Table of Contents
01 Opening the doorway to strategy 1
Introduction 1
What will the book do for you? 2
What is entailed in reading it? 8
What is strategy? 11
What is strategic thinking? 23
Overview of the book 31
Key insights from the chapter 31
02 Embracing the strategic world - part 1 33
Introduction 33
The conceptual perspective 34
The cognitive perspective 58
The emotional perspective 62
Key insights from the chapter 70
03 Embracing the strategic world - part 2 72
Introduction 72
The influencing and political perspective 72
The process perspective 83
The implementation perspective 100
Key insights from the chapter 104
04 Analysing strategy economically 106
Introduction 106
What the gurus say 107
Porter's five forces 125
Case study of Porter's five forces in the funerals industry 132
Key insights from the chapter - general 143
Key insights from the chapter - Porter's five forces in depth 144
05 Dynamic competitive positioning 146
Introduction 146
What the gurus say 146
Bikram yoga case study 159
Key insights from the chapter 173
06 Designing and evaluating options 175
Introduction 175
How to use the strategic option grid in more depth 180
The optopus 194
The cunning checklists 203
Key insights from the chapter 211
07 Implementation 214
Introduction 214
Fishbone analysis 218
Wishbone analysis 226
From-to (FT) analysis 227
How-how analysis 230
Attractiveness and implementation difficulty (AID) analysis 232
Force field analysis 237
Difficulty-over-time curves 241
Revisiting stakeholder analysis 242
Interrelating the tools 249
Key insights from the chapter 251
08 Managing the strategy process 253
Introduction 253
The plan for the plan 254
Asking the right questions 256
The strategy audit 258
Running strategy workshops 262
Collecting the data in cunning ways 267
Overview of the tools 268
Project managing the strategic breakthroughs 271
The business case 275
Doing a strategic position paper 276
Scenarios and uncertainty 278
Contingent strategy 286
Managing intangibles 289
Managing implementation 291
Key insights from the chapter 291
09 Bringing it all together 295
Introduction 295
Case study: Implementing the process at the Legal Complaints Service 295
Enhanced influencing 298
Managing your own cognitive processes and emotions 299
Tips for applying strategic thinking to the everyday 301
Summary of insights 304
Conclusion: a final story 312
References 313
Index 315
