Harvard Business Review On Aligning Technology With Strategy

Most companies waste billions of dollars on technology. Don't be one of them. If you need the best practices and ideas for unleashing technology's strategic potential--but don't have time to find them--this book is for you. Here are eight inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place. This collection of HBR articles will help you: - Clarify corporate strategy with your IT department - Fund only IT projects that support your strategy - Transform IT investments into profits - Build one technology platform for your entire organization - Adopt new technologies only when their best practices are established - Use analytics to make smart decisions at all levels of your company - Integrate social media into your business

"The best sales book of the year" — strategy+business magazine That gap between your company’s sales efforts and strategy? It’s real—and a huge vulnerability. Addressing that gap, actionably and with attention to relevant research, is the focus of this book. In Aligning Strategy and Sales, Harvard Business School professor Frank Cespedes equips you to link your go-to-market initiatives with strategic goals. Cespedes offers a road map to articulate strategy in ways that people in the field can understand and that will fuel the behaviors required for profitable growth. Without that alignment, leaders will press for better execution when they need a better strategy, or change strategic direction with great cost and turmoil when they should focus on the basics of sales execution. With thoughtful, clear, and engaging examples, Aligning Strategy and Sales provides a framework for diagnosing and managing the core levers available for effective selling in any organization. It will give you the know-how and tools to move from ideas to action and build a sales effort linked to your firm’s unique goals, not a generic selling formula. Cespedes shows how sales efforts affect all elements of value creation in a business, whether you’re a start-up seeking to scale or an established firm looking to jump-start new growth. The book provides key insights to optimize your firm’s customer management activities and so improve selling and strategy.

Are analytics and technology a strategic part of your business? Artificial intelligence, platforms, algorithms, machine learning. Most business leaders know the value in advanced technologies. But how do you embed them into your business—and make them a key part of your strategy? HBR's 10 Must Reads Technology and Strategy Collection features innovative ideas to help you understand what new technologies offer, decide what business models are best for your business, and move forward with new innovations. Included in this seven-book set are: HBR's 10 Must Reads on AI, Analytics, and the New Machine Age HBR's 10 Must Reads on Business Model Innovation HBR's 10 Must Reads on Platforms and Ecosystems HBR's 10 Must Reads on Innovation HBR's 10 Must Reads on Design Thinking HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy, Vol. 2 The collection includes seventy articles selected by HBR's editors from renowned thought leaders including Clayton M. Christensen, W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne, and Thomas H. Davenport, plus the indispensable article "Why Every Company Needs an Augmented Reality Strategy" by Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann. With HBR's 10 Must Reads Technology and Strategy Collection, you can bridge the divide between your digital and strategic efforts, and ensure your business is on the cutting edge. HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever‐changing business environment.

Become a digital-first organization—and avoid disruption. If you read nothing else on the principles and practices that lead to successful digital transformation, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you reinvent your digital strategy, overcome barriers to change, and win in the continuously connected world. This book will inspire you to: Devise an industry-transforming business model Minimize risk using discovery-driven transformation Leverage torrents of data more strategically Prepare your employees for the future of work Prioritize the right initiatives Compete in the age of AI This collection of articles includes "Discovery-Driven Digital Transformation," by Rita McGrath and Ryan McManus; "The Transformative Business Model," by Stelios Kavadias, Kostas Ladas, and Christoph Loch; "Digital Doesn't Have to Be Disruptive," by Nathan Furr and Andrew Shipilov; "What's Your Data Strategy?," by Leandro DalleMule and Thomas H. Davenport; "Competing in the Age of AI," by Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani; "Building the AI-Powered Organization," by Tim Fountaine, Brian McCarthy, and Tamim Saleh; "How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Companies," by Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann; "The Age of Continuous Connection," by Nicolaj Siggelkow and Christian Terwiesch; "The Problem with Legacy Ecosystems," by Maxwell Wessel, Aaron Levie, and Robert Siegel; "Your Workforce Is More Adaptable Than You Think," by Joseph B. Fuller, Judith K. Wallenstein, Manjari Raman, and Alice de Chalendar; "How Apple Is Organized for Innovation," by Joel M. Podolny and Morten T. Hansen; and "Digital Transformation Comes Down to Talent in Four Key Areas," by Thomas H. Davenport and Thomas C. Redman. HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever‐changing business environment.

