Copyright
Copyright 2010 Harvard Business Review Press All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be directed to
[email protected] or mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business School Publishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163. The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries and Archives Z39.48-1992. First eBook Edition: October 2010 ISBN: 978-1-4221-5763-3
Jay B. Barney: This book is dedicated to my wife, Kim; our children, Lindsay, Kristian, and Erin; their spouses, Ryan, Amy, and Dave; and most of all, to our eight grandchildren, Isaac, Dylanie, Audrey, Chloe, Lucas, Lincoln, Royal, and Nolan. They help me remember that no success can compensate for failure in the home.
Trish Gorman Clifford: I dedicate this book to the Hanrahans and the Gormans: Catherine, Marie, and Austin Hanrahan, who taught me to cope, to appreciate books, to respect history, and to pursue excellence; Robert, Judy, and Peggy Gorman, who taught me that by combining intensity, intelligence, imagination, and integrity, all things are possible. Whatever I didn’t learn from them is entirely my own fault.
CONTENTS
Copyright Preface: A Novel Approach Acknowledgments A Character List Prologue: A Little Turbulence 1: A Simple Problem 2: A New Shirt 3: A Moving Target 4: A Working Lunch 5: A Valuable Chain 6: A Thoughtful Workout 7: A Sweeping Vision 8: A Lone Ranger 9: A Team Effort 10: A Fitting Test 11: A Good Call
12: A Constructive Meeting 13: A Seamless Argument 14: A Tailored Presentation Epilogue: A Staffing Question A Reading List About the Authors
PREFACE: A NOVEL APPROACH
You are about to read a business novel—a story about a recent MBA graduate engaged in helping a large global firm make an important strategic decision. As he struggles to contribute to the strategy development process, our hero, Justin Campbell, discovers the limits of what he did learn in business school, realizes what he could have learned in school but didn’t, and —most importantly—unearths some valuable truths about himself. This book is for: • High-potential managers charged with developing and implementing strategies under challenging circumstances • Current business students eager to apply and integrate lessons about what firms can and should do to compete successfully • Readers interested in how strategic decisions are—and could be— made inside real firms But why a business novel? First, we believe that developing and executing strategies effectively requires the application of sophisticated analytical tools. Some of these tools are described and applied in this book. To be effective, these tools must be sensitive to the firm’s unique organizational context. The best way to describe the complex and sometimes messy interaction between the analytical and the organizational in the real world is—ironically—through fiction. Second, strategic decisions go hand in hand with change—change for the firm choosing a new strategy, change for those charged with executing that
strategy, even change for those facilitating this process. For this reason, the successful application of rigorous strategic and organizational analysis to determine a fir