Strategic Discovery

Published in association with the Strategic Management Society, The Wiley Strategic Management Series aims to illustrate the best in global strategic management for academics, business practitioners and consultants. This book expands the understanding of strategic opportunities presented by the far reaching developments unfolding in the rapidly changing world economy, and in particular how they are impacting the North and South American continents. This wide-ranging collection of papers comprises a rich body of research and experience, spanning academics, business executives and consultants. Key emphasis is placed on competition and core competence, joint ventures and strategic alliances, and corporate performance. Writings included in this volume were selected as being representative of some of the most significant issues currently facing business strategists.

Personal, useful, actionable and grounded in research, this book will shift your thinking from "strategy development" to "strategy discovery" to enable you to deal with today’s business challenges, engage your staff and boost your business performance. Management teams and boards are facing disruption on all sides, from morphing customer preferences to the COVID pandemic to climate change. At the same time they are floundering in strategy confusion with too many concepts and not enough clarity. In this book, strategy expert and regular Harvard Business Review author Graham Kenny releases managers and directors from their strategy haze. His simple and effective framework allows managers to navigate the current maze of ideas and approaches and maximize their competitive advantage. Kenny’s readable style is equally effective: each chapter begins with an engaging story, then builds on this with cases, client examples, sidebars and more, ending with a series of action points to provide a pathway to success. CEOs, senior-level and middle managers across all functions and sectors, including private, public and not-for-profit organizations, who discuss and set strategy for their organization or business unit will appreciate the articulated framework, illustrative anecdotes and positive encouragement this book offers.

"If you haven't had the good fortune to be coached by a strong leader or product coach, this book can help fill that gap and set you on the path to success." - Marty Cagan How do you know that you are making a product or service that your customers want? How do you ensure that you are improving it over time? How do you guarantee that your team is creating value for your customers in a way that creates value for your business? In this book, you'll learn a structured and sustainable approach to continuous discovery that will help you answer each of these questions, giving you the confidence to act while also preparing you to be wrong. You'll learn to balance action with doubt so that you can get started without being blindsided by what you don't get right. If you want to discover products that customers love-that also deliver business results-this book is for you.

Making strategic decisions is a fundamental skill for leaders and managers. However, in a business environment that is in a constant state of change, making strategic decisions has never been more difficult. Strategic Decision Making addresses this challenge by providing a framework that can be used to make sound decisions in an uncertain world. Structured around the core concepts of framing, experimenting and scaling, this book will ensure that efforts are focused where the need is greatest, that interventions are tested, evaluated and revised if necessary and that successful initiatives are effectively rolled out across the business. Packed with real world examples and backed up by academic research, Strategic Decision Making will allow today's leaders and the leaders of tomorrow to make successful and defensible business choices. It shows how to: avoid decision-making bias, overcome organizational inertia, manage the difficulties of rigid organizational structures and avoid being side tracked by outdated or irrelevant experience. Essential reading for business practitioners and management students alike, this comprehensive guide provides a robust approach to achieving strategic success.

In Indian context.

This book helps readers develop a comprehensive understanding of diagnostics for strategic decision-making, with a focus on a method called rapid due diligence. This method presents a compelling solution to the need for effective diagnostics, drawing on academic rigor, critical thinking, systems dynamics, and advanced practicum to enable sound strategic decision-making. Guiding the reader through the six stages of the process from discovery, through analysis, synthesis, and interpretation, Thompsen engages all typical postgraduate disciplines in producing insights for practical application. Drawing on similarities with applied social science research, the rapid due diligence method is supported with scores of techniques, tools, instructions, guidelines, practical advice, and examples. Detailed cases and abbreviated examples of a variety of real strategic situations are provided from organizations operating in North America, Europe, Asia, India, and Australia. Ideal for graduate students, organizational leaders, and decision makers, this book is designed to invite deeper understanding and practical application of a strategic diagnostic process that discovers insights for achieving positive results.

There is a broad and long-standing debate on possible solutions to the regional vulnerabilities of globalisation. In 2014, the European Commission began implementing Smart Specialisation Strategy, a place-based strategy of growth, regional transformation and new industrial policy with collective entrepreneurial discovery processes (EDP) at its core. This volume approaches the mystery of entrepreneurial discovery; that is, how relevant knowledge is created, converted and shared in a process of discovery. These essays bring together scholars from economics, geography, sociology, organisation studies, innovation studies, and complexity theory, offering new approaches to overcome the limitations of place-based development and suggesting improved methods leading to growth.

Based on the results of 177 survey responses, Tobias Weigl shows that the simple transfer of managerial and organizational skills, techniques, values and culture from developed countries to Russia is a false assumption among academics and practitioners.