The Seven Inconvenient Truths of Business Strategy

Paul Hunter

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317016236
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Strategy
• Index: Business

The most damning charge frequently levelled at strategic planning is that of irrelevance. Paul Hunter's The Seven Inconvenient Truths of Business Strategy is an antidote to conventional methods of strategic management that are renowned for being sporadic, biased, poorly articulated and rarely implemented with total success. Drawing on a framework that encapsulates a collection of definitive principles, the author offers a structure to strategy, as a system, and in a format that is representative of a literal reinvention of strategic planning overall; an indicator and explanation of the strategic tools that you already know, but in a more comprehensive format. Paul also provides insights into the collaborative techniques for carrying out the process successfully: formation, evaluation, alignment and implementation. Other topics covered include governance, communication, leadership, learning, teamwork, transformation and the treatment of strategic risk; at the level of a profession. An extended case study, based on the story of Cadbury, the chocolate maker, is woven through the chapters to provide a vibrant illustration of the value and application of the various techniques and processes described. Organisations of all kinds have never needed strategic planning quite as much as they need it today in an environment of increasing complexity, uncertainty and continual change. The Seven Inconvenient Truths of Business Strategy will help you ensure that your strategic process is always effective, visible, professional, relevant and timely.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• About the Author
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: From Corporate Planners to Professional Strategy Practitioners
• 1 Relevance Lost: Strategic Planning and a Lack of Certainty – a Loss of Value
• 2 Relevance Regained; Reinventing Strategic Planning: A Programme of Continual Strategy Renewal
• 3 Strategy and a New Perspective on ‘Fit’: Directing Desire, Accommodating Fate, and a Catalyst for Transformation and Renewal
• 4 Strategy in Teams: Empowering Teams as Business Leaders and Enablers of Continual Renewal
• 5 Obtaining the Results You Deserve: Strategy Implementation in a Learning Organisation
• 6 Sharing the Vision: Creating a Natural Law of Attraction
• 7 Strategy as a Profession: Practitioners Working Together, Getting Results
• Appendix 1: The Evolution of Strategy Theory
• Appendix 2: Fully Integrated Strategic Management Framework
• Bibliography
• Index