Building Strategy and Performance Through Time

This book uses a balanced blend of frameworks and illustrations to teach you how to tackle the challenge of driving performance into the future. Existing strategy tools are no longer enough as they do not explain how to deliver your strategy powerfully over a sustained period. This book shows you where the levers are that you control and how to choose what to do, when, and how much to achieve your specific goals. This book effectively outlines the dynamics of strategy, how you drive performance - past, today and into the future. It shows what causes performance to improve or deteriorate and what you can do to change this trajectory for the better. Without an understanding of the dynamics of strategy, you risk making poor choices about the future such as failing to exploit promising opportunities, pursuing unachievable goals, or falling victim to your competitors and other outside threats. The author weaves a logical process for the reader to follow, using situations to explain how an enterprise works and delivers performance. It shows you the levers that management controls and how to choose what to do, when, and how much to accomplish your goals. Examples prove that departmental decisions cannot be made in isolation but must take into account other choices being made elsewhere and at other times. For instance, a fictional restaurant chain conducts a massive marketing campaign with the result of bringing more customers in the door. However, within a few short months, the number has trickled back down to pre-campaign levels. Was the campaign a failure? No, but its success was wiped out because staffing levels (another department) were not changed to make up for the increased customer levels and poor service resulted in the loss of customers. Building Strategy and Performance Through Time sets the agenda for building your business strategy in powerful, actionable, and accessible terms. Copious illustrations back up each part of the logic and you will learn not only how to create a dynamic strategy; you will learn how to sustain it over time. Case examples lead you toward "action checklists" that help you plot out the things you need to properly take advantage of the resources you have, as well as those you need to acquire. The result will be better decisions about this important and much greater confidence in your ability to deliver the outcomes your organization desires.