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    Being Strategic: Plan for Success; Out-think Your Competitors; Stay Ahead of Change
    Being Strategic: Plan for Success; Out-think Your Competitors; Stay Ahead of Change
    Being Strategic: Plan for Success; Out-think Your Competitors; Stay Ahead of Change
    Ebook252 pages3 hours

    Being Strategic: Plan for Success; Out-think Your Competitors; Stay Ahead of Change

    By Erika Andersen

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    About this ebook

    STRATEGY? TACTICS? CONFUSED?

    How many times have you sat in a meeting and heard someone use the word "strategic?"

    As in: "We're not being very strategic about X." or "We need a strategic plan for project Y." And, if your organization is like most, everyone in the meeting nods wisely, the meeting drones on, people endlessly debate how to approach the situation at hand, with – generally – no one the wiser as to what "strategic" really means.

    Next time, respond: "Being strategic means consistently making those core directional choices that will best move us toward our hoped-for future. Is this what we're doing?"

    Everybody talks about strategy, but there is a big gap between discussing strategy, defining strategy and actually being strategic -- so you can accomplish something.

    This book helps you approach business—and life—strategically, explaining what strategy is, why it's important, and how to do it. Being Strategic offers you a step-by-step model and skills for strategic thought and action that are broadly applicable and thoroughly practical:

    • First, get clear about the problem you're trying to solve

    • Then, figure out where you're starting from

    • Now, imagine your "castle on the hill," the future you want to create.

    • Identify the "trolls under the bridge"; the obstacles in your path

    • Next, outline the path to the castle: your core strategies and the tactics for implementing them.

    • Re-evaluate your strategy and your tactics as conditions change

    Framed around the story of 13th-century Welsh nobles building an actual castle, and weaving in dozens of real-life examples from her practice, which has helped restaurateur Danny Meyer and many others, noted consultant Erika Andersen offers a complete course in turning around a business, or a life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMay 26, 2009
    ISBN9781429985574
    Being Strategic: Plan for Success; Out-think Your Competitors; Stay Ahead of Change
    Author

    Erika Andersen

    Erika Andersen is the founder of Proteus International, an organizational development firm whose clients include celebrity restaurateur Danny Meyer, MTV Networks, Rockwell Automation, Comcast Corp., General Electric, Time Inc., and NBC Universal. Andersen has been featured in leading business publications including Forbes, The New York Times, the National Post and Investor's Business Daily. Her first book, Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers was a finalist in both the 800CEOREAD Awards and the Axiom Awards for Best Business Book of 2007.

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    • 5/5
      First and foremost - this book is really impressive since it forces me to manage retrospective thinking all along the reading ... Often going back and exercice mentally in order to well surround lessons learned from the past and using them strategically as potential methaphor to bounce in business situations !Mediaval behaviors was therefore a kind of Ariadne's thread definitively ... A must read book for who wanted to foster long term strategic thinking and be more proactive to business semaphor !May, 11th - 2013

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