Question

In the past two weeks you have read the following from the book, Playing to Win: The introduction, Chapter 1 about choice, chapter 2 about aspirations, and chapter 3 about where to play. Provide a summary of these readings and concisely describe what the authors are trying to sell (what is their message - what is their perspective). Reflect on the readings and critique (i.e. share some insight). Do you agree or disagree with their perspective? Do you believe their model and approach is valuable (and why?)

Answer 1

solution...

Playing to Win is a book on strategy and example of its implementation at P&G. Many real life examples have been explained to illustrate the presence and effect of strategy in different business activities.

There are basically 5 choices over which strategy can be formulated:

• A winning aspiration

• When to play

• How to play

• Core capabilities

• Management Systems

A winning aspiration: Aspirations guide a business process to attain a future state. Various benchmarks or accomplishments are set along the way of attaining these aspirations. Attaining a benchmark each is considered as a victory of the business strategy. Aspirations do change with time and become more refined and improved. The business strategy must be molded in a way to attain such aspirations.

Where to play: This basically illustrates the choices, which the company can make to establish its competitive edge in the market. Strategy helps in attaining this competitive edge over competitors. Based on the available resources and the critical skill sets, a company can decide that progressing in which domain will make it successful. There are 3 pitfalls, which a company must avoid, to make its business strategy successful:

• Do not attempt to cover all aspects at a time, go one by one

• The company must strive to come out of any undesired choice, taken in the past, which is meaninglessly wasting its resources

• Accept a current available choice as a constant and unchangeable

The author has correctly devised the methodology in which a business strategy must be crafted. In my views, it is essential for a business to identify the domains where it has a probability of being successful. The company must invest in that domain on priority. Indulging in making a presence in all domains and being successful in none is a clear failure of business strategy.

The steps laid out in this book, can be quite effective as there is a structural progression in the approach adopted in this book. Strategy is a set of clever tactics and through the approach guided in this book, a company can formulate and adopt a winning strategy.