Keep your strategies real

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Now, the title alone ‘Solving The Strategy Delusion’ will give you a pretty good idea of what this book is about. You could take a stab that it focuses on how business people can sometimes be deluded by ‘strategies’ (a term thrown around an awful lot these days) that will ultimately lead to their demise. And you would be right.

I also have to say that it is refreshing to have a real, straight-talking book that does what it says on the tin. Marc Stigter and Cary Cooper have written an insightful and interesting perspective on what does work, and how things should work when it comes to strategic change. Therefore it challenges the usual approaches to traditional strategies and refreshingly pressure-tests the status quo in this continuously changing, complex world, where short-term focus distorts the longer-term future.

A pleasant surprise was the lack of the all-too-common ‘buzzwords’ found littering so many publications in this genre. While other authors have fallen into the trap of wanting to deliver a snappy soundbite more than they actually want to say something meaningful, Messrs Stigter and Cooper have a clear and concise style with which to present their case fully without labouring any points unnecessarily.

Without claiming to have all the answers, ‘Solving The Strategy Delusion’ looks at how people react to change and provides practical insights that will enable the reader to experience paradigm shifts that will help realise tactics for sustainable success. ‘Corporate speak’ aside, this inspirational book is ideal for energetic business leaders who are both thinkers and doers, who want to make a significant difference and most importantly, make things happen. This is not just pie-in-the-sky rhetoric, the authors continually provide us with practical guidance on how to implement the changes they advocate – some of which I have already put in place.

This book also offers different ways of visualising, thinking, planning, and acting when it comes to realising ideas. By examining how leaders are trapped within embedded beliefs, it will help you to create distinctive strategies with customers, and engage your workforce and other stakeholders, in order to survive.

It feels as though the major aim of ‘Solving The Strategy Delusion’ is to motivate business leaders out of the inertia we can all fall into when we are focusing on the day-to-day grind, rather than the bigger picture.And once you have read it, I think you will probably agree.

I would recommend keeping this book close by for constant reference.

Published by Palgrave Macmillan

Lee Travis is chief executive of the New Model Business Academy