Business strategy is not rocket science.

How often do you start a business book and not finish it? 

My bedside cabinet is a haven of half-read tomes. Even "7-habits" still has a bookmark somewhere about halfway - had I not participated in a course covering Covey's principle's I'd still be a 3.5 habit man.  Two books of late though have held my restless attention span:

 

"Made to Stick" I came across on a blog, bought it online from Kahalari.net and have been enjoying it immensely ever since. Recommended reading for anyone in Product, Marketing or Copywriting for that matter.  Littered with case studies and the authors 'eat their own dogfood' to a great degree - modeling the principles they punt.  Well worth the money.

Strangely enough, I found "Making sense of Strategy" the day after our annual Strategic Planning workshop.  Fortunately for me, much of what I was reading supported the approach we're taking to strategy at Storm.  The book is short, pithy, authorative (this is THE Tony Manning after all) and nails the key issues dead centre.

Some gems from the book.

The opening line:

"Let's cut the bullshit and cut straight to the chase.  Strategy is not rocket science."

Then:

"Strategy is a conversation"

"Organistions, then are managed conversations" (is your conversation toxic or nourishing?)

"You can't force people to perform.  The best you can do is create a contxt in which they will apply their minds and their efforts as volunteers rather than conscripts."

"To assume that "change takes time" is the kiss of death. For one thing, you do not have time.  Second, when you give people time, the wheels spin.  While  you're waiting, nothing happens.  So cut your deadlines and get moving!"  (A line after TimP's heart! ;)

The closing line:

"...there are no silver bullets in business.   There  are just hard questions.  Hard decisions.  Hard work.  And the 26 letters of the alphabet are all you have to work with."

With that, I better dig the wheels in and go nail some deadlines, not to mention stimulate some more conversations.

Talking about conversations... an internal blog is not a bad idea as a strategic business tool eh?

Comments

[DaveG]

;)
I even tried to learn to speed read, but found it was taking too much effort to master. :( I'm now keeping an eye out for audio books I can load onto my MP3 player for the trips to and from work.

Not sure I'll find "The Art of War" there though - LOL!

"Made to Stick" was a good read and I now need to start it again, making notes for myself to lodge in my subconscious.

Dave

[Henre]

Dave, I know the feeling. Making sense of strategy, Permission Marketing and The Big Moo (latter both by Seth Godin) are all half read on my bed side cabinet. I've recently bought Making Strategy Work by Lawrence G. Hrebiniak which still smells of plastic wrapping. Too many books in too little time. Not to mention keeping up on blogging and the abundance of information waiting to be consumed.

I should make time to finish Tony Manning's, without a doubt THE main man in strategy. When I do, I will certainly revert back to you.

Made to stick was one book that I really wanted to read, and the only reason why I didn't buy it, was because of the other books half read that I mentioned. Reading your article, I'll be heading over to Kalahari.net.