Strategy Bites Back

"This is a naughty book, a really cheeky little brat of a book which ought to be spanked soundly and sent to bed without any supper. Except that, if you did that, you would be missing out on a delightful, entertaining smorgasbord of advice, insights, red herrings, and jokes that together make up a classic text for business leaders." —Stefan Stern, Business Voice Everyone knows where a straight line goes... but a squiggly line can go anywhere. Computers generate straight lines. Life generates squiggly ones. That's why your predictable business strategies never turn out the way you expect. Too many strategy books see the world as if it were a straight line. Serious. Predictable. And deadly dull. This book knows something they don't. It knows you need to slay dragons and charm snakes in a business world that's awfully squiggly, but, also, endlessly fun and fascinating. So, this book takes you off the beaten path. Way off. Here, strategy finally does bite back, at all the boring books and professors you had to stomach to get here. It'll knock you off your chair and help open your mind...to get past the "straight line" thinking that can't be right. Dare to be creative, contrarian....heck, be bold and make your own personal strategy revolution: Strategy as a "little black dress" Bringing simplicity and elegance back into strategy formation A deep dive inside the strategist's head What you can know, what you can't know, and how to tell the difference Seduction, not just deduction Using strategy to treat employees like lovers, not servants Strategy with the gloves off—and the halo on Power, intrigue, punch, and serious jeopardy and much more... ...and much less Bring passion, imagination, creativity, and fun back to strategy—and surprise the folks at home! OK, strategy is crucial. We know that. Everyone knows that. But why must it be so deadly serious? So plodding, uncreative, boring? Dull strategy books promote dull strategists who create dull strategies that fail. Now there's an antidote: Strategy Bites Back. It's full of insight and daring, from Gary Hamel to Napoleon Bonaparte, Michael Porter to Hans Christian Andersen, all tied together by the triumvirate that is Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand, and Joe Lampel. Essays, poems, case studies, cartoons...whatever it takes to free your mind and unleash the crucial emotional side of strategy formation. This is the whole squiggly shebang: strategy and gamesmanship, black dresses, and seduction...strategy lessons from your mother, from beehives, chess grandmasters, even the National Zoo. Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, and Lampel take on every sacred cow and entrenched belief that keeps you from recognizing your most powerful options—and acting on them. Fun? Heck, yeah. But it'll help you define inspired strategies that offer huge upsides...and what could be more fun than that?