Strategic IQ Creating Smarter Corporations

by Wells, John

• ISBN13: 9780470978283
• ISBN10: 0470978287
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-06-05
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

Why do once-successful companies fail?The book identifies 3 types of inertia that can be fatal to the most successful company: strategic/structural/ personal. Senior executives often go to great lengths to resist change. When things start to go awry, they try harder (through efficiency gains, etc) and therefore may simply be getting better at doing the wrong thing. Instead they need to analyse their market effectively and diagnose what is needed to respond to the real threats outside. The illustrations throughout the book give the reader real-life tales of competition on the edge and show what took place behind the public narrative of many prominent companies.This book will prompt executives to ask: What is your Strategic IQ? Do you have the strategic intelligence to keep ahead of your competitors? Readers will find the book enlightening and its lessons easy to apply: It provides a framework for understanding strategic intelligence A roadmap for advancing up the intelligence ladder Assessment tools to measure progressJohn Wells shows how traditional success metrics such as revenue growth, profit, market share, reputation and stock price often fail to predict impending disaster - and what to do about it.

Author Biography

John Wells is Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School. He teaches many courses on strategy innovation and change in the MBA and Executive Development programs, including his own courses on Strategic IQ.
Dr Wells graduated with a double first in physics from Oxford University, specializing in nuclear and solid state.  He received his MBA and DBA from the Harvard Business School, where he was a George F Baker Scholar, graduating first his class, and a Dean's Doctoral Fellow.
Dr Wells has combined a career in academia with extensive business experience. He has been  a senior executive, a director, a business school president, and a CEO. He has also been an advisor, a coach and a facilitator to senior executives and firms, large and small, in numerous sectors of the economy.  He has also advised governments on competitiveness.
Dr Wells has written over 50 cases on strategy and innovation and speaks regularly on the subject around the world. His wide-ranging research interests include business model innovation, social strategy, responsible leadership, relevant learning and family capitalism.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Introduction	p. xv
Smart Strategy	p. 1
The Need for Smart Strategy	p. 3
Low Strategic Intelligence	p. 13
What is Strategy?	p. 35
Moderate Strategic Intelligence	p. 59
High Strategic Intelligence	p. 87
Smart Structure	p. 107
The Need for Smart Structure	p. 109
Smart Asset Management	p. 119
Formal Architecture - Navigating the Architecture Labyrinth	p. 143
Informal Architecture - Leveraging Social Mechanics	p. 169
Towards Smarter Structure	p. 191
Smart Minds	p. 201
The Need for Smart Minds	p. 203
What is a Mind?	p. 209
Hiring Smart Minds	p. 229
Addressing Basic Human Needs	p. 241
Harnessing Insatiable Human Needs	p. 255
Bibliography	p. 277
Index	p. 293
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