Reinventing Strategy: Using Strategic Learning to Create and Sustain Breakthrough Performance [Hardcover]

Willie Pietersen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471061905 | ISBN-13: 978-0471061908 | Publication Date: April 12, 2002 | Edition: 1st

At last-a proven system for developing the strategic innovations every company needs to compete and win
As everyone knows, today's unprecedented rate of business change demands new levels of strategic insight and adaptability. Reinventing Strategy is the first practical, systematic guide to creating an adaptive enterprise, showing how companies around the world are using the Strategic Learning approach to consistently out think, out maneuver, and out perform their competition. As Willie Pietersen explains, companies that aspire to long-term success must develop and implement strategy as part of a continuous four-step cycle-Learn, Focus, Align, Execute-and he offers dozens of provocative anecdotes and case studies, illustrating how to implement it at every level of an organization. Written with unusual clarity, frankness, and wit, Reinventing Strategy will change the way managers everywhere approach their greatest and most important challenge: the need to make strategy into a tool for ongoing corporate renewal.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"With today's uncertainties, a sound strategy is not enough for business success. Effective, dynamic leadership is more important than ever in piloting an organization through a constantly shifting environment. In this timely book, Willie Pietersen reveals the profound connections between strategy and leadership, and offers a proven method for strengthening both." --Jim Copeland, Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte & Touche LLP, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

"Relatively few people have the knack for creating business strategies that are truly new and effective. What makes these people special can't be bottled-but in Reinventing Strategy, Willie Pietersen comes close. His Strategic Learning method does more to systemize the process of smart strategy creation than any other approach I've seen." --Faith Popcorn, Author, The Popcorn Report

"Take the business savvy of a former CEO, mix in the leading-edge insights of a faculty member at a top business school, garnish generously with crystal-clear writing, and what do you have? Willie Pietersen's Reinventing Strategy--a must for executives in these turbulent times." --Donald C. Hambrick, Samuel Bronfman Professor of Democratic Business Enterprise, Columbia University, Graduate School of Business

From the Publisher

"With today's uncertainties, a sound strategy is not enough for business success. Effective, dynamic leadership is more important than ever in piloting an organization through a constantly shifting environment. In this timely book, Willie Pietersen reveals the profound connections between strategy and leadership, and offers a proven method for strengthening both." --Jim Copeland, Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte & Touche LLP, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

"Relatively few people have the knack for creating business strategies that are truly new and effective. What makes these people special can't be bottled-but in Reinventing Strategy, Willie Pietersen comes close. His Strategic Learning method does more to systemize the process of smart strategy creation than any other approach I've seen." (Faith Popcorn, Author, The Popcorn Report)

"Take the business savvy of a former CEO, mix in the leading-edge insights of a faculty member at a top business school, garnish generously with crystal-clear writing, and what do you have? Willie Pietersen's Reinventing Strategy--a must for executives in these turbulent times." ( Donald C. Hambrick, Samuel Bronfman Professor of Democratic Business Enterprise, Columbia University, Graduate School of Business)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1st edition (April 12, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471061905
• ISBN-13: 978-0471061908
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Willie Pietersen gives us great strategy AND great practice, May 5, 2002

By 

Stephen Newman (Paris France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reinventing Strategy: Using Strategic Learning to Create and Sustain Breakthrough Performance (Hardcover)

Willie Pietersen's Reinventing Strategy contains the basics of strategy, i.e., how to win, how to align the organization behind the chosen strategies, how to be sure that superior insights drive the strategic process. If that alone were his contribution, this book would be a significant contribution to the strategy literature.

But Pietersen goes much further than that. He shows us how, exactly, to develop these strategies, how he himself developed such strategies and what he learned about leadership in the process.

This book is about strategy, implementation and one man's journey as a leader and life-long learner. The result is an immensely human business book. The singular voice of the author comes through with clarity and humility. I know of no other business book that combines theory and practice with such a strongly personal view. Pietersen talks about the value of developing a leadership credo in his book. This book is, in essence, his own credo from a lifetime of leading and learning.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every Manager Should Read This Book, April 20, 2002

By 

Rob Grossman (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reinventing Strategy: Using Strategic Learning to Create and Sustain Breakthrough Performance (Hardcover)

I am VP at a large consumer products company in Ohio and I found this book very insightful in the areas of creating strategy and leadership. I read a lot of business books and most are very slight in what they have to offer -- a few thoughts, old stories or worn out sayings. However, "Reinventing Strategy" is a real how-to-book and goes through running a successful business step-by-step. This book will definitely help my division be more profitable! In fact, I would love to go and take one of Prof. Pietersen's courses at Columbia University.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, February 12, 2005

By 

Music lover (Milano, Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reinventing Strategy: Using Strategic Learning to Create and Sustain Breakthrough Performance (Hardcover)

I am an executive coach and a former management consultant, so that business strategy is one of my interests. I have found this book by chance browsing on Amazon.
This is a book I have loved. It is an outstanding synthesis of what is business strategy nowdays. The author wonderfully combines a solid theoretical framework (he is a professor at Columbia University now) with a very practical approach (he has been running a company as CEO beforehand and it definitely shows!). It is very well structured, down to earth, straightforward and still accurate and full of in-depth reflections. It is a rare demonstration (especially in business literature) that a book can be essential and to the point, without boring repetitions (typical in business books). It shows there is a real understanding and mastery of the subject matter.
A serious business book written with both the head and the heart. Thank you Mr Pietersen!