PREFACE

Strategy is about creating and delivering the future. It is about leading your team or your organization to a future in which you are able to compete more effectively and to achieve prosperity and sustainability. The skills of strategic management are applicable to those leading a team or planning the direction of any size of organization in all sectors—private, public, and voluntary. Strategic Management is for those taking, or wanting to take, their first steps to developing and implementing strategic changes. It gives you the tools you need to make effective strategic decisions, by helping you analyze your organization and the world it operates in, plan your strategic approach, and implement the changes. It provides insight into how to gain a competitive advantage, which is at the heart of good strategy.The most important aim of this book, however, is to encourage you to think strategically and develop your powers of strategic thinking so that they become second nature. Strategic management is easier than many suggest, yet not all managers take the time to master it. If you do develop the ability to think strategically and learn the skills needed for strategic management, you will make yourself a valuable asset to your organization.

CONTENTS

4 Introduction
CHAPTER 1
Understanding strategy
6 Planning for change
8 Counting the benefits
10 Leading your competitors
12 Looking to the future
14 Shaping your strategy
CHAPTER 2
Linking strategy to
the market
16 Looking ahead
18 Analyzing your environment
20 Looking at major forces
22 Assessing the market
24 Choosing your approach
26 Fitting or stretching
28 Choosing your customers
30 Avoiding competition
32 Three generic strategies

CHAPTER 3
Creating a good strategy
34 Setting the priorities
36 Evaluating your options
40 Reading the future
42 Involving stakeholders
44 Linking strategy to structure
46 Knowing when to change
50 Working with others

CHAPTER 4
Implementing your strategy
52 Demonstrating leadership
54 Achieving cultural fit
56 Preparing others for change
60 Overcoming resistance
62 Guiding your team
64 Monitoring progress
66 Managing knowledge
68 Staying on top
70 Index
72 Acknowledgments

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