
  • The Arithmetic of Business
  • Vision
• Chapter 7: Aligning the Organization
  • Clarity of Focus
  • Identification of Systemwide Gaps
  • Aligning the Levers of Your Organization
  • Getting the Business System to Work in Sync
  • Your Organization as a Unique Ecosystem
  • Measures and Rewards
  • Structure and Process
  • Culture
  • People
• Chapter 8: Transforming the Culture
  • What Is Culture?
  • Cultural Persistence and Change
  • Culture at the Corporate Level
  • Six Myths about Corporate Culture
  • The Importance of Starting with Strategy
  • When Culture Fights Strategy
  • When Culture Supports Strategy
  • What It Takes to Create a Cultural Change
  • The Right Starting Point
  • A Sustaining Process
  • The Adaptive Culture
  • Knowledge Sharing as a Crucial Value
• Chapter 9: Overcoming Resistance to Change
  • Getting from A to B
  • Pitfalls of Change Leadership
  • An Equation for Successful Change
  • How to Lead Change: Six Golden Rules
• Chapter 10: Implementing and Experimenting
  • The Power of Mistakes
  • Fostering Innovation through Experimentation
  • Experiental Learning: The After-Action Review
  • Strategic Learning 365 Days a Year
• Chapter 11: Strategic Learning as a Path to Personal Growth
  • Emotional Intelligence
  • The Elements of EQ
  • Strategic Learning for Personal Renewal
  • Learn
  • Focus
  • Align
  • Execute
  • "The Proof of the Pudding Is in the Eating"
  • Two Real-Life Leadership Credos
• Chapter 12: Creating an Environment for Success