The Essential Advantage
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £4.35
Trade in The Essential Advantage: How to Win with a Capabilities-Driven Strategy for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £4.35, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Plus, get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
Named by "strategy+business" magazine as one of the Best Business Books of 2011.
"Few companies achieve a capabilities-driven "right to win" in their markets. This book will help your firm be among them." - "Consulting Magazine"
"Few companies achieve a capabilities-driven "right to win" in their markets. This book will help your firm be among them." - "Consulting Magazine"
Product Description
Conventional wisdom on strategy is no longer a reliable guide. In Essential Advantage, Booz & Company's Cesare Mainardi and Paul Leinwand maintain that success in any market accrues to firms with coherence: a tight match between their strategic direction and the capabilities that make them unique.
Achieving this clarity takes a sharpness of focus that only exceptional companies have mastered. This book helps you identify your firm's blend of strategic direction and distinctive capabilities that give it the "right to win" in its chosen markets. Based on extensive research and filled with company examples including Amazon.com, Johnson & Johnson, Tata Sons, and Procter & Gamble Essential Advantage helps you construct a coherent company in which the pieces reinforce each other instead of working at cross-purposes.
The authors reveal:
- Why you should focus on a system of a few aligned capabilities
- How to identify the "way to play" in your market
- How to design a strategy for well-modulated growth
- How to align a portfolio of businesses behind your capability system
- How your strategy clarifies growth, costs, and people decisions
Few companies achieve a capability driven "right to win" in their market. This book helps you position your firm to be among them.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
According to Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi in the first chapter, to achieve and then sustain a competitive advantage, a company "must be resolutely focused and clear-minded about three critical elements: its market position (it's chosen `way to play,' if you will); its most distinctive capabilities, which work together as a system; and its product and service portfolio. In a coherent company, the right lineup of products and services naturally results from conscious choices about the capabilities needed for a deliberate way to play." There are no head-snapping revelations in this book, nor do Leinwand and Mainardi make any such claim. Their purpose is clearly stated: to help their reader to take deliberate steps --- "to reconsider your current strategy, overcome the conventional separation between your outward-facing and inward-facing activities, and bring your organization into focus." After briefly identifying the "what," they devote most of their attention to the "how" and "why" of formulating and then executing a capabilities-driven strategy.
For example, in Parts I and II, they explain:
o The essence of competitive advantage
o How to achieve it
o How to sustain it
o The three elements of coherence
o How to develop each
o How to coordinate all three
o What the "coherence premium" and why it is so valuable
o The right "way to play" (i.e. compete)
o The structure of the capabilities system
o The elements of a capabilities-driven strategy
o How to achieve and sustain a product and service fit
They continue the same approach throughout the remainder of their lively and eloquent narrative. In Part III, they explain how to create value; in Part IV, they explain how to "live coherence every day." As noted earlier, Leinwand and Mainardi establish and then maintain a direct, personal rapport with their reader. They cite dozens of real-world examples of capabilities-driven companies that include Coca-Cola, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Apple, P&G, Herman Miller, Nordstrom, IBM, and Whole Foods. I was especially interested in what they have to say about the leadership qualities are required.
The word "coherent" is one word that comes to mind when CEOs such as A.G. Lafley (P&G) are mentioned: "They have learned to generate excitement and inspiration in a world of ruthless choice...When they go, they leave behind a company that is stronger, more capable, and more coherent than it was before; a company with a solid way to play and a capabilities system that enables people to grow; a company that is primed to create value, wealth, and quality of life for decades to come. In business, this is the most powerful legacy."
As Leinwand and Mainardi would be the first to point out, it would be a fool's errand to attempt to adopt or even adapt all of the information, insights, and recommendations they provide in this book. However, I am convinced and do not hesitate to suggest that the leaders of almost any organization (whatever its size and nature may be) can use their system framework to select a set of integrated capabilities that are most appropriate for their organization, one that will enable it to create value in the path it has chosen. Leinwand and Mainardi cannot make those decisions for them. However, they - and do, in this book - offer guidance to assist that decision-making process.
One final point I presume to add: Capabilities improvement is a never-ending journey, not an ultimate destination. An increase of capabilities must be accompanied by an improvement of the talents, skills, and resources needed to apply those capabilities. The most effective strategies are results-driven as well as capabilities-driven. If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the road to failure in business is paved with "nice tries." I agree with the Jedi Master, Yoda: "Do or do not. There is no try."
For example, in Parts I and II, they explain:
o The essence of competitive advantage
o How to achieve it
o How to sustain it
o The three elements of coherence
o How to develop each
o How to coordinate all three
o What the "coherence premium" and why it is so valuable
o The right "way to play" (i.e. compete)
o The structure of the capabilities system
o The elements of a capabilities-driven strategy
o How to achieve and sustain a product and service fit
They continue the same approach throughout the remainder of their lively and eloquent narrative. In Part III, they explain how to create value; in Part IV, they explain how to "live coherence every day." As noted earlier, Leinwand and Mainardi establish and then maintain a direct, personal rapport with their reader. They cite dozens of real-world examples of capabilities-driven companies that include Coca-Cola, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Apple, P&G, Herman Miller, Nordstrom, IBM, and Whole Foods. I was especially interested in what they have to say about the leadership qualities are required.
