EXECUTING YOUR STRATEGY

Of the various publications from the Harvard Business Review Press, I've come to appreciate their guides on specific management topics. While never meant to be exhaustive references, I've found each one I've picked up to be helpful both as a source of perspective(s) about management issues as well as a springboard pointing me in the direction of other more in-depth and relevant material should the need arise.

In that regard, I've always considered business strategy a tough nut to crack, which was why I was elated to discover the HBR Guide to Executing Your Strategy.

The book's format is a collection of essays (or condensed versions thereof) that have appeared before in various other HBR publications. As the title suggests, the selection skews towards material about what it takes to bring strategy down from the boardroom to the frontlines of business, and it goes without saying that I picked more than an idea or two from the book. Among the spread of topics: an overview of what it means to execute a business strategy, assessing the alignment between a company's strategy and its capabilities, how to communicate strategy down the line, how to prioritize different strategic imperatives/initiatives, and what's involved when it comes time to change one's strategy, among others.

The concise discussion offered in each chapter will necessarily appeal to busy readers; for my part, I found that I cared about and took away from some chapters more than others, which is arguably the precise use case for a guide of this nature.

Reams of material can and has been written about strategy in business, and it stands to reason that many more will yet be for a long time to come. For today, however, one can't go wrong by checking out The HBR Guide to Executing Your Strategy.

This is a must read for anyone who needs to plan and succeed. Executing a strategy is no small task, and HBR gives us a guide. This is well thought out and well presented. I highly recommend this book.

This is a great guide to determine how to implement your strategies best and understand what general questions will always need to be addressed to get the best result. It ensures you understand that others understand what you're trying to achieve and why.

An interesting topic relevant for all organizations irrespective of industry and maturity. Strategy plays a key role in organizations and the book delves into this key area of interest. A good mix of case studies and theory to help people navigate their journey. The HBR essays as usual are an industry standard when it comes to creating thought leadership and best practices.


Thank you Harvard Business Review and NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange of my unbiased review.

Another useful and valuable collection of articles from HBR. I don't always agree with everything they publish and prescribe in their pages, but I've always found the "HBR Guides to..." to offer thought-provoking and useful information (and examples) to help me figure out what I think is best for any given situation.

Recommended.

This is collected articles about how to execute strategy, especially if you are manager.

It contains a lot of good advise with study case from several big companies such as Unilever.

The advise are more on practical rather than theories, so we could implement it directly.

Personally, I got new insights about this since I'm still new in managerial.

Thank you Netgalley and Harvard Business Review for the ARC!

This is a concise book on executing on a strategy.

Strategy provides direction to organizations and business groups. Many times, there is a tussle between strategy formulation and execution. This book has a lot of sensible advice around executors needing to get involved early, strategy & execution needing to run in parallel to accommodate changing circumstances, collaboration, communication, unlearning, the right level of metrics and other related topics. The pressure of near-term profits and revenues often leads to longer term strategies not being given time by CXOs. I liked the part about being conscious of what is being lost when adopting a new strategy. If this is not done, there is inertia and resistance. Alignment of strategy with organization’s design is important, but often misunderstood as a rigid cascading of goals. When people name companies they admire, they do it based on their innovation ability. Most people do not know the capabilities and enablers making innovation possible. Leaders need to communicate ‘Why’, and not only ‘What’ and ‘How’ and manage change carefully when executing strategy.

While there are some company examples such as Unilever, Wells Fargo, I expected more. As there are multiple authors, some matter tends to repeat, though the topic selection is pretty good.

My rating: 3.75 / 5.