In the world of digital business, the line between strategy and tactics is blurring. Traditionally large companies would adopt strategic frameworks which planned over three- to five-year timescales, while most digital start-ups had little interest in comprehensive and rigorous strategic processes and simply set themselves vision and worked out how to get there along the way.In today's digital economy even large companies are finding that their planning horizons are being measured i...

Competitive advantage. The value chain. Five forces. Industry structure. Differentiation. Relative cost. If you want to understand how companies achieve and sustain competitive success, Michael Porter’s frameworks are the foundation. But while everyone in business may know Porter’s name, many managers misunderstand and misuse his concepts.Understanding Michael Porter sets the record straight, providing the first concise, accessible summary of Porter’s revolutionar...

Stop pushing products—and start cultivating relationships with the right customers.If you read nothing else on marketing that delivers competitive advantage, read these 10 articles. We’ve combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you reinvent your marketing by putting it—and your customers—at the center of your business.Leading experts such as Ted Levitt and Clayt...

An argument for simplicity from the bestselling authors of Profit from the CoreIs radical reinvention the key to winning in today’s fast-paced world? Not judging by the results of some of the world’s best-performing companies.In Repeatability, Chris Zook and James Allen-leaders of Bain & Company’s influential Strategy practice-warn that complexity is a silent killer of profitable growth. Successful companies endure by maintaining simplicit...

All the business wisdom in the world doesn’t matter if it doesn’t produce results. Whether your business is humming along fine or struggling to stay afloat, your company has more potential than the results show.Brian Tracy has worked with more than 500 companies throughout the US, Canada, and 22 other countries. He has helped hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to achieve spectacular results, and now he is helping businesses reach new levels of success in thi...

Find and fix your weakest links.If you need the best practices and ideas for making your supply chain strong and agile--but don't have time to find them--this book is for you. Here are 10 inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place.This collection of HBR articles will help you:- Use your supply chain as a competitive weapon- Gain customers' trust by revealing where yourproducts come from- Collaborate with other companies--even rivals-...

Change management just got easierIf an organization does not change in response to the environment in which it is operating, it will ultimately fail. Just as people have to change and adapt according to their circumstances, so do organizations. No one can deny that managing change is a difficult and sometimes painful task. It is complex and can be emotionally draining, involving a range of skills from project planning through to influencing those likely to be affect...

How to close the gap between strategy and executionTwo-thirds of executives say their organizations don’t have the capabilities to support their strategy. In Strategy That Works, Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi explain why. They identify conventional business practices that unintentionally create a gap between strategy and execution. And they show how some of the best companies in the world consistently leap ahead of their competitors. Based on new resea...

Sales professionals now confront the most serious threat to their success. Regardless of their size, industry, country, customer type, nature of the relationship or amount of value they provide, sales professionals are finding that purchasing decisions are increasingly being limited by procurement. The modern procurement function is purchasing on steroids. Where traditional purchasing managers negotiated, procurement officials attempt to dictate.  Procurement deploys a variety of tactics desi...

Dithering. Decisions that turn out wrong. Decisions that people sabotage or don't know how to implement. If your company's experiencing these problems, it's not alone. Most organizations don't know how to make and execute good decisions. And they're paying a high price-as profitability and competitiveness erode.It doesn't have to be this way. In Decide and Deliver, the authors draw on Bain & Company's extensive research to present a five-step process for improving your fir...

What is the responsibility of not-for-profit boards for their organizations strategy…and what should it be?The monograph 20 Essential Questions Directors of Not-for-profit Organizations Should Ask About Strategy is a concise, easy-to-read discussion on the role that directors play in performing one of their most important functions helping to set the strategic direction of the organization. The monograph offers an indispensable action plan for directors who wish to constructively engage thei...

For new managers, the first experience can be overwhelming. For the employees of that new manager, the experience can be horrible, uninspiring, and demoralizing. Too often a new manager, just like a new teacher, is placed in the position with little support, guidance, or advice.HELP ME I'M LOST offers practical advice using the author's actual experience in helping to guide the new manager. Learning from the mistakes of someone else can make that first assignment easier, more enjoya...