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One Strategy: Organization, Planning, and Decision Making
Learn from the concepts, capabilities, processes, and behaviors that aligned around one strategy with the hard-won, first-person wisdom found in One Strategy. Challenging traditional views of strategy and operational execution, this book-written by Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky with Harvard Business School professor Marco Iansiti-describes how you can drive innovation by connecting the potential of strategic opportunities to the impact of operational execution. Drawn from Sinofsky's internal Microsoft blog where he communicated some of the management processes the team put to work while developing a 4,000 person, multi-year project-Microsoft Windows 7- One Strategy shares the hard-won insights you can use to successfully make the leap from strategy to execution.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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273 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 15, 2020
I don't know if I'd recommend One Strategy to everyone, but I read it at the perfect time for myself.
Most business books are written in the past tense (how an organization operated) or future tense (how an organization should operate) - the thing that was really unique about One Strategy was that as an anthology of blog posts from Sinofsky, the book was structurally oriented around the present-tense of a large development organization reeling from a big failure (Windows Vista) as it marched towards Windows 7.
Overall, the book focuses heavily on how Sinofsky drove his vision for strategic integrity across the ~4,000 person Windows team. At its core, the theme of this book is that strategic clarity, organizational alignment, and execution against the strategy are inextricably linked, and this highly-coupled environment forces great organizations to use both top-down and bottom-up approaches to empower teams to innovate within their mandate and help the whole organization innovate across organizational boundaries.
In particular, Sinofsky focuses on the cadence and synchronization of large-scale planning and the book gets deep into the details about how these plans actually get created and ratified and then how they get changed and adapted as the organization gets more information.
As someone who manages a much smaller (but still quite large) organization building software like this, I found the "in the trenches" style of this book to be highly actionable and extremely compelling.
Most business books are written in the past tense (how an organization operated) or future tense (how an organization should operate) - the thing that was really unique about One Strategy was that as an anthology of blog posts from Sinofsky, the book was structurally oriented around the present-tense of a large development organization reeling from a big failure (Windows Vista) as it marched towards Windows 7.
Overall, the book focuses heavily on how Sinofsky drove his vision for strategic integrity across the ~4,000 person Windows team. At its core, the theme of this book is that strategic clarity, organizational alignment, and execution against the strategy are inextricably linked, and this highly-coupled environment forces great organizations to use both top-down and bottom-up approaches to empower teams to innovate within their mandate and help the whole organization innovate across organizational boundaries.
In particular, Sinofsky focuses on the cadence and synchronization of large-scale planning and the book gets deep into the details about how these plans actually get created and ratified and then how they get changed and adapted as the organization gets more information.
As someone who manages a much smaller (but still quite large) organization building software like this, I found the "in the trenches" style of this book to be highly actionable and extremely compelling.
July 1, 2019
3.5 stars.
I read this book at the recommendation of someone at work and I knew it wouldn't be a light read but, for some reason, the first part felt exceptionally dry to me. I didn't connect with the content until the second part where the ideas were laid out more clearly with a combination of idea and then application (blog post) example. When he started talking about planning specifically, I finally connected with the book and was fascinated. I with it had been sooner than 36% into the book. The last 60+% went fast, was enjoyable and interesting and thought provoking. In fact, I likely could have just started there and still gotten most of the value out of this book.
I read this book at the recommendation of someone at work and I knew it wouldn't be a light read but, for some reason, the first part felt exceptionally dry to me. I didn't connect with the content until the second part where the ideas were laid out more clearly with a combination of idea and then application (blog post) example. When he started talking about planning specifically, I finally connected with the book and was fascinated. I with it had been sooner than 36% into the book. The last 60+% went fast, was enjoyable and interesting and thought provoking. In fact, I likely could have just started there and still gotten most of the value out of this book.
April 21, 2020
Steve’s blog posts are spot on. Running a 4000 person org to ship one central product and a series of related product lines with a billion users is insanely hard. Steve’s blog posts are an insightful chronicle of the whole thing. Dropping a star from the rating cuz I found the second author’s annotation and linking back to academic studies superficial and unnecessary. Just compiling the posts into a book would have served just fine! Great content
October 2, 2018
Interesting read
Interesting read, the book contains a lot of very relevant examples in the world of dev management and general management. The text would however require copy editing: formatting is a mess…
Interesting read, the book contains a lot of very relevant examples in the world of dev management and general management. The text would however require copy editing: formatting is a mess…
October 5, 2024
The good news is that Chapter 10 is brilliant - planning process in all of it's beauty and power. However, to fully appreciate it, you need to read the previous nine chapters, which I found it challenging, probably because I am a non-native speaker.
October 5, 2022
The blog posts are excellent, the commentary in between less so. I highlighted a LOT.
August 29, 2016
One Strategy, written by Stephen Sinofsky in collaboration with Marco Iansiti, is not about how Windows 7 was developed.
But yes, the book does use Windows 7 project as a background to get across some ideas about project management and strategy.
Throughout the duration of the project, Sinofsky wrote than 200 blogs for the product team, which was shared on the Microsoft's internal network via SharePoint beta.
One Strategy is a collection of some of these blogs, with some annotations and explanations to support it.