The biggest technology and management ideas of the year, all in one place. This collection of the top ideas, insights, and best practices from the past year of Harvard Business Review will keep you up-to-date on the most cutting-edge, influential thinking driving business today. The two-book set brings together HBR's 10 Must Reads 2021 and The Year in Tech 2021: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review. The Must Reads volume assembles the definitive articles on topics in including leadership, strategy, and innovation from HBR's vast array of experts. The Insights book will help you understand today's most essential thinking on fast-moving technologies, and they mean for your organization. Together these books will equip you to successfully lead your business today as you prepare to reinvent your company for the future.

Named one of the best strategy books of 2021 by strategy+business Get to better, more effective strategy. In nearly every business segment and corner of the world economy, the most successful companies dramatically outperform their rivals. What is their secret? In Better, Simpler Strategy, Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee shows how these companies achieve more by doing less. At a time when rapid technological change and global competition conspire to upend traditional ways of doing business, these companies pursue radically simplified strategies. At a time when many managers struggle not to drown in vast seas of projects and initiatives, these businesses follow simple rules that help them select the few ideas that truly make a difference. Better, Simpler Strategy provides readers with a simple tool, the value stick, which every organization can use to make its strategy more effective and easier to execute. Based on proven financial mechanics, the value stick helps executives decide where to focus their attention and how to deepen the competitive advantage of their business. How does the value stick work? It provides a way of measuring the two fundamental forces that lead to value creation and increased financial success—the customer's willingness-to-pay and the employee's willingness-to-sell their services to the business. Companies that win, Oberholzer-Gee shows, create value for customers by raising their willingness-to-pay, and they provide value for talent by lowering their willingness-to-sell. The approach, proven in practice, is entirely data driven and uniquely suited to be cascaded throughout the organization. With many useful visuals and examples across industries and geographies, Better, Simpler Strategy explains how these two key measures enable firms to gauge and improve their strategies and operations. Based on the author's sought-after strategy course, this book is your must-have guide for making better strategic decisions.

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • More than two million copies in print! The premier resource for how to deliver results in an uncertain world, whether you’re running an entire company or in your first management job. “A must-read for anyone who cares about business.”—The New York Times When Execution was first published, it changed the way we did our jobs by focusing on the critical importance of “the discipline of execution”: the ability to make the final leap to success by actually getting things done. Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan now reframe their empowering message for a world in which the old rules have been shattered, radical change is becoming routine, and the ability to execute is more important than ever. Now and for the foreseeable future: • Growth will be slower. But the company that executes well will have the confidence, speed, and resources to move fast as new opportunities emerge. • Competition will be fiercer, with companies searching for any possible advantage in every area from products and technologies to location and management. • Governments will take on new roles in their national economies, some as partners to business, others imposing constraints. Companies that execute well will be more attractive to government entities as partners and suppliers and better prepared to adapt to a new wave of regulation. • Risk management will become a top priority for every leader. Execution gives you an edge in detecting new internal and external threats and in weathering crises that can never be fully predicted. Execution shows how to link together people, strategy, and operations, the three core processes of every business. Leading these processes is the real job of running a business, not formulating a “vision” and leaving the work of carrying it out to others. Bossidy and Charan show the importance of being deeply and passionately engaged in an organization and why robust dialogues about people, strategy, and operations result in a business based on intellectual honesty and realism. With paradigmatic case histories from the real world—including examples like the diverging paths taken by Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan Chase and Charles Prince at Citigroup—Execution provides the realistic and hard-nosed approach to business success that could come only from authors as accomplished and insightful as Bossidy and Charan.