Playing to Win_ How Strategy Really Works

aniel H. Pink, author, Drive and A Whole New Mind
“This is the best book on strategy I have ever read. Lafley and Martin get to the heart of what’s important: how to make choices in order to control events rather than allowing events to control your choices. Everyone wants to win; this book sets down with calm authority the steps you must take to turn aspiration into reality.”

Laying out the conditions
To pursue this possibility, what would have to be true?

This process is a form of reverse engineering because the starting point is the (tentative) assumption that the conclusion is valid—namely, that this is a great possibility. The team then works to understand the conditions under which that assumption is correct. It works backward to declare the various conditions that would have to hold for this to be a great possibility. Figure 8-3 shows the logic flow of this reverse-engineering exercise. In each of the seven boxes, you can list what would have to be true along that dimension for the option in question to be valid.

ave you used the strategy logic flow framework to understand the industry, channel, and customer values, your own relative capability and cost positions, and competitive reactions in a way that can underpin sustainable where-to-play and how-to-win choices?
Have you reverse engineered the strategic possibilities and asked what would have to be true to ensure that this possibility is the one that gives you the best chance to win?

n this moment, the best role of the consultant became clear to me: don’t attempt to convince clients which choice is best; run a process that enables them to convince themselves.

what would have to be true for the option on the table to be a fantastic choice.

what would have to be true has seven specific steps, as seen in figure 8-2

hat would have to be true?

n the end, building a strategy isn’t about achieving perfection; it’s about shortening your odds.

there some competitive response that could undermine or trump the where-to-play and how-to-win choices?