Max Mckeown - The Strategy Book

Dr Max Mckeown works as a strategy and innovation coach for many of the most admired and ambitious companies in the world.

The Strategy Book was the winner of the Commuter Read at the Chartered Management Institute Book of the Year 2013 and Amazons Best Business Books of 2012. Max is also author of the award-winning The Innovation Book as well as Adaptability: The Art of Winning in an Age of Uncertainty , and four other books. He is also a popular keynote speaker at conferences and events worldwide.

Max has an MBA and PhD from Warwick Business School. He can be reached at www.maxmckeown.com and on twitter@maxmckeown

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

Winston Churchill

Strategy is about moving from where you are to where you want to be. Smart strategy is the shortest route to desirable ends with available means. Strategy is as much about deciding what to do, where to go, why, when and how as about choosing what not to do. Yes. No. What if. Why not. Planning backwards from a better future.

This book is about strategy in action. Its about making strategic principles and cutting-edge research useful. The second edition includes even more real world examples of strategy in action. You will also find more on new ideas in strategy. Sustainability. Tensions. Psychology. Behavioural strategy. And how to combine creativity and entrepreneurship.

Our human world is the result of individual strategies. Our desires and actions, dreams and ideas. Strategists are able to see the past, present and future as connected. You can link your actions with the actions of those around you. And you will be able to shape events by reacting intelligently and spontaneously to them.

All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.

Sun Tzu

Max Mckeown

What can The Strategy Book do for you? This book can help you understand strategy. You can use the secrets in this book to become an effective strategic thinker and leader. If you are ambitious, you can use the powerful strategy tools in this book to shape your future.

The Strategy Book has its own strategic advantage. It is easy to read without dumbing down its strategic ideas. It is simple to use but is still based on a core set of intelligent strategic foundations. It offers clear explanations of tools that will help make sense of complex leadership situations.

The Strategy Book is based on hard-won experience and knowledge. Ive worked with some of the most admired companies in the world. Ive also worked with smaller companies who are some of the most ambitious companies in the world. Some were feeling complacent. Others were facing problems and crisis points. All of them wanted more success.

The Strategy Book helps with all of those situations. And it also helps people who are studying strategy as part of a course or degree. A lot of the books you have to study are either too shallow or far too long. This book is about giving you the best ideas in strategy but wrapped up in a usable, enjoyable package.

The Strategy Book is organised into six parts. The first five parts tackle the really important challenges that a leader of any team of any size will face in creating strategy and making that strategy work. Each part is sub-divided into specific action topics. You can dip in and out of each section as you feel relevant. They have been written clearly so that you can benefit from my experience as a strategist whether you are a novice or an expert.

Each of the action topics has the following structure:

• Headline description so you know what the topic is about, why its important and have a brief summary of how the contents will help.
• Strategic examples so you can read about a successful company or person that faced the same kind of challenge and used the same kind of principles to solve their problems. This is a powerful and memorable way to learn.
• Strategy ratings so you have an idea how important the principle is in your work as a strategic thinker. The Strategy6 are six particularly valuable principles, and can be found on . This section also lets you know how often a strategic challenge will be used and who should be involved.
• Objective why you should take the subject seriously as a leader and what you should be trying to achieve.
• Context how the subject fits into the broader pattern of leadership and the kind of situation you are dealing with to achieve success.
• Challenge why the subject is difficult and valuable. And also ways of succeeding with the challenge effectively as a strategist.
• Success what has to happen to succeed with the challenge.
• Strategists measure of success ways you can assess your progress.
• Strategists checklist a summary of the actions you have to take to put the strategy principle into action.
• Related ideas some suggestions of other writers ideas that support or complement the strategic topic.

The sixth part is the strategists toolkit. The most important models and tools of strategy are explained in very precise, practical and efficient terms. You can move from the toolkit to the action topics. Or you can move from specific action topics back to models that help you to organise your thoughts.

There is also a list of further reading if you want to dig deeper. And naturally there is an index to make it easier to find your way to specific topics.

The Strategy Book is clearly structured and easy to use, something that you will find yourself referring back to again and again.

Strategy is about shaping the future it is about how people attain desirable ends with available means. Thats the reason were interested. And thats the best definition I can offer you. But as a strategist it can also help to understand some of the different arguments about what strategy is and isnt. You dont have to know the whole history. You dont have to get a doctorate or an MBA. But its helpful to be informed.

Frequency: Read first, review occasionally.

Key participants: First, you. Then, everyone.

Strategy rating: Strategy6

Google made the decision to give their engineers permission to experiment in free time. They used this free time to produce an online video service. This experiment taught executives the importance of online video so they bought YouTube as a priority when it became popular. As a result, they still have two of the most popular search services in the world. Not really a plan, yet all about opportunity. Was this creative strategy at work?

There are some benefits to understanding the history of strategy as its usually told in business schools and text books. It helps you to discuss strategy knowledgeably and to see its limitations as well as its purpose.

Ancient strategy. The word strategy has its origins in the Greek word strategos , which means general or someone who has an army ( stratos ) to lead. It was first used in Athens (508 bc) to describe the art of leadership used by the ten generals on the war council. They developed principles of effective leadership and achieving objectives. This included approaches to war and motivating soldiers.

Similar concepts about strategy emerged in Asia, most famously in Sun Tzus Art of War (written 200 bc), which is still bought by people today. In his book, Sun Tzu lists different principles that leaders may follow to win and achieve their goals. It set a pattern for books about strategy that is still followed. Experienced executives and consultants share their experience of planning for success.