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Strategy Pure and Simple -- How winning CEOs outthink their competition (by Michel Robert)

Strategy Pure and Simple -- How winning CEOs outthink their competition (by Michel Robert)
- Foreword
  - A new voice and a provocative point of view
  - Change is the only certainty that we face
- Preface
  - The last 30 years
  - Book argues that the miracle recipe’s are conceptually flawed
  - Developed in the boardroom
  - Reflects the thought process successful CEOs employ to engage their employees in a winning vision and strategy that beats the competition
  - U.S. companies are being out-thunked
  - CEOs of publicly traded companies in U.S. believe the biggest impediment to sound strategic thinking is Wall Street’s thirst for increases in quarterly earnings
  - U.S. passion with flawed concepts of planning that view a corporation strictly as a financial model to be tweaked and twisted in a variety of preprogrammed formulas.
  - Little strategic thinking in U.S. companies
  - Uncover the process and the skills of strategy that successful CEOs use to outthink their competition
- Fire, Ready, Aim: The best way to lose the game
  - Introduction
  - The portfolio matrix approach: Marketing Mania!
  - Competitive analysis: Going forward backward
  - Shareholder value based planning is strategic folly
- Coping with change
  Several major areas of change will have a profound effect on business in the future.
  The executives who will be able to lead their organizations through these changes will be the ones to survive and prosper
  - Global markets, multiple cultures
  - Think global. Act local
  - More competitors and more intense competition
  - Scarcer human resources
  - Better quality
  - Information explosion
  - Quantitative vs. qualitative planning
  - Number’s planning discourages risk taking
  - Strategic planning discourages innovations
  - Strategic thinking vs. Strategic planning
  - Strategic planning the death knell of strategic thinking
- The CEO’s vision: the starting point of strategic thinking
  - Introduction
  - No process for strategic thinking
  - What is strategic thinking?
  - What is the content of strategic vision
- Determining the strategic heartbeat of the enterprise
  - Introduction
  - The concept of strategic force or strategic drive
  - Strategic questions
  - Seduced by opportunities
  - Summary
- Determining the strategic capabilities of the business
  - Introduction
  - Keeping the strategy strong and healthy
  - The importance of area’s of excellence
- Articulating the business concept of the enterprise
  - Introduction
  - Meaningless mission statements
  - The bumper sticker strategy
  - Summary
- Corporate or business unit competition
  - Introduction
  - The link between business unit success and corporate competitiveness
  - Strategic vs. operational objectives
- Managing your competitor’s strategy: the General Patton approach to competition
  - Introduction
  - To compete or not to compete?
  - Changing the rules of play
- Changing the rules of play
  - Introduction
  - Examples of companies that have changed the rules
  - What happens when you play by another’s rules
  - The Japanese rule book
  - The moral of the story
- The future of strategic success
  - Introduction
  - Push to pull economy
  - Market fragmentation vs. market segmentation
  - The ramifications of the market fragmentation versus segmentation approach
- The Dos and Don’ts of strategic alliances
  - Don’ts
  - Dos
  - Profit is no replacement for strategic fit
- CEO talk about the strategic thinking process
  - Introduction
  - Caterpillar Inc.
  - Lang Communications Inc.
  - FLEXcon Inc.
  - DataCard Corporation
  - United Grain Growers
  - AEG Corporation
  - Nicolet Instrument Corporation
  - Castrol (U.K.) Limited
  - Domain Inc.
  - St. Luke’s Health System Inc.
  - Baldwin Technology Company Inc.
- The logistics of the strategic thinking process
  - Introduction
  - The role of the CEO as process owner
  - The role of process facilitator
  - The process
  - The results
    A variety of different results from the use of the Strategic Thinking Process
  - Closing the loop
  - The mechanics of the process
  - Summary
- Appendix
  - Is the stock market an obstacle to strategic decision making

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