Just published: Your Strategy Needs a Strategy: How to Choose and Execute the Right Approach by Martin Reeves, Knut Haanaes and Janmejaya Sinha.
One in three public companies likely won’t be around in five years, and the spread between the highest- and lowest-performing companies has never been greater, according to new research from The Boston Consulting Group.
Identifying effective corporate strategy is more important than ever before, and this is the central theme of this new book authored by BCG senior partners Martin Reeves, Knut Haanæs, and Janmejaya Sinha.
For many companies, the traditional approach to strategy—the kind most managers learned in business school—does not always work well in today’s increasingly diverse and changeable business environments. For industries in which environments are unpredictable and industry leaders change position frequently, experimentation may be the right approach, instead of following a fixed long-term plan. In other industries, the right approach might be to orchestrate an ecosystem of players outside the company to shape an entire sector, much as Facebook has done.
The book outlines a “strategy palette” which explores the different environments that businesses currently face, identifying and matching the right strategic approach to a given situation. The strategy palette is made up of five highly distinctive kinds of environments and the strategic approach best suited to each. If one’s environment is predictable but hard to shape, it requires a classical approach (be big); if the environment is unpredictable but hard to shape, it needs an adaptive approach (be fast); if the environment is both predictable and shapeable, use a visionary approach (be first); if the environment is unpredictable but potentially shapeable, it calls for a shaping approach (orchestrate); and if the company is in survival mode in a harsh environment, it needs a renewal approach (be viable).
A must-download: A companion iPad app lets you see your own strategy palette come to life.
Reeves outlined the thesis of the book in the following TED Talk: