The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs [Hardcover]

Cynthia Montgomery (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 8, 2012

Based on an acclaimed professor's legendary strategy course at Harvard Business School, The Strategist offers a radically new perspective on a leader's most vital role.

"Are you a strategist?" That's the first question Cynthia Montgomery asks the business owners and senior executives from all over the world who participate in her highly regarded executive education course. It's not a question they anticipate or care much about on opening day. But by the time the program ends, they cannot imagine leading their companies to success without being—and living the role of—a strategist.

Over a series of weeks and months, Montgomery puts these accomplished executives through their paces. Using case discussions, after-hours talks, and participants' own strategy dilemmas, she illuminates what strategy is, why it's important, and what it takes to lead the effort. En route, she equips them to confront the most essential question facing every business leader: Does this company truly matter? In doing so, she shows that strategy is not just a tool for outwitting the competition; it is the most powerful means a leader has for shaping a company itself.

The Strategist exposes all business leaders—whether they run a global enterprise or a small business—to the invaluable insights Montgomery shares with these privileged executives. By distilling the experiences and insights gleaned in the classroom, Montgomery helps leaders develop the skills and sensibilities they need to become strategists themselves. It is a difficult role, but little else one does as a leader is likely to matter more.  

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Cynthia Montgomery stimulates you as a business leader, to be owner, creator and ongoing steward of your company’s strategy. She uses her vast experiences in executive education to create engaging and stimulating exampling of successful strategies; both in purpose and execution. I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend this book.” (Dr. Tom Clarke, President of New Business Ventures, Nike, Inc. )

“Cynthia Montgomery’s The Strategist debunks the Myth of the Super-Manager, capable of overcoming any and all competitive forces. Instead, Montgomery prescribes a clear roadmap to develop successful, customized strategies for organizations and the people who lead them.” (Craigie Zildjian, CEO, Avedis Zildjian Company )

“In this refreshing book, Montgomery brings out the Strategist in each of us. Wherever you are in the world, as a student, teacher or practitioner of strategy, you will find this book a joyful companion as you reinvent yourself and the world around you.” (Ashok Vasudevan, Founder and CEO of Tasty Bite )

“Montgomery’s approach to demystifying strategy is revolutionary. This book will make you sit up and take actions that will have a lasting and positive effect on your company. If you are ready for a life changing journey, read on.” (Peter Henderson, Chairman, Indigo Telecomm )

“This is a personal call to action for leaders to continuously ask themselves why their organizations matter today and will matter tomorrow. In doing so, vitality can be triggered breathing new life into the day-to-day life of a company.” (Tucson Citizen )

“It takes a bold...writer to venture once more into this particular breach….Montgomery offers a clear summary of how to think about the overlap between strategy and execution. In terms of basic usefulness, [this book] outshines books several times its length.” (Financial Times )

About the Author

CYNTHIA A. MONTGOMERY is the Timken Professor of Business Administration and immediate former head of the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School, where she’s taught for twenty years. For the past six years, she has led the strategy track in the school’s highly regarded executive program for owner-managers, attended by business leaders of midsized companies from around the globe. She has received the Greenhill Award for her outstanding contributions to the Harvard Business School’s core MBA strategy course. Montgomery is a top-selling Harvard Business Review author, and her work has appeared in the Financial Times, American Economic Review, Rand Journal of Economics, Strategic Management Journal, Management Science, and others. She has served on the boards of directors of two Fortune 500 companies and a number of mutual funds managed by BlackRock, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness; 1st Edition, 1st Printing edition (May 8, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780062071019
• ISBN-13: 978-0062071019
• ASIN: 0062071017
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,101 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Book That Distills Strategy to Its Essence May 10, 2012

By pgwode

Format:Hardcover

"The Strategist" is an outstanding book that simplifies strategy to its essence and provides a simple yet powerful framework. Highly recommended. Detailed thoughts below:

-I first came across Professor Cynthia Montgomery's work in 2005 when I read "Competing on Resources", an influential Harvard Business Review article that married internally focused resource-based view of a firm with Michael Porter's Five-Forces externally focused framework.

-More recently, I heard more about her work from a friend who recently graduated from Harvard's Enterpreneur, Owner, President (EOP) program.

-The best thing about the book is that it distills strategy into a framework that is simple to understand but very rigorous nevertheless. According to the book, a good strategy entails the following:

1. DRIVEN FROM THE VERY TOP, and cannot be left to strategic planning departments or consultants. It is the fundamental job of the CEO to develop and implement strategy. Note the focus on implementation: Without effective implementation, strategy is nothing. As she says: "Many people believe that a strategist's primary job is thinking. It isn't. The number-one job is putting together an agenda and putting in place the organization to carry it out."

2. A COMPELLING PURPOSE, which tells you where a company will play, how it will play, and what it will accomplish. Without this, employees, customers, and investors alike remain confused about a company's mission, and work off of assumptions. As she asks, "If your company disappeared today, would the world be different tomorrow?" This is illustrated with a variety of examples from companies such as Four Seasons, Nike, and Google. What I like about this is that she is not dogmatic about the format or the length of the purpose; rather, she wants to make sure that the elements above are covered. (A good related article is "Can You Say What Your Strategy Is", a Harvard Business Review piece co-authored by David Collis, who was Professor Montgomery's collaborator on the aforementioned "Competing on Resources" article. [...])

3. A SYSTEM OF VALUE CREATION, comprised of mutually reinforcing parts - a system of resources and activities that work together and reinforce each other ("coordinated, internally consistent, and interlocking"). She presents the "Strategy Wheel" framework to develop this value creation system. What I liked about this was that the framework is not dogmatic and can be adapted to one's industry or firm quite easily. (A good related reading is "Good Strategy, Bad Strategy" by Richard Rumelt, which also focuses on a series of coordinated actions that must be implemented for an effective strategy. http://www.amazon.com/Good-Strategy-Bad-Difference-Matters/dp/0307886239)

-The book contains compelling case studies of Masco, a manufacturer of bathroom fixtures, that tried to get into furniture manufacturing (go figure) and Gucci's near-death experience and subsequent resurrection. These case studies are then tied back to the LEADER DRIVEN-COMPELLING PURPOSE-VALUE CREATION SYSTEM framework.

-As a bonus: at less than 200 pages, this book is an easy read.

I would highly recommend it.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A Bit Disappointed November 29, 2012

By Relationship Reviews

Format:Hardcover

I bought the audio version of this (from iTunes) after seeing an article Montgomery wrote in Inc magazine. I was expecting an insightful look of how to be a master strategist. Instead, what I got was essentially case studies of 3 businesses (Masco, Ikea, and Gucci). There were some valuable tips mixed in and the book is well written and skillfully presented, but most of the insights are the kind one would get in most business books (focus on value, make decisions based on data); good stuff and reminders and maybe there isn't much more to say. I was just expecting more so was disappointed. If you're new to business management type books, I think you'll be happy with it.

After finishing this, I was still interested to know more about strategy, and am happy to pass on I found an excellent book in Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters. The author can be slightly arrogant at times, but when he points out the generalized popular misunderstandings around strategy, it kind of makes sense.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars How and why to become a strategist "whose time at the helm could have a profound effect on the fortunes of your organization" May 14, 2012

By Robert Morris HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Most of what I know (or at least think I know) about strategy I learned from only a few people: Sun Tzu, Peter Drucker, Michael Porter, Lawrence Hrebiniak, Henry Mintzberg, and Walter Kiechel. Almost immediately, Cynthia Montgomery informs her reader that she offers a "revisionist view of strategy," based on her experiences while teaching for five years in what she identifies as Harvard's Entrepreneur, Owner, President (EOP) program. (That isn't its real name but you can easily find out, if interested, by contacting cynthiamontgomerydotcom.) One of the objectives of this program is to prepare participants to "become a strategist "whose time at the helm could have a profound effect on the fortunes of [their] organization." By the time I finished reading the book, I had learned at least as much about strategy from Montgomery as I had from anyone else.

If I understand Montgomery's concept of a strategist (and I may not), it suggests - at least to me -- some similarity with a maritime pilot who comes aboard what is usually a huge ship and guides it safely to open water. Consider this brief excerpt: "The strategist is the one who must shepherd this ongoing process [of refining while implementing plan of action], who must stand watch, identify and weigh, decide and move, time and time again. The strategist is the one who must decline certain opportunities and pursue others...it is the strategist who bears the responsibility for setting a firm's course and making the choices day after day that continuously refine that course. Whereas the maritime pilot leaves the ship after guiding it for a time, the strategist remains on course. "That is why strategy and leadership must be reunited at the highest level of an organization. All leaders - not just those who are here tonight - must accept and own strategy at the heart of their responsibilities."

Each reader needs to consider carefully before responding to this key question: "Are you or do you aspire to become a strategist according to these terms and conditions?" If the answer is "no," then there is a responsibility to do anything and everything possible to help the strategist in the given organization. If the answer is "yes," Montgomery has written this book specifically for you. She cities several dozen real-world situations in which real people are struggles with real issues and, sometimes, amidst a real crisis. However the circumstances may be between and among those situations, there are recurrent themes and values that include:

o Regardless of their size or nature, all organizations need a great strategy that gives them a "difference that matters."
o Ensure that your organization's vision as well as its mission (i.e. higher purpose) reveal, indeed affirm its ultimate destination.
o Most small-to-mid-size companies focus on a narrow range of customers with idiosyncratic needs and build value creation systems that meet those needs.
o You cannot be everything to everyone. Know who you are and, as Oscar Wilde suggests, "be yourself. Everyone else is taken."

Before reading this book, I misunderstood to what its title refers. I assumed that Cynthia Montgomery would offer her ideas about how to think strategically and/or why a company needs a CSO (chief strategy officer) and/or how one type of business thinker (metaphorically, someone who thinks that strategies are "hammers" that drive tactics, viewed as nails). Well, what she offers is relevant to what I expected but exceeds my expectations. In essence, she defines organizational greatness in terms of a Great Leader fused with a Great Strategy. They are a single, living entity. One has no meaning or value without the other. Bionic in nature. Either become one or follow one. This is what Helen Keller may have had in mind when asserting, "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."