Download or read book Strategy That Works written by Paul Leinwand and published by Harvard Business Review Press. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How to close the gap between strategy and execution Two-thirds of executives say their organizations don’t have the capabilities to support their strategy. In Strategy That Works, Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi explain why. They identify conventional business practices that unintentionally create a gap between strategy and execution. And they show how some of the best companies in the world consistently leap ahead of their competitors. Based on new research, the authors reveal five practices for connecting strategy and execution used by highly successful enterprises such as IKEA, Natura, Danaher, Haier, and Lego. These companies: • Commit to what they do best instead of chasing multiple opportunities • Build their own unique winning capabilities instead of copying others • Put their culture to work instead of struggling to change it • Invest where it matters instead of going lean across the board • Shape the future instead of reacting to it Packed with tools you can use for building these five practices into your organization and supported by in-depth profiles of companies that are known for making their strategy work, this is your guide for reconnecting strategy to execution.
Download or read book The Strategy Gap written by Michael Coveney and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2003-04-21 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With shortened business cycles, increased competition, and rapidly changing technologies, companies need to be more nimble than ever. They must narrow the gap between strategy formulation and operation execution to guarantee success. The Strategy Gap will provide a framework that senior financial managers can use to ensure that their strategies are implemented successfully and that their corporations remain competitive. Filled with informative case studies and best practices for optimum financial processes, this valuable resource will help managers leverage information technology to successfully implement corporate strategies. This book also shows managers how to eliminate surprises in poorly managed or unforeseen activities, while applying new approaches to financial management for faster and more accurate business modeling. Expert advice from those who have used these strategies clearly explains how to integrate planning, budgeting, consolidation, and reporting into one cohesive management system.
Download or read book Closing the Execution Gap written by Richard Lepsinger and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-05-11 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: CLOSING THE EXECUTION GAP Once upon a time strategy was king. Leaders immersed themselves in the matter of planning how best to achieve their company's goals. The subject dominated the attention of senior executives and the writings of consultants and management gurus. Experts of various stripes weighed in on how to put strategic planning processes in place and transform employees at all levels into strategic thinkers. Naturally, leaders assumed all this strategizing would pay off. And yet, for too many organizations the promised results never came to pass. Quite simply, they couldn't execute. Now, the business world has shifted its focus to the consistent delivery of results. If an organization can't execute its plans and initiatives, nothing else matters: not the most solid, well thought-out strategy, not the most innovative business model, not even technological breakthroughs that could transform an industry. As it turns out, the "conventional wisdom" about what it takes to implement strategy and deliver results isn't all that wise. So what really differentiates the companies that are able to get things done day-to-day and deliver consistent results? The answer is found in the pages of Richard Lepsinger's ground-breaking book, Closing the Execution Gap. Based on extensive research and years of practical experience, the book outlines five prerequisites for effective execution and five "Bridges" that differentiate companies that do it best. It also describes six "Bridge Builders" leaders at all levels can use to close the execution gap in their company or team and help people get things done. Specifically, it addresses: What really gets in the way of getting things done—for individuals, teams and entire companies What leaders can do to enhance their organization's ability to close the execution gap and achieve solid business results What it takes to consistently execute plans and initiatives at a day-to-day operational level The book features many case studies of companies that have a track record of effective execution (Hewlett-Packard, Costco, Procter & Gamble) and those who have struggled with closing the gap between creating a vision and delivering results (Dell, American Airlines, GM). As the business world becomes more competitive and less forgiving, execution matters more than ever. This is a book for the times we live in—and one that for many companies could mean the difference between success and failure.
Download or read book The Strategy Implementation Gap written by James Bawtree and published by . This book was released on 2020-06-26 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Strategy Implementation Gap is a guide for executives on how to have a sustainable approach to the right people doing the right things in the right way to achieve the right results."James and Michael have captured the essentials for bridging the strategy implementation gap. This book reflects their decades of helping project leaders and teams win. If you read one book on project management this year, this should be it." Greg Crowther - Founder, Write For Impact
Download or read book Mind the Gap written by Susannah Schofield and published by Kogan Page Publishers. This book was released on 2013-04-03 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every business needs to accurately assess its own strengths and weaknesses against their competitors, direct or indirect, in order to create a winning strategy. Mind the Gap introduces the author's tried and tested strategic model, the Dice Matrix, which will enable you to do just that. This simple business tool will allow you to stress test your weaknesses, compare your performance against customers' perception and also highlight the strengths you provide as a business. You can input your own set of criteria to gain a valuable, tailored overview of the necessary actions to achieve success. Using examples and evidence collected from over 100 experts from a variety of business sizes and types, the author provides groundbreaking insights into key issues and challenges, from customer needs to market perception. Mind the Gap provides the essential tools required for any Business Owner, Director or Manager to implement a detailed gap analysis of their business and to create a strategic plan for long-lasting growth and success.
