Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution

by Robert Simons

To stay ahead of the pack, you must translate your organization's competitive strategy into day-to-day actions that will enable your company to win in the marketplace. This means channeling resources into the right efforts, striking a balance between innovation and control, and getting everyone pulling in the same direction.

How to accomplish all this? Continually ask the right questions, advises Harvard Business School professor Robert Simons. By posing these provocative questions, you identify critical gaps in your strategy execution processes, focus on the most important choices you must make, and understand what's at stake in each one.

In this concise guide, Simons presents the seven key questions you and your team must regularly explore together:

·Who is your primary customer? Have you organized your company to deliver maximum value to that customer?

·How do your core values prioritize shareholders, employees, and customers? Is everyone in your company committed to those values?

·What critical performance variables are you tracking? How are you creating accountability for performance on those variables?

·What strategic boundaries have you set? Does everyone know what actions are off-limits?

·How are you generating creative tension? Is that tension catalyzing innovation across units?

·How committed are your employees to helping each other? Are they sharing responsibility for your company’s success?

·What strategic uncertainties keep you awake at night? How are you riveting everyone's attention on those uncertainties?

These questions force you to reexamine the unspoken assumptions underlying your strategy and analyze how it's implemented through your business processes and structures. Simons' extensive examples then help you understand your options and make the tough choices needed for your company to excel at execution.

Drawing on decades of research into performance management systems and organization design, Seven Strategy Questions is a no-nonsense, must-read resource for all leaders in your organization.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Management, Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 20, 2010

Reviews

[JJ Khodadadi · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب نسبتا ساده ای درمورد سوالات اصلی برای طراحی استراتژی سازمان که مثال های خوبی هم در اون زده شده
برای کسی مثل من که زیاد دراین زمینه تخصص نداره و میخواد مبانی استراتژی رو شروع کنه به نظر کتاب خوبی میاد

[Sadra Aliabadi · Rating 4 out of 5]

استراتژی رو خیلی عملگرا و ساده تو سازمان اینترپرایز توضیح داده بود. طبیعتا اگر اشل سازمانتون کوچیکه انتظار کمک وحشتناکی نداشته باشید ولی برای سازمان های بزرگ کتاب کار راه اندازی به نظر میرسه. از ترجمه ش یه دونه هدیه برای مدیرعاملمون گرفتم:))

[Mahdi Nasseri · Rating 3 out of 5]

نگاه ساده و راحت الحلقومی به استراتژی، تبیین و اجرای اون داره. کتاب ساده بود و عامدانه از پیچیدگی های این بحث دوری کرده بود. به نظرم اشکال عمده این کتاب این بود که نویسنده اون تجربه مستقیم تدوین و اجرای استراتژی رو نداره و به عنوان یک استاد دانشگاه بر اساس گفتگوها و تحقیقات از نمونه هایی به ظاهر اندک این کتاب رو تدوین کرده. همین نقطه ضعف از طرفی نقطه قوت کتاب هم هست چون تونسته با یک نگاه بیرون گود، نکات کلیدی، مهم و تاثیرگذار تجربیات شرکت های موفق رو کشف و اونها رو در هفت گام تدوین کنه.
خوندن این کتاب برای کارآفرین ها و مدیران میانی و ارشد می تونه خیلی مفید باشه.

[Brad Dunson · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the best books on strategy that I've read. A very quick read. I'm usually turned off by books that have "Seven steps to..." or "Six ways..", and this book would probably be better served by making it a short pamphlet... seemingly the epitaph of most business books with catchy titles. However, I still enjoyed the allegories that back up each of his questions.

[foroogh · Rating 4 out of 5]

یک کتاب کاربردی و خوب برای مدیران. به زبانی ساده تفکر استراتژیک را توضیح داده. من صوتی گوش کردم و از سایت نوار گرفته بودم. گوینده عالی ست و شنیدنش را به توصیه می کنم. من تقربا دو بار گوش کردم و تصمیم دارم خلاصه نویس اش کنم.

[bahar shahraki · Rating 3 out of 5]

موضوع اصلی کتاب برای من بسیار جالب بود.رویکرد کتاب ، راهنمایی برای پرسیدن پرسش های درست از خودتان و دیگران برای اطمینان از بهترین شکل پیاده سازی استراتژی است.

[Manouane Beauchamp · Rating 1 out of 5]

Peter Drucker : "The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The truly serious mistakes result from asking the wrong questions."

C'est fort de cette citation que Robert Simons partage sept questions qu'il qualifie de stratégiques :
1. Who is your primary customer?
2. How do your core values prioritize shareholders, employees, and customers?
3. What critical performance variables are you tracking?
4. What strategic boundaries have you set?
5. How are you generating creative tension?
6. How committed are your employees to helping each other?
7. What strategic uncertainties keep you awake at night?

