The CEO of a large Australian company called me to relay a particular strategy development problem his firm was facing, and ask for my advice. The company was an eager user of my “cascading choices” framework for strategy that I have used for decades and written about extensively, most prominently in the 2013 book I wrote, with friend and colleague A.G. Lafley, called Playing to Win.
Strategic Choices Need to Be Made Simultaneously, Not Sequentially
All your decisions need to fit together.
April 03, 2017
Summary.
A common pitfall in strategic planning exercises is to make strategic choices independently of each other. For example, key strategic decisions involve making choices about “where to play” and “how to win,” but no “how to win” choice can be made outside of the particular context of a given “where to play” choice. Each decision has to link together and reinforce each other. Thus the only productive and intelligent way to generate possibilities for strategy choice is to consider matched sets of choices. It doesn’t matter whether the strategic question is whether to aim broadly or narrowly, or to pursue low costs or differentiation. What does matter is that the answers are a perfectly matched pair.
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New!
HBR Learning
Strategy Planning and Execution Course
Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Strategy Planning and Execution. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
How to develop a winning strategy—and put it to work.