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HBR classic readings on strategy – supporting your strategic decisions

Key strategy readings – strategic decisions, business models, 5 forces, ….

Maybe you are a CIO trying to get to grips with strategy and how you should be influencing your own organisation’s strategic thinking. Perhaps you are a young, ambitious engineer with their first general management role. Possibly you are a CEO facing challenging times who needs to take time out to seriously reflect about the direction of their business. Or you could even be a seasoned strategy consultant who wants to recall the basics (and that is not a bad idea in this age of fast change and complexity).

Whatever category you fit into, skim through these Harvard Business Review Classics and stimulate your thinking about your business. Each article has a summary of the concept, the article itself and some suggested further reading. Below the image of the contents is a click-able link that takes you to a pdf with the set of articles. (Note clicking on the contents themselves only gives you a larger picture of the image).

The HBR Strategy Classics

 

At the moment, we at Genesis are finding ourselves in a number of conversations about business models – are they still valid? do we need to tweak our model? are we becoming outdated? can we use new tools and technologies to reinvent ourselves?

We would be delighted to have a conversation with you about your organisation and help you to DECIDE if, and how, you should be reviewing your business model – by using our own set of tools together with our expert Associates from a range of industries and disciplines.

Drop me a line at sgifford@genesis-esp.com and lets start a dialogue.

 

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The way we (used to) do things around here

The way we (used to) do things around here.
Reframing behaviour to make change happen

I recently came across this fascinating Booz & Co. article that discusses the use of neuroscience in making changes happen – at organisational and personal levels. We all have experienced times when we have tried to make personal changes and failed (New Years Resolutions as one example) or tried to make organisational changes and for some reason the changes do not happen or at least do not stick.

This article goes some way to explain why this happens, or does not happen. Although the use of neuroscience in assisting with organisational change is still relatively in its infancy, there are some interesting ideas put forward that can help us think about making organisational change stick.

I am certain that in addition to the above, this also has significant relevance in considering how we manage the behavioural pitfalls that await us when taking decisions. Much work has been done in identifying these challenges (e.g. anchoring and seeking confirmatory evidence), but far less done in what we do about these things. The “meta-thinking” (thinking about what we are thinking about) discussed in the article is one way of doing this.

Below is a link to a summary of the article and a second link to the article itself.

We at Genesis would be happy to have a discussion with you as to how these principals and ideas may be put into practice in your organisation (or your personal life) when taking strategic decisions – or in the implementation of such.

Reframing behaviour – Summary of “the way we (used to) do things” article

Article: The way we (used to) do things around here

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Improving the value of decisions through behavioural strategy

Improving decision value through behavioural strategy

Below is a link to a summary on an article written by Dan Lovallo and published in the McKinsey Quarterly earlier this year. The document discusses the impact of biases on strategic decisions and goes so far as to calculate the improved return on investment of a decision if the decision process is improved – a not unsubstantial 6,9 percentage points.

The article also offers some ideas as to how to counteract these biases – albeit a little simplistically and linearly in our humble opinion. But the summary and the article are well worth a read if you wish to improve your own strategic decision-making process.

Improve decision value through behavioural strategy

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Challenges faced when taking strategic decisions: latest research

“Challenges faced when taking strategic decisions”.
Executive summary of global survey

“A critical factor in the success – and often survival – of any organisation lies in its ability to make effective strategic decisions. This skill is of increasing significance in today’s world, where the nature of these decisions is becoming more complex – as currently seen in the turmoil being experienced by the global economy.”

Below is a link to the Executive Summary of the results of our global survey into this topic. We hope you find the results both interesting and useful.

A copy of the full report will also be available on request.

Genesis Decision Survey Executive Summary December 2010