Download or read book Aligning Strategy and Sales written by Frank Cespedes and published by Harvard Business Review Press. This book was released on 2014-08-12 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The best sales book of the year" — strategy+business magazine That gap between your company’s sales efforts and strategy? It’s real—and a huge vulnerability. Addressing that gap, actionably and with attention to relevant research, is the focus of this book. In Aligning Strategy and Sales, Harvard Business School professor Frank Cespedes equips you to link your go-to-market initiatives with strategic goals. Cespedes offers a road map to articulate strategy in ways that people in the field can understand and that will fuel the behaviors required for profitable growth. Without that alignment, leaders will press for better execution when they need a better strategy, or change strategic direction with great cost and turmoil when they should focus on the basics of sales execution. With thoughtful, clear, and engaging examples, Aligning Strategy and Sales provides a framework for diagnosing and managing the core levers available for effective selling in any organization. It will give you the know-how and tools to move from ideas to action and build a sales effort linked to your firm’s unique goals, not a generic selling formula. Cespedes shows how sales efforts affect all elements of value creation in a business, whether you’re a start-up seeking to scale or an established firm looking to jump-start new growth. The book provides key insights to optimize your firm’s customer management activities and so improve selling and strategy.
Download or read book Research based Strategies written by Ruby K. Payne and published by AHA! Process. This book was released on 2009 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Brand Gap written by Marty Neumeier and published by Peachpit Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using the visual language of the boardroom, Marty Neumeier presents the first unified theory of branding - a set of five disciplines to help companies bridge the gap between brand strategy and brand execution. Those with a grasp of branding will be inspired by what they find here, and those who would like to understand it better will suddenly "get it."
Download or read book Getting Shit Done written by Benjamin Wann and published by . This book was released on 2021-05-31 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Organizations continue to struggle achieving their strategies. Although organizations and industries can identify what needs to change, most strategy-execution efforts fail. Those strategy executions that don't fail outright will limp forward. Staggering price tags, incomplete deliverables, and a demoralized workforce usually lie in the wake of many change efforts.Not that this is a new problem, but the pace of competition and innovation today has substantially raised the stakes of the game. What worked yesterday may not work today, and an organization needs to be dynamic enough to choose new courses of action and make them a reality. Enough already. Closing the strategy execution gap starts by acknowledging that execution is a distinctive discipline and skillset built over time.By learning how to set better targets, align resources, lead at all levels, deliver results, and build controls around processes, we learn to build a system that ensures what gets done, stays done.
Download or read book Playing to Win written by Alan G. Lafley and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explains how companies must pinpoint business strategies to a few critically important choices, identifying common blunders while outlining simple exercises and questions that can guide day-to-day and long-term decisions.
Download or read book The Gap and The Gain written by Dan Sullivan and published by Hay House, Inc. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As he did in WHO NOT HOW, Dr. Benjamin Hardy shares one of Dan Sullivan’s simple yet profound teachings that until now has been known only to his Strategic Coach clients: unsuccessful people focus on “The Gap,” but successful people focus on “The Gain.” "[T]his one simple concept is a masterclass on positive psychology, healthy relationships, mental well-being, and high-performance. Everything that psychologists know about how to create a high-functioning and successful person can be achieved using The GAP and the GAIN."- Dr. Benjamin Hardy Most people, especially highly ambitious people, are unhappy because of how they measure their progress. We all have an "ideal," a moving target that is always out of reach. When we measure ourselves against that ideal, we're in "the GAP." However, when we measure ourselves against our previous selves, we're in "the GAIN." That is where the GAP and the GAIN concept comes in. It was developed by legendary entrepreneur coach Dan Sullivan and is based on his work with tens of thousands of successful entrepreneurs. When Dan's coaching clients periodically take stock of all that they've accomplished-both personally and professionally-they are often shocked at how much they have actually achieved. They weren't able to appreciate their progress because no matter how much they were getting done, they were usually measuring themselves against their ideals or goals. In this book you will learn that measuring your current self vs. your former self has enormous psychological benefits. And that's really the key to this deceptively simple yet multi-layered concept that will have you feeling good, feeling grateful, and feeling like you are making progress even when times are tough, which will in turn bolster motivation, confidence, and future success. If you're finding that happiness eludes you no matter how much you've achieved, then learning this easy mindset shift will set you on a life-changing path to greater fulfillment and success.
Download or read book The Knowing doing Gap written by Jeffrey Pfeffer and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The market for business knowledge is booming as companies looking to improve their performance pour millions of pounds into training programmes, consultants, and executive education. Why then, are there so many gaps between what firms know they should do and waht they actual do? This volume confronts the challenge of turning knowledge about how to improve performance into actions that produce measurable results. The authors identify the causes of this gap and explain how to close it.
