Harvard Business Review - HBR Guide to Setting Your Strategy (HBR Guide) by Harvard Business Review Requirements

Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, from the most trusted brand in business. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.

HBR Guide for Women at Work

HBR Guide to Being More Productive

HBR Guide to Better Business Writing

HBR Guide to Building Your Business Case

HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business

HBR Guide to Changing Your Career

HBR Guide to Coaching Employees

HBR Guide to Data Analytics Basics for Managers

HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict

HBR Guide to Delivering Effective Feedback

HBR Guide to Emotional Intelligence

HBR Guide to Finance Basics for Managers

HBR Guide to Getting the Mentoring You Need

HBR Guide to Getting the Right Work Done

HBR Guide to Leading Teams

HBR Guide to Making Better Decisions

HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter

HBR Guide to Managing Strategic Initiatives

HBR Guide to Managing Stress at Work

HBR Guide to Managing Up and Across

HBR Guide to Motivating People

HBR Guide to Negotiating

HBR Guide to Networking

HBR Guide to Office Politics

HBR Guide to Performance Management

HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations

HBR Guide to Project Management

HBR Guide to Setting Your Strategy

HBR Guide to Thinking Strategically

HBR Guide to Work-Life Balance

HBR Guide to Your Professional Growth

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW PRESS

Boston, Massachusetts

HBR Press Quantity Sales Discounts

Harvard Business Review Press titles are available at significant quantity discounts when purchased in bulk for client gifts, sales promotions, and premiums. Special editions, including books with corporate logos, customized covers, and letters from the company or CEO printed in the front matter, as well as excerpts of existing books, can also be created in large quantities for special needs.

For details and discount information for both print and ebook formats, contact booksales .

Copyright 2020 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be directed to , or mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business School Publishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163.

The web addresses referenced in this book were live and correct at the time of the books publication but may be subject to change.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Title: HBR guide to setting your strategy.

Other titles: Harvard Business Review guide to setting your strategy | Harvard business review guides.

Description: Boston, Massachusetts : Harvard Business Review Press, [2020] | Series: Harvard Business Review guides | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020012315 (print) | LCCN 2020012316 (ebook) | ISBN 9781633698925 (paperback) | ISBN 9781633698932 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Strategic planning. | Business planning.

Classification: LCC HD30.28.H3935 2020 (print) | LCC HD30.28 (ebook) | DDC 658.4/012dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012315

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012316

ISBN: 978-1-63369-892-5

eISBN: 978-1-63369-893-2

Every company needs a strategy, one that will position it to grow over the long term. But charting such a path forward can be challenging, especially if your industry is facing new entrants, frequent disruption, or increased regulation. Your strategy must account for where youre competing, the customers you are targeting, what you aim to offer, and what your people need to succeed. And it must be communicated in a way that ensures buy-in from stakeholdersespecially your employees. Otherwise, execution may fall flat.

Whether you are revising a strategy you already have or formulating your startups strategy for the first time, this guide will provide you with practical tips and advice to help you define a strategy that will give your company a competitive edge, test it to ensure it will work, communicate it to others and execute it, and adapt it as needed.

Youll learn to:

• Understand the basics of strategy, implementation, and execution
• Consider the predictability and malleability of your industry
• Organize a more productive strategy offsite
• Recognize who your stakeholders are, what their needs are, and what you want from them
• Consider where youll play and how to win in crafting your strategy
• Build purpose and creativity into your strategy
• Think in the long term, rather than in annualor quarterlycycles
• Identify the capabilities you need to ensure success
• Test your strategy before implementing it
• Communicate your strategy to your team by defining what you wont be doing
• Evaluate and adjust your strategy over time

Shape the future to your advantage.

They involve different activities, tools, and people.

BY KEN FAVARO

And why theyre wrong.

BY STEPHEN BUNGAY

Distinguish between objectives, strategies, and actions.

BY GRAHAM KENNY

Consider the circumstances in which youre operating.

BY MARTIN REEVES, CLAIRE LOVE, AND PHILIPP TILLMANNS

Two factors can help you define your process.

BY KIMBERLY TETI, MU-JEUNG YANG, NICHOLAS BLOOM, JAN W. RIVKIN, AND RAFFAELLA SADUN

Understand your objectivesbefore you get in the room.

BY MELISSA RAFFONI

Recognize what you want from them and what they want from you.

BY GRAHAM KENNY

Four approaches to building a breakthrough strategy.

BY ADAM BRANDENBURGER

Where will we play? How will we win?

BY ROGER L. MARTIN

Maintain your competitive edge.

BY CARSTEN LUND PEDERSEN AND THOMAS RITTER

Stop fearing the long term.

BY AMY WEBB

By understanding how they operate, youll be better positioned to compete.

BY JULIAN BIRKINSHAW

Reshape your value proposition.

BY THOMAS W. MALNIGHT, IVY BUCHE, AND CHARLES DHANARAJ

Assign a team to poke holes in it.

BY RICK LYNCH AND JAY GALEOTA

And the remedies to get out of them.

BY ROGER L. MARTIN

Build skill development into your plan.

BY RON ASHKENAS AND LOGAN CHANDLER

At both the team and the enterprise levels.

BY JONATHAN TREVOR AND BARRY VARCOE

How to communicate your new strategy to employees.

Create a list of priorities to put on hold.

BY NICK TASLER

Diverse teams come with diverse strategic viewpoints.

BY LEONARD M. FULD

Gaps in execution may mean revising your strategy.

BY AMY C. EDMONDSON AND PAUL J. VERDIN

Eight common traps to avoid.

BY MARTIN REEVES AND RODOLPHE CHARME DI CARLO

When short-term metrics keep you from winning in the long term.

BY DAVID HERSH

Work, work, and work some more.

BY ROGER L. MARTIN