Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works. By A.G. Lafley and Roger Martin
Many are brought down by making a strategic error, of which there are six
common varieties. There is the Do-It-All strategy, shorthand for failing to make
real choices about priorities. The Don Quixote strategy unwisely attacks the
company’s strongest competitor first. The Waterloo strategy pursues war on too
many fronts at once. The Something-For-Everyone tries to capture every sort of
customer at once, rather than prioritising. The Programme-Of-The-Month eschews
distinctiveness for whatever strategy is currently fashionable in an industry.
The Dreams-That-Never-Come-True strategy never translates ambitious mission
statements into clear choices about which markets to compete in and how to win
in them.
