Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works (1st Edition)
 
ISBN: 9781422187395
 
Are you just playing—or playing to win? Strategy may not be complex, but it is challenging because it requires organizations to make specific, often difficult, choices about their future. In Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, two of today's most influential business thinkers, A.G. Lafley, former CEO of Procter & Gamble, and strategic adviser Roger Martin, delve into the essence of strategy—what it is, why it's crucial, and how to execute it effectively.
Drawing on their decade-long partnership that led to one of the most successful corporate turnarounds of the past century, Lafley and Martin doubled P&G's sales, quadrupled its profits, and increased its market value by more than $100 billion. Now, they share the strategic framework they developed and used to achieve this success.
The book lays out five essential strategic choices that leaders in organizations of all sizes can use to guide everyday actions and achieve larger strategic goals. These choices are:
What is our winning aspiration?
Where will we play?
How will we win?
What capabilities must we have in place to win?
What management systems are required to support our choices?
Using real-world examples from P&G's iconic brands like Olay, Bounty, Gillette, Swiffer, and Febreze, Playing to Win demonstrates how making these strategic choices and supporting them with the right actions can be the difference between simply playing the game and actually winning it.