Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works Hardcover – Illustrated, 5 Feb. 2013

Every once in a long while you come across a thinker who has such a magnificent command of the facts, wide ranging intellectual creativity, but most of all clarity of expression that you simply think –‘of course – that’s amazing - why didn’t I think of that!’. Roger Martin is one of those thinkers who can review the world of business and strategy with intellectual rigor and convey it in such a clear, convincing way you remember his key arguments years later.In Playing To Win, Roger Martin teams up with A.G. Lafley to explain the process of creating strategic decisions told through the story of the strategic decision making at P&G while A.G.Lafley was CEO and Roger Martin was his chief outside strategic advisor. At a time when many executives would synonymise strategy with financial planning, or creation of yearly goals, Lafley and Martin remind us that strategy boils down to two questions: ‘where to play?’ and ‘how to win?’ and then making specific choices. In Martin and Lafley’s words:“A strategy is a coordinated and integrated set of where-to-play, how-to-win, core capability, and management system choices that uniquely meet a customer’s needs…it is only through making and acting on choices that you can win. Yes, clear, tough choices force your hand and confine you to a path. But they also free you to focus on what matters.”In the penultimate chapter, Martin and Lafley describe in detail their techniques to think through strategic issues in a way that leads to real decisions, not rafts of analyst reports and is the only method Martin now uses. I won’t spoil what is perhaps the most valuable part of the book, but suffice to say that once I started this chapter I could not put down the book and despite a long week, read late into the night.Playing to Win: How strategy really works is nothing short of brilliant, and if you are a strategist, or just a manager trying to figure out how to grow or turn around your business you should have a dog-eared copy on your bookshelf next to Michael Porter’s Competitive Strategy.

Very good book which envigorates one's perspective on business strategy. Competent. The only aspect I didn't like was the impression or feeling, that, the aouthors would elaborate on issues to a certain degree and then stop short, as if something was intended to be withheld; as though they were careful not to give too much away. The book boils down to implying the necessity for greater strategy orientated choice and decision making as this seems to be a marked omission afflicting managers and the businesses they run today. Would I recommend it? Yes.

'Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works' is a compelling read. The insights into strategic thinking are invaluable. The authors provide practical, real-world examples that make complex concepts accessible. A must-read for anyone keen on mastering the art of strategy. Engaging, enlightening, and genuinely thought-provoking

Always wanted to get into strategy and as a technologiest knowing what you business needs are critical. This book explains how these choices are potentially made and given me a frame to create a strategy of systems and services that can truly benefit my customers which is the organisation as well as the consumers

I loved this book as it makes a few points about strategy very well. Clearly, the authors have significant experience and insight as to where brands need to play and how to win when they get there. These insights, in my opinion, are relevant to all managers wanting to alter and simplify their strategy culture. The authors experience with Proctor & Gamble is used to validate the usefulness of their simple process.Having worked for Unilever myself (way, way back in the day) it was endearing to be reminded by this book how brands, when treated as a real persona and taken seriously, are able to deliver huge rewards. Anecdotes aplenty about Tide, Olay, Febreze, etc., are used to explain their framework of: Where to play? How to win; What capabilities are needed and what management systems are required.The book has its limitations obviously, yet it's clearly and concisely written. It makes many valuable points simply and unobtrusively. Since its practical for most and treats strategy with respect - I loved it.

This book does not bother with the potential frivolity the subject of strategy often draws out of academics. The partnership between one of the best CEOs of the past decade and a leading academic is a refreshing and informative one - with endless practical examples underpinning the theoretical framework. Recommended.

I thank the distinguished authors for making their unique knowledge available to us. It is a rare treasure because it brings together the essential foundations and drivers of winning strategies in the form of a simple but universal framework and a small set of practical methodologies and tools. Its is written in a way that makes it easy to understand with relevant examples from the real world.Personally, it gave me a complete confidence in making and assessing strategy and a reliable methodology to collaborate with a broad range of stakeholders to generate strategic options, test them and deploy them with the least possible waste and greatest chance to be rewarded with winning.- Samir Touat

ok as a book but tended to focus mainly on two or three case studies. The general principles and diagrams were great. You could get away with just reading the summary at the end of each chapter and looking for the diagrams. Still I learnt a lot but book could have been written better