Playing to win : how strategy really works

Businesses frequently lack a strategy when they struggle to succeed in the marketplace. Winning is the
goal of strategy, and playing well requires making informed decisions about where to play.

A.G. Lafley, CEO of Procter & Gamble, and Roger Martin outlined what strategy is for (winning) and what
it's about in their book Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works (choice). They outlined how big and
small firms alike might orient daily operations around more overarching strategic objectives—to win
rather than just play.

Martin presents important takeaways from Playing to Win and the new Playing to Win Strategy Toolkit,
which aids executives in putting the Playing to Win framework into practice inside their organizations, in
this Harvard Business Review webinar. He offers instances from the business sector of organizations that
have created and implemented successful strategies. Aside from that, he describes how anyone in
business may succeed by using the proper strategy for thinking deeply.

Although not obvious, Chapter 7, "Think Through Strategy," offers a framework to combine industry
sectors, customer value, and competition analysis with the five essential strategic issues. Choosing
where to play and how to win decisions are most directly related to these dimensions.

The final human component for creating a company or innovation strategy is introduced in Chapter 8.
The main lesson from "Playing to Win" is perhaps best embodied in this chapter, which urges leaders to
approach strategic problems differently. The authors advise figuring out strategies to make the strategy
notion effective rather than writing down a hypothesis then collapsing it with undesirable probable
consequences. In reality, P&G proved successful by letting the largest skeptic plan and carry out tests
against the chosen strategy.

Lack of planning "will kill you," say Lafley and Martin (pg. 211). The excellent book "Playing to Win" may
assist an NPD leader focus on consumers first while enhancing the organization's advantages. The
majority of the examples and case studies in the text are centered on consumer packaged products,
which is a fairly minor flaw given Lafely's time as CEO of P&G. The winning ambitions strategy structure
may, however, be easily extended to a business-to-business model.

"Playing to Win" is an excellent resource for addressing crucial elements of a fruitful commercial
endeavor for anyone having trouble with innovation or brand strategy.