The word "coherent" is one word that comes to mind when CEOs such as A.G. Lafley (P&G) are mentioned: "They have learned to generate excitement and inspiration in a world of ruthless choice...When they go, they leave behind a company that is stronger, more capable, and more coherent than it was before; a company with a solid way to play and a capabilities system that enables people to grow; a company that is primed to create value, wealth, and quality of life for decades to come. In business, this is the most powerful legacy."
As Leinwand and Mainardi would be the first to point out, it would be a fool's errand to attempt to adopt or even adapt all of the information, insights, and recommendations they provide in this book. However, I am convinced and do not hesitate to suggest that the leaders of almost any organization (whatever its size and nature may be) can use their system framework to select a set of integrated capabilities that are most appropriate for their organization, one that will enable it to create value in the path it has chosen. Leinwand and Mainardi cannot make those decisions for them. However, they - and do, in this book - offer guidance to assist that decision-making process.
One final point I presume to add: Capabilities improvement is a never-ending journey, not an ultimate destination. An increase of capabilities must be accompanied by an improvement of the talents, skills, and resources needed to apply those capabilities. The most effective strategies are results-driven as well as capabilities-driven. If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the road to failure in business is paved with "nice tries." I agree with the Jedi Master, Yoda: "Do or do not. There is no try."
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A great read, and really insightful when it comes to building a capabilities-driven coherent strategy. Interestingly, I found this as useful for planning your personal strategy as for looking into corporate strategy. Advice given here rings true and adds insight. The only weak section is the one on transitioning from an incoherent business into a coherent one - the journey of change is mostly a lot more painful than described here. In my view, a lot more change projects fail than advertised, and I'm sure that this would be applicable to the journey into more coherence. I would have wanted a lot more detailed account of failures in implementing the capabilities-driven strategy and how to avoid them. Nevertheless, it's well worth reading this!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
How to have a coherent capabilities-driven strategy
9 Dec 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A "coherent company" is one that is resolutely focused about its "way to play", its most distinctive capabilities, and its product and service portfolio, according to this book by Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi. When all three of these elements are in sync with each other and with the right external markets, the company can claim the "right to win" in the contests that matter over time.
Most companies are not fully coherent because they do not have a clearly defined capabilities-driven strategy. In response to market demands and opportunities, they start offering products and services which are not a good fit with their core capabilities, and this leads to incoherence and ultimately to reduced profitability.
The authors propose a process for an organization to make strategic choices. First, discover the available choices through market investigations; next, assess each "way to play" or market positioning option, and what capabilities are required for each to succeed; then, choose a direction, a single way to play and a capabilities system as the basis of the ongoing strategy; then, set out to transform the organization by building and deploying the necessary capabilities and divesting the unnecessary ones; and finally, evolve into an organization that can stay coherent over time.
The Boston Consulting Group Matrix divides a company's businesses into stars, cows, dogs and question marks, depending on market share and market growth. However, many companies have not found the BCG recommendations (milk the cows to fund the stars while divesting the dogs) to be entirely realistic. This book proposes that alignment with organizational capabilities is more important than relative market share or even market growth, so that it may sometimes be more profitable to keep dogs and divest stars. Many companies flourish in static markets while many others flounder in growing markets.
The book is well written and easy to read and understand. I found the authors' ideas quite compelling. I expect that most companies will ignore their advice, but those that do follow the advice may well gain a substantial strategic advantage.
Most companies are not fully coherent because they do not have a clearly defined capabilities-driven strategy. In response to market demands and opportunities, they start offering products and services which are not a good fit with their core capabilities, and this leads to incoherence and ultimately to reduced profitability.
The authors propose a process for an organization to make strategic choices. First, discover the available choices through market investigations; next, assess each "way to play" or market positioning option, and what capabilities are required for each to succeed; then, choose a direction, a single way to play and a capabilities system as the basis of the ongoing strategy; then, set out to transform the organization by building and deploying the necessary capabilities and divesting the unnecessary ones; and finally, evolve into an organization that can stay coherent over time.
The Boston Consulting Group Matrix divides a company's businesses into stars, cows, dogs and question marks, depending on market share and market growth. However, many companies have not found the BCG recommendations (milk the cows to fund the stars while divesting the dogs) to be entirely realistic. This book proposes that alignment with organizational capabilities is more important than relative market share or even market growth, so that it may sometimes be more profitable to keep dogs and divest stars. Many companies flourish in static markets while many others flounder in growing markets.
The book is well written and easy to read and understand. I found the authors' ideas quite compelling. I expect that most companies will ignore their advice, but those that do follow the advice may well gain a substantial strategic advantage.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
How to achieve coherence
21 Feb 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
In this thought provoking book, Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi argue that the essential advantage in business is coherence, all other forms of advantage that a business can enjoy are transitory, and provide their prescription for how a business can become strategically coherent.
In order for a business to become strategically coherent three factors need to come together, according to Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi.
1. A business must have a clear way to play i.e. a considered approach for creating and capturing value in a particular market, in a way that differentiates it.
