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January 2011—Ten timeless tests can help you kick the tires on your strategy, and kick up the level of strategic dialogue throughout your company.more
March 2012—Most companies allocate the same resources to the same business units year after year. That makes it difficult to realize strategic goals and undermines performance. Here’s how to overcome inertia.more
June 2011—Bad strategy abounds, says UCLA management professor Richard Rumelt. Senior executives who can spot it stand a much better chance of creating good strategies.more
July 2012—Regular strategic dialogue involving a broad group of senior executives can help companies adapt to the unexpected. Here’s one company’s story, and some principles for everyone.more
August 2007—It can be a frustrating exercise, but there are ways to increase its value.more
June 2002—Many companies get little value from their annual strategic-planning process. It should be redesigned to support real-time strategy making and to encourage ’creative accidents.’more
June 2002—Uncertainty and rising levels of risk make it impossible for companies to determine the future. But a portfolio-of-initiatives approach to strategy can help ensure that companies take full advantage of their best opportunities without taking unnecessary risks.more
June 2000—The traditional approach to strategy requires precise predictions and thus often leads executives to underestimate uncertainty. This can be downright dangerous. A four-level framework can help.more
March 2010—Left unchecked, subconscious biases will undermine strategic decision making. Here’s how to counter them and improve corporate performance.more
March 2010—Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and psychologist Gary Klein debate the power and perils of intuition for senior executives.more
May 2006—Psychological biases can make it difficult to get out of an ailing business.more
February 2006—Companies are vulnerable to misconceptions, biases, and plain old lies. But not hopelessly vulnerable.more
November 2005—How to avoid the cognitive biases that undermine market entry decisions. more
May 2003—Can insights from behavioral economics explain why good executives back bad strategies?more
July 2012—A Harvard Business School professor reflects on what she has learned from senior executives about the unique value that strategic leaders can bring to their companies.more
—You don’t need a formal strategy role to help shape your organization’s strategic direction. Start by moving beyond frameworks and communicating in a more engaging way.more
August 2011—Shake up your thinking by looking at the world from the perspective of a particular country, industry, or company. “Rooted” maps can help you unearth hidden opportunities and threats.more
February 2005—Even the best strategy can fail if a corporation doesn’t have a cadre of leaders with the right capabilities at the right levels of the organization.more
Winston Churchill once noted, “However beautiful the strategy, you should look occasionally at the results.” Consider how the art of formulating and executing strategy has evolved along with our rapidly changing world.