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“Six Telltale Signs of a Winning Strategy
1) An activity system that looks different from any competitor's system. It means you are tempting to deliver value in a distinctive way.
2) Customers who absolutely adore you, and noncustomers who can't see why anybody would buy from you. This means you have been choiceful.
3) Competitors who make a good profit doing what they are doing. It means your strategy has left where-to-play and how-to-win choices for competitors, who don't need to attack the heart of your market to survive.
4) More resources to spend on an ongoing basis than competitors have. This means you are winning the value equation and have the biggest margin between price and costs and best capacity to add spending to take advantage of an opportunity to defend your turf.
5) Competitors who attack one another, not you. It means that you look like the hardest target in the (broadly defined) industry to attack.
6) Customers who look first to you for innovations, new products, and service enhancement to make their lives better. This means that your customers believe that you are uniquely positioned to create value for them.”
― Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works
1) An activity system that looks different from any competitor's system. It means you are tempting to deliver value in a distinctive way.
2) Customers who absolutely adore you, and noncustomers who can't see why anybody would buy from you. This means you have been choiceful.
3) Competitors who make a good profit doing what they are doing. It means your strategy has left where-to-play and how-to-win choices for competitors, who don't need to attack the heart of your market to survive.
4) More resources to spend on an ongoing basis than competitors have. This means you are winning the value equation and have the biggest margin between price and costs and best capacity to add spending to take advantage of an opportunity to defend your turf.
5) Competitors who attack one another, not you. It means that you look like the hardest target in the (broadly defined) industry to attack.
6) Customers who look first to you for innovations, new products, and service enhancement to make their lives better. This means that your customers believe that you are uniquely positioned to create value for them.”
― Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works
“Six Strategy Traps
1) The do-it-all strategy: failing to make choices, and making everything a priority. Remember, strategy is choice.
2) The Don Quixote strategy: attacking competitive "walled cities" or taking on the strongest competitor first, head-to-head. Remember, where to play is your choice. Pick somewhere you can have a choice to win.
3) The Waterloo Strategy: starting wars on multiple fronts with multiple competitors at the same time. No company can do everything well. If you try to do so, you will do everything weakly.
4) The something-for-everyone strategy: attempting to capture all consumer or channel or geographic or category segments at once. Remember, to create value, you have to choose to serve some constituents really well and not worry about the others.
5) The dreams-that-never-come-true strategy: developing high-level aspirations and mission statements that never get translated into concrete where-to-play and how-to-win choices, core capabilities, and management systems. Remember that aspirations are not strategy. Strategy is the answer to all five questions in the choice cascade.
6) The program-of-the-month strategy: settling for generic industry strategies, in which all competitors are chasing the same customers, geographies, and segments in the same way. The choice cascade and activity system that supports these choices should be distinctive. The more your choices look like those of your competitors, the less likely you will ever win.”
― Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works
1) The do-it-all strategy: failing to make choices, and making everything a priority. Remember, strategy is choice.
2) The Don Quixote strategy: attacking competitive "walled cities" or taking on the strongest competitor first, head-to-head. Remember, where to play is your choice. Pick somewhere you can have a choice to win.
3) The Waterloo Strategy: starting wars on multiple fronts with multiple competitors at the same time. No company can do everything well. If you try to do so, you will do everything weakly.
4) The something-for-everyone strategy: attempting to capture all consumer or channel or geographic or category segments at once. Remember, to create value, you have to choose to serve some constituents really well and not worry about the others.
5) The dreams-that-never-come-true strategy: developing high-level aspirations and mission statements that never get translated into concrete where-to-play and how-to-win choices, core capabilities, and management systems. Remember that aspirations are not strategy. Strategy is the answer to all five questions in the choice cascade.
6) The program-of-the-month strategy: settling for generic industry strategies, in which all competitors are chasing the same customers, geographies, and segments in the same way. The choice cascade and activity system that supports these choices should be distinctive. The more your choices look like those of your competitors, the less likely you will ever win.”
― Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works
Ago’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Ago’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Biography, Classics, Crime, Fiction, Graphic novels, Horror, Manga, Psychology, Science, and Thriller
Polls voted on by Ago
Lists liked by Ago
