Inside Strategy

Book excerpt: Ask any two people what strategy is and you're likely to get two different answers. Ask those same two people how strategic thinking generates value at all levels from within an organization and you'll probably be met with blank stares. Ever since strategy gained currency as an organizational concept in the 1960s, there's been confusion about how to define it. Strategy isn't a detailed plan of action. Nor is it a corporate vision, or an objective, or a mission statement. Strategy is not what to think. It's how to think. Most books on strategy focus on external strategy: competition with rivals in business, or overcoming the enemy on the battlefield. This book is different. The authors take strategic thinking and give it a new focus of attention inside your organization. Inside Strategy is aimed at aligned continual performance improvement. Inside Strategy gives you - and everyone in your organization - a method of managing an unknown future to create new value for your internal and external customers, every day.