Ces questions sont importantes, mais pas nécessairement stratégiques. La stratégie, telle qu'expliquée dans l'excellent livre : "Good Strategy / Bad Strategy" consiste à trouver une réponse à un problème. Ainsi, les questions soulevées par Simons dans ce livre ne sont pas stratégiques, mais relèvent de la gestion au quotidien.

Bref, inutile de livre ce livre.

[Peyman Fakharian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second book I have read on strategy. I don't like strategy classic books, but this book is not one of them. In this book, we see 7 questions about the strategy, about customers, KPIs and the ways the company approach to achieve its goals.

The book provides different detailed examples about big organizations like Amazon, Southwest airline, P&G, and large banks like J.P. Morgan.

This book helped me a lot to clearly think about my own company and review some of the procedures we built for our organization.

[Ava · Rating 4 out of 5]

این کتاب شامل هفت سوال و جوابه برای استراتژی و درک بهتر تاثیر پرسیدن سوال درست در یافتن پاسخ درست کتاب کوتاه ولی در عین حال موثری بود البته کتاب مناسبی و یا قابل اجرایی برای بیزنس های کوچک نیست
سوالات هم شامل این موارد هستند
۱. مشتری اصلی شما کیست
۲. ارزش‌های اساسی شما چگونه مشتریان، کارکنان و سهامداران را اولویت بندی می‌نماید
۳. کدام متغیرهای کلیدی عملکردی را رصد می‌کنید
۴. چه خطوط قرمز استراتژیکی را تعیین کرده‌اید
۵. چگونه تنش خالق ایجاد می‌کنید
۶. چگونه کارکنان شما متعهد به کمک به یکدیگر می‌شوند
۷. چه عدم قطعیت‌های استراتژیکی خواب را از شما گرفته است

[Gashtasb Mozaffarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

اگر در سازمانِ خود قصد تغییر استراتژی دارید یا اگر احساس می‌کنید منحنی رشد سازمانتان از "نقطه ثبات" خارج شده، به سمت مرگ پیش می‌رود و نیاز به تغییر استراتژی دارید، این کتاب را شدیدا پیشنهاد می‌کنم.
این کتاب با ارایه مطالعه‌هایِ موردی خود (که بر روی سازمان‌های بزرگ در ابعاد جهانی انجام شده‌اند) می‌تواند کمک بزرگی در تغییر نگرش شما و کمک خوبی برای تغییر استراتژی باشد!

[Ragesh M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple in approach and closer to ground realities.

[Phuongvu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dễ đọc và có thể dùng để soi chiếu chiến lược của tổ chức.
20/5/2020

[Amir · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب فوق العاده کاربردی هستش

[Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple and more useful than any other strategy book ever read. Seriously changed the way I think about my business.

[Omidreza · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب بسیار ساده و مختصر با استفاده از معیارهای پرسشگرانه در مورد استراتژی سازمان، از جمله کتابهایی هستش که نه تنها ارزش بلکه الزام‌ چند بار خوندن رو داره.

[Emily Wang · Rating 4 out of 5]

i like the format of this book a lot.

[Alireza Daneshvar · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Seven Strategy Questions is a concise and powerful guide for leaders aiming to improve strategy execution. It focuses on seven critical questions that help align teams, clarify priorities, and drive accountability. The book is practical, insightful, and filled with real-world examples, making it a valuable tool for executives and managers. A must-read for anyone looking to simplify and strengthen their strategic approach.

[Cathie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great questions, posed well, to make one think about how one thinks about ones business!

[Lori Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A should-read book on strategic frameworks for knowledge workers and entrepreneurs.

[Taheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book!

[Brian Finifter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some useful information scattered in amongst various anecdotes. But as is often the case with these kinds of books, you really only need the checklist summary at the very back of the book.

[Stefan Ritter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Following Peter Drucker’s quote: “The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong questions.”
In this intentionally short book, Robert Simons brings together the questions you should be asking yourself and your team to get better at executing your strategy.
I can see myself revisiting this book regularly. Stories accompany each of the seven questions. They are examples of famous leaders (failed and successful) and case studies Simons uses in his class at HBS.
The root of every failed company is a set of assumptions that proved to be false. It is Simons goal to keep you and your business on your feet by continuously evaluating your strategy, and it's execution with these seven questions.

Key insights:
Set creative boundaries. Tell your team what NOT to do rather than what to do. That way they can be creative in their solution finding.
Give stretch goals that are beyond what an individual can achieve. That way the team is incentivized to work together and collaborate beyond traditional department lines.

The seven questions are:
1. Who is your primary customer?
2. How do your core values prioritize shareholders, employees, and customers?
3. What critical performance variables are you tracking?
4. What strategic boundaries have you set?
5. How are you generating creative tension?
6. How committed are your employees to helping each other?
7. What strategic uncertainties keep you awake at night?