Plan B
How to Hatch a Second Plan That's Always Better Than Your First
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Why has Facebook been so limber, evolving so successfully even after a number of stumbles, while Myspace stalled and lost ground? Why was Wal-Mart able to expand so successfully into new offerings, such as groceries, while H&R Block dramatically failed to expand into offering financial services? The answer, David Murray reveals, is that Facebook and Wal-Mart both started with business models that empowered them to effectively adapt their plans as they executed them.
The failure of detailed strategic plans that have taken a great deal of time and money to develop is one of the worst problems in business, and it’s ever more urgent as the pace of change in business continues to accelerate. Murray, author of the acclaimed Wall Street Journal bestseller Borrowing Brilliance, argues that valiantly sticking to even a well-thought-out Plan A is the road to disaster. The greatest success comes to those who know how to construct and implement an adaptive Plan A that has within it the means of evolving into a superior Plan B by responding to problems confronted, discoveries made, changing market conditions, and the competition.
Writing in a lively, engaging voice and using a series of specific examples drawn from companies including IBM, Intel, Facebook, American Express, and Kaiser Permanente, as well as from the art of war, including the Battle of Gettysburg and the D-Day invasion, and even from the space program, Murray presents powerful methods for constructing a plan that has the mechanisms for adaptation built in.
Drawing on a wealth of research, he explains why we are fairly good at short-term predictions but why, in our ever more rapidly changing business world, even the best laid plans will eventually go astray. He then introduces the best techniques for creating an optimal original plan that takes into account our limited ability to predict, showing that vital to this process is that it be constructed so that we are alerted in time to make the right changes. In a brilliant discussion of strategy and tactics, he shows that the core of this adaptability is making sure that your strategy and tactics are well aligned with one another and that you have established the right metrics for measuring results. He then details precisely how to adapt throughout the execution process by constantly monitoring and assessing results, developing worst-case scenarios, and recognizing unanticipated opportunities.
Plan B is an essential guide to harnessing the forces of change to achieve long-lasting success despite the most vexing challenges.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In his bestseller on strategy, Borrowing Brilliance, Murray asserted that exploiting and building on the ideas of others is at the core of creative thought and business progress. In this follow-up, he continues to explore the world of strategy, this time maintaining that the ultimate winners are not just those with the best plan, but those who manage to develop and adopt a "Plan B" when circumstances change. Murray recounts that most companies spend significant time and resources on strategic planning, but often make the mistake of viewing those plans as set in stone rather than fluidly adapting the overall idea and tactics to changing market conditions; this lack of flexibility and foresight, says Murray, are the cause of many business failures. Murray illustrates his points with examples of real-life successful adaptive planning, including Eisenhower's Operation Overlord, the Apollo 13 mission, IBM's reinvention of its product lines in the '70s and '80s, and the evolution of Facebook, as well as such failures as H&R Block's foray into comprehensive financial services, which diverted its attention from its core business. For readers new to strategy, this work will provide some helpful examples and frameworks, but for those who have studied strategic planning, the insights may seem like common sense and provide little new food for thought.