The Reality Test: Still Relying on Strategy?

by Robert Rowland Smith

How is it that the most carefully-laid business strategies can go horribly wrong when put into practice? Robert Rowland Smith's answer, based on years of experience in high-level consultancy, is that 'reality eats strategy for breakfast' strategy, based on projections and assuming business is a rational pursuit, can't deal with the messy reality of life.More helpful are these practical questions that can help you plan what to do when your business comes into contact with reality. From learning the lessons of the past (rather than fixating on the future) to finding out what your business is really about, he explains the real-life factors that lead to success or failure. Including many new examples from the front line, from all around the world, The Reality Test will help you establish yourself as more effective and distinctive than your competitors, who follow the same rigid theoretical avenues.Whether you ask 'Are you making enough of your weaknesses?' or 'Are you 100% productive 100% of the time?', it's time to stop living in strategy La-La Land and face reality.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 5, 2013

About the author

Robert Rowland Smith was for seven years a Prize Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford and is a consultant, lecturer and writer on philosophy, literature and psychoanalysis. He has written for The Independent and The Evening Standard, been profiled in The Sunday Telegraph, Time Out and The Observer, and contributed to books on philosophy for children. As well as broadcasting for BBC Radio and television, he has contributed to the Philosophy Bites podcast series and currently has a column on everyday dilemmas in the Sunday Times Magazine.

Smith has taught in the UK, France, Norway, and California; he was invited by the British Council to undertake a European lecture tour, and was closely involved with the Oxford Amnesty Lectures.

Smith is a faculty member at The School of Life, where he runs a breakfast Club, teaches courses on Love and Family and practices constellations. He is a founding editor of the award-winning journal, Angelaki, to which he has contributed articles and sits both on the editorial board and that of its associated book series, Angelaki Humanities.

In conjunction with his literary ventures, Smith is also an independent management consultant. He specializes on issues of strategy and change with boards and senior teams as well as coaching chief executives.

Reviews

[Leanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fantastic book designed to assist leaders to look at their business though the eyes of an intelligent lay person rather than as a strategy person. The goal being to have a conversation about what the real issues of the business might be and what needs to be done toy fix them.