FINDING A STRATEGY THAT WORKS

MANY OF THE BEST-SELLING ARTICLES IN THE HISTORY OF Harvard Business Review have focused on strategy, for good reason: Figuring out what businesses to compete in and how to gain—and retain—an advantage over rivals is exceedingly tricky, particularly in a fast-changing global economy.

In the essays that follow, CEOs describe how they’ve made difficult strategic choices as the world changes—whether it’s figuring out a way to keep a manufacturing business in the United States, deciding to kill off a 244-year-old eponymous product, or struggling (and ultimately failing) to save a movie rental business in an industry moving toward digital.

The opening essays in this book played off of Jim Collins’s simple dictate: “First who, then what.” The essays in this section make clear that that sequence doesn’t necessarily speak to the magnitude of complexity. To put it another way: Getting the “what” right can be extraordinarily challenging, too.

It’s also clear that these days the “right” path isn’t likely to stay right for long. Lately, the most common buzzwords from academics who study strategy include such terms as “transient advantage” or “adaptive strategy.” Learning how other leaders navigate shifts is crucial in a world in which managers must be constantly attentive to strategy.