Download or read book The Greatness Gap written by Mike Sprouse and published by . This book was released on 2011-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Personal Strategies to Boost Your Professional Potential From a man who defines success as meeting your full potential in whatever your chosen endeavor is, each and every day, comes the rare gem of a book that tells you just how to do that. Mike Sprouse shares insights from a varied, but focused career about how to close the gap between being decent and being great. The Greatness Gap is not an outcome; it is a process, a mind-set and a way of life that is repeatable over and over. Through personal reflection and life lessons learned, Sprouse helps each reader identify what they are good at, what they are passionate about, and most importantly, WHY. The Greatness Gap clearly spells out the Ingredients, the Preparation, the Process, the Mind-set, and the Art of Every Day that are critical components to bridging the divide between what is just "ok" and what could be truly amazing. Each chapter is punctuated by a "Coach's Challenge," essentially a call to action to evaluate and change your life (and your thinking), to better understand yourself and what motivates you, to unlock your passions and ultimately, your potential. Regardless of what walk of life you come from, it provides a thought-provoking and easy to understand formula with examples from Sprouse's own life, his good and bad decisions, and his professional path.
Download or read book Good Strategy Bad Strategy written by Richard Rumelt and published by Currency. This book was released on 2011-07-19 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Good Strategy/Bad Strategy clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world. Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” In Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” He introduces nine sources of power—ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth—that are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can easily be put to work on Monday morning, and uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007–08 financial crisis. Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.
Download or read book ZAG written by Marty Neumeier and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2006-09-20 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "When everybody zigs, zag," says Marty Neumeier in this fresh view of brand strategy. ZAG follows the ultra-clear "whiteboard overview" style of the author’s first book, THE BRAND GAP, but drills deeper into the question of how brands can harness the power of differentiation. The author argues that in an extremely cluttered marketplace, traditional differentiation is no longer enough—today companies need “radical differentiation” to create lasting value for their shareholders and customers. In an entertaining 3-hour read you’ll learn: - why me-too brands are doomed to fail - how to "read" customer feedback on new products and messages - the 17 steps for designing “difference” into your brand - how to turn your brand’s “onliness” into a “trueline” to drive synergy - the secrets of naming products, services, and companies - the four deadly dangers faced by brand portfolios - how to “stretch” your brand without breaking it - how to succeed at all three stages of the competition cycle From the back cover: In an age of me-too products and instant communications, keeping up with the competition is no longer a winning strategy. Today you have to out-position, out-maneuver, and out-design the competition. The new rule? When everybody zigs, zag. In his first book, THE BRAND GAP, Neumeier showed companies how to bridge the distance between business strategy and design. In ZAG, he illustrates the number-one strategy of high-performance brands—radical differentiation. ZAG is an AIGA Design Press book, published under Peachpit's New Riders imprint in partnership with AIGA. For a quick peek inside ZAG, go to www.zagbook.com.
Download or read book Traversing the Traction Gap written by Bruce Cleveland and published by Radius Book Group. This book was released on 2019-02-21 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traction. Startups Need It. Learn How To Get It. Vision, groundbreaking ideas, total commitment, and boundless enthusiasm characterize most startups, but they require capital to go from promising product to scalable business. More than 80 percent of all early-stage startups fail. Most of them can build a product, but the vast majority stumble when it comes time to take those products to market due to poor “market engineering” skills. Traversing the Traction Gap exposes the reasons behind that scary failure rate and provides a prescriptive how-to guide, focused specifically on market engineering techniques, so startups can succeed. The go-to-market hurdle is insurmountable to many startups. Just when they most need to establish a foothold in the market, they run short on time and money. This is the Traction Gap, that period of time introducing a new product into the marketplace and being able to scale it during a rapidly closing window of opportunity. Traversing the Traction Gap is a practical guidebook for navigating the tumultuous early life of a startup. Based on real-life examples, the advice from Cleveland and the members of the Wildcat Venture Partners team provides a roadmap and metrics for succeeding where others have failed.
Download or read book The Long Game written by Rush Doshi and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-11 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than a century, no US adversary or coalition of adversaries - not Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, or the Soviet Union - has ever reached sixty percent of US GDP. China is the sole exception, and it is fast emerging into a global superpower that could rival, if not eclipse, the United States. What does China want, does it have a grand strategy to achieve it, and what should the United States do about it? In The Long Game, Rush Doshi draws from a rich base of Chinese primary sources, including decades worth of party documents, leaked materials, memoirs by party leaders, and a careful analysis of China's conduct to provide a history of China's grand strategy since the end of the Cold War. Taking readers behind the Party's closed doors, he uncovers Beijing's long, methodical game to displace America from its hegemonic position in both the East Asia regional and global orders through three sequential "strategies of displacement." Beginning in the 1980s, China focused for two decades on "hiding capabilities and biding time." After the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, it became more assertive regionally, following a policy of "actively accomplishing something." Finally, in the aftermath populist elections of 2016, China shifted to an even more aggressive strategy for undermining US hegemony, adopting the phrase "great changes unseen in century." After charting how China's long game has evolved, Doshi offers a comprehensive yet asymmetric plan for an effective US response. Ironically, his proposed approach takes a page from Beijing's own strategic playbook to undermine China's ambitions and strengthen American order without competing dollar-for-dollar, ship-for-ship, or loan-for-loan.
