What Is Strategy, Again? – Andrea Ovans

by | May 28, 2021 | HBR, Org Growth

At a fundamental level, all strategies boil down to 2 very broad options: (1) Do what everyone else is doing or (2) Do something no one else can do…
There remain endlessly clever new ways to nudge Adam Smith’s invisible hand toward truly productive and profitable enterprises.

Andrea Ovans, senior editor, Harvard Business Review
Read at Harvard Business Review

Takeaways of Note:

All strategies boil down to…

Do what everyone else is doing – directly compete with others providing similar

or

Do something no one else can do – broaden the pie/ grow the market

To “do what no one else can”, 3 basic approaches & resources:

1– Do something new

– “Blue Ocean Strategy”
– “The Art of Designing Markets”
– “Reinventing Your Business Model”

2- Build on what you already do

– “Finding Your Next Core Business“

– “Growth Outside the Core“

– “Competing on Resources“

– “Hardball: Five Killer Strategies for Trouncing the Competition“

– “Curveball: Strategies to Fool the Competition“

– “The Empire Strikes Back: Counterrevolutionary Strategies for Industry Leaders“

– “Surviving Disruption“

3- React to emerging possibilities

– “Strategy as a Portfolio of Real Options“

– “Judo Strategy“

– “Stop Making Plans: Start Making Decisions“

– “Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything”

Bonus Nugget

In the face of rapidly changing technologies, globalization, and the inexorably accelerating pace of change, there remain endlessly clever new ways to make money, beat the competition, and nudge Adam Smith’s invisible hand toward truly productive and profitable enterprises.

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