As I read through the book, two things began to irritate me throughout. The blogs are left as written by Sinofsky, which is a very good thing; but at the same time, some ridiculous edits have been made to 'correct the language'. These supposedly useful 'edits' comprise of 'significant' changes such as capitalizing the first letter of each quotation or inserting dollar signs ("this could be a big [$]100M decision") as if the reference about costs was obscure until that dollar sign was inserted!
The other thing that bothered me was the text that accompanied the blogs. Rather than helping the reader by explaining the ideas in the blog in further detail, the text merely paraphrases the same stuff, that too in a more abstract and wooden 'management lingo'. There are any interesting tidbits of information nor any trivia that would excite the reader. There is no background information about the blog, nor is there any groundwork for the ideas that would come up in the actual blog.
After a couple of chapters, I realized what I needed to do: just read the blogs by Sinofsky and skip the accompanying material. This made a world of difference.
In the blogs, Sinofsky shares his thoughts, ideas and opinions on strategy, vision, planning and tactics. He talk about 'strategic integrity' and the dangers that inertia can pose to a seemingly 'healthy' organisation. He writes about the importance of collaboration, communication and clear directions. He gives insights about what it takes to become a developer or a project manager or a general manager at Microsoft. In response to queries from team, he also shares the way he manages his time and the way he works with his team and seniors.
It is amazing that Sinofsky could manage to write such detailed, thought-intensive blogs considering the huge team-size and scope of the Windows project. Blogs as a communication tool for project managers is an idea that is becoming popular and the blogs by Sinofsky serve as an example how to exploit this medium to its maximum extent.
Though written specifically for the Windows 7, the blogs are a must-read for every manager that is leading a complex project, be it in software or any other field.
But yes, the book does use Windows 7 project as a background to get across some ideas about project management and strategy.
Throughout the duration of the project, Sinofsky wrote than 200 blogs for the product team, which was shared on the Microsoft's internal network via SharePoint beta.
One Strategy is a collection of some of these blogs, with some annotations and explanations to support it.
As I read through the book, two things began to irritate me throughout. The blogs are left as written by Sinofsky, which is a very good thing; but at the same time, some ridiculous edits have been made to 'correct the language'. These supposedly useful 'edits' comprise of 'significant' changes such as capitalizing the first letter of each quotation or inserting dollar signs ("this could be a big [$]100M decision") as if the reference about costs was obscure until that dollar sign was inserted!
The other thing that bothered me was the text that accompanied the blogs. Rather than helping the reader by explaining the ideas in the blog in further detail, the text merely paraphrases the same stuff, that too in a more abstract and wooden 'management lingo'. There are any interesting tidbits of information nor any trivia that would excite the reader. There is no background information about the blog, nor is there any groundwork for the ideas that would come up in the actual blog.
After a couple of chapters, I realized what I needed to do: just read the blogs by Sinofsky and skip the accompanying material. This made a world of difference.
In the blogs, Sinofsky shares his thoughts, ideas and opinions on strategy, vision, planning and tactics. He talk about 'strategic integrity' and the dangers that inertia can pose to a seemingly 'healthy' organisation. He writes about the importance of collaboration, communication and clear directions. He gives insights about what it takes to become a developer or a project manager or a general manager at Microsoft. In response to queries from team, he also shares the way he manages his time and the way he works with his team and seniors.
It is amazing that Sinofsky could manage to write such detailed, thought-intensive blogs considering the huge team-size and scope of the Windows project. Blogs as a communication tool for project managers is an idea that is becoming popular and the blogs by Sinofsky serve as an example how to exploit this medium to its maximum extent.
Though written specifically for the Windows 7, the blogs are a must-read for every manager that is leading a complex project, be it in software or any other field.
August 6, 2011
It's a useful editing job against a bunch of SteveSi's blog entries. If you're a blue-badge person, you may not need it. I found it useful to read the book end-to-end. Basically he's discussing a process of inclusion wherein bottoms-up and top-down strategies become one strategy from day one of a project's inception. I think the editing added something to most of the writing, as well. So buy the book, even if you work for MSFT.
January 9, 2013
One Strategy was my 6th choice for a book to earn SPHR Re-Cert credits. This one details the operational and strategic steps employed by Microsoft Office during the period after the launch of Vista and in preparation for Windows 7. Using the Blogs posted by Steven Sinofsky for Microsoft employees, the dialogue makes what otherwise would be a very dry book a very interesting read.
September 12, 2016
I'm so grateful that this book exists because it has allowed me to view history in the making (behind the scenes). Steven's infectious enthusiasm, humor, endearing honesty, nuanced delineations of integrity & passion & ego-less business acumen combined with Marco Iansiti's keen observations & extensive research have made this book one of my most treasured possessions.
November 13, 2012
Great book on management theory though it is presented in blog posts which don't always link together well. Its docked a star for style not substance which shouldn't matter too much if your reading a management book.
August 9, 2016
seriously, this could be my favorite book all year for work! i'll keep you posted!
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February 21, 2016Interesting perspective, especially if you lived through the Windows 7 release cycle. Was maybe 100 pages longer than it needed to be.
December 3, 2019
Smart guy. Hard to finish book. I gave up mid-way. Could use more editing. I lost the big picture or where things were going completely.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews