Better, Simpler Strategy: A Value-Based Guide to Exceptional Performance

Smart, ambitious executives want to become better at everything. Does this remind you of your firm? Do you sit in meetings where you make long lists of products and processes to improve? The sad news is, of course, that any attempt to get better at everything virtually guarantees mediocrity—exhausted mediocrity at that. By spreading scarce resource

As Intel’s experience shows, operational effectiveness and strategy are intertwined. My advice is to pay little attention to the distinction. Do not dismiss an initiative simply because it seems to be an investment in operational effectiveness. It might well turn out to be the catalyst for a strategic renewal.

Managerial involvement—Some executives prefer a hands-on management style; they frequently visit plants and work one-on-one with employees and suppliers on operational tasks. Others focus on collaboration in the C-suite. There is no general performance advantage in adopting either style, but hands-on managers run the risk of seeing process-oriented

Substantial differences in the adoption of modern management practices exist even across plants that belong to the same firm. Nothing about the diffusion of good management is automatic or fast. An important question is whether these practices are applicable everywhere. Might the effectiveness of financial incentives depend on the type of work? Cou

Rather than developing an all-around well-working product, they expended all their energy on only three features—search, synchronization across devices, and file sharing—at the expense of many other desirable functions. Why would a company that genuinely cares about customer WTP adopt a shortcut? Why not do it properly? Why not do it all? The notio

My colleague Professor Raffaella Sadun, a prominent member of the group, explains the key finding: “If you look at our data, it’s obvious that core management practices can’t be taken for granted. There are enormous differences in how well managers execute even basic tasks like setting targets and tracking performance. And these differences matter:

My recommendation is to begin your value curve analyses by employing a fine-grained customer segmentation. Create separate value curves for many different groups of customers. If the data show that two segments have nearly identical value drivers, you can treat the two groups as one segment. If you begin with a broad grouping, however, subtle diffe

Resource constraints are the main reason firms assume reverse positions. To be great in one specific dimension—search, for example—Slack had to neglect many others. This principle holds true not only for startups, where resource constraints are particularly severe. Excellence invariably requires resources in short supply: time, capital, managerial

Just as much as our job is to build something genuinely useful, something which really does make people’s working lives simpler, more pleasant and more productive, our job is also to understand what people think they want and then translate the value of Slack into their terms.… Putting yourself in the mind of someone who is coming to Slack for the