2. A business must have three to six mutually reinforcing capabilities i.e. a capability is the ability to reliably deliver a specified outcome that is relevant to the business.
3. A businesses products and service must fit its capabilities and way to play.
In essence, a strategically coherent business identifies its underlying value creation mechanism (i.e. what it does best) and the opportunities to meet the market effectively, and makes a choice that fits them both together into a coherent strategic position.
Companies that are strategically coherent reap a coherence premium in four specific, observable, ways.
1. Effectiveness: a renewed emphasis on, and continuous improvement of, their most relevant capabilities.
2. Efficiency: they obtain more value from their products and services, as they apply their capabilities across their products and services.
3. Focused investment: more efficient use of the businesses resources, attention and time i.e. the business spends more of its effort where it is needed the most.
4. Alignment: the business commits to a strategy and articulates it clearly. This provides everyone in the business with a common basis for the day-to-day decisions that they make.
Companies that are strategically incoherent reap a penalty, in the form of poorly used and wasted resources.
I am doubtfully about the authors' argument that coherence results in an permanent advantage. The authors appear to unwittingly contradict themselves, by providing examples in the book of where changes in the environment and/or competitors actions have resulted in a business having to change its way to play and its supporting capabilities. I suspect the authors would argue that coherence doesn't mean a business adopts a single strategy forever. It means a business continually refines and amends it strategy to remain coherent. My retort is that this is argument is a fallacy, because they are equivocating about what they mean by permanent advantage. This flaw does not, however, undermine the essence of the book, which is that a business that is strategically coherent business has a significant advantage over it competitors.
From my perspective (a policy analyst in the Strategy Directorate of New Zealand's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry) I am interested in how applicable this theory is to New Zealand's biosecurity system, food safety system and its agriculture policy. Because the theory is targeted at business, it is directly relevant to New Zealand's processing companies e.g. Fonterra, the meat companies. I can also see that much of it could be applied to the different sectors in New Zealand's primary industries. Consequently, it provides my directorate with another method to analyse the performance of processing companies and the different sectors in New Zealand's primary industries. Finally, many of the concepts are relevant to MAF as an organisation. Consequently, I recommend this book.
In order for a business to become strategically coherent three factors need to come together, according to Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi.
1. A business must have a clear way to play i.e. a considered approach for creating and capturing value in a particular market, in a way that differentiates it.
2. A business must have three to six mutually reinforcing capabilities i.e. a capability is the ability to reliably deliver a specified outcome that is relevant to the business.
3. A businesses products and service must fit its capabilities and way to play.
In essence, a strategically coherent business identifies its underlying value creation mechanism (i.e. what it does best) and the opportunities to meet the market effectively, and makes a choice that fits them both together into a coherent strategic position.
Companies that are strategically coherent reap a coherence premium in four specific, observable, ways.
1. Effectiveness: a renewed emphasis on, and continuous improvement of, their most relevant capabilities.
2. Efficiency: they obtain more value from their products and services, as they apply their capabilities across their products and services.
3. Focused investment: more efficient use of the businesses resources, attention and time i.e. the business spends more of its effort where it is needed the most.
4. Alignment: the business commits to a strategy and articulates it clearly. This provides everyone in the business with a common basis for the day-to-day decisions that they make.
Companies that are strategically incoherent reap a penalty, in the form of poorly used and wasted resources.
I am doubtfully about the authors' argument that coherence results in an permanent advantage. The authors appear to unwittingly contradict themselves, by providing examples in the book of where changes in the environment and/or competitors actions have resulted in a business having to change its way to play and its supporting capabilities. I suspect the authors would argue that coherence doesn't mean a business adopts a single strategy forever. It means a business continually refines and amends it strategy to remain coherent. My retort is that this is argument is a fallacy, because they are equivocating about what they mean by permanent advantage. This flaw does not, however, undermine the essence of the book, which is that a business that is strategically coherent business has a significant advantage over it competitors.
From my perspective (a policy analyst in the Strategy Directorate of New Zealand's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry) I am interested in how applicable this theory is to New Zealand's biosecurity system, food safety system and its agriculture policy. Because the theory is targeted at business, it is directly relevant to New Zealand's processing companies e.g. Fonterra, the meat companies. I can also see that much of it could be applied to the different sectors in New Zealand's primary industries. Consequently, it provides my directorate with another method to analyse the performance of processing companies and the different sectors in New Zealand's primary industries. Finally, many of the concepts are relevant to MAF as an organisation. Consequently, I recommend this book.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Perfect timing for an outstanding book
17 Nov 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
"Essential Advantage" follows the book "Cut Costs - Grow Stronger" but really expands the scope to demonstrate how identifying, honing and applying your business capabilities not only is the right way to cut costs, but also the best way to approach growth strategies and M&A. This book has been revelatory to my business, because it identifies that the steps I am now taking to reduce costs and restructuring the key business streams can later be expanded while contemplating growth opportunities. Theoretically, the book does have some parallels to "Competition Demystified" by Greenwald, but given the author's deep business experience, it is a more actionable and broader study of business strategy. I read the Kindle edition of the book and am excited to put these thoughts to work.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
