Myths of Strategy

Does a company need to address its weaknesses before it develops its strengths? Are the best business leaders always visionaries? And is change good for organizations?

The reality is that there are no magic recipes for business success. If there were, every organization would use them, and no single company would be better than the rest.

Business strategy is messy, requires hard graft and is difficult to get right. And yet the world of strategy is dominated by management consultants and business gurus making sweeping generalizations, oversimplifying business thinking and peddling their own unfounded ideas. But do these methods actually work?

Myths of Strategy dispels 35 of the most common strategy sagas, cutting through hyperbole and providing you with tried-and-tested business ideas that will make your company more successful.

• Myth 1: You should look to the best for inspiration;
• Myth 2: Strategy is very different from the sciences;
• Myth 3: The most successful strategies are carefully planned;
• Myth 4: Success is essentially about talent;
• Myth 5: It is impossible to think strategically in an environment of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity;
• Myth 6: Direct aim is the best way to attain goals;
• Myth 7: Firms achieve higher performance when they adopt a raison d'être;
• Myth 8: Having a corporate social responsibility strategy is bad for performance;
• Myth 9: The best strategy is to set up an attractive business and try to beat competitors;
• Myth 10: In most firms, costs are too high;
• Myth 11: In the digital era, having the best or cheapest product is enough for success;
• Myth 12: A firm must address its weaknesses before it develops its strengths;
• Myth 13: Business success depends primarily on a firm's capabilities;
• Myth 14: The best business leaders are visionaries;
• Myth 15: Businesses benefit from hiring stars;
• Myth 16: Interviews are the best technique for selecting new employees;
• Myth 17: A good strategy is enough for success;
• Myth 18: It's easy to drop a strategy that has failed to deliver;
• Myth 19: Boards of directors are willing to challenge bad strategy decisions;
• Myth 20: Innovation requires state-of-the-art technologies;
• Myth 21: To innovate, businesses need experts;
• Myth 22: Always listen to customers;
• Myth 23: Innovating means offering customers new products or services;
• Myth 24: Businesses innovate more when they have more resources;
• Myth 25: Business leaders have a long-term outlook;
• Myth 26: It is impossible to reconcile the long term and the short term;
• Myth 27: A firm that's improving is headed for success;
• Myth 28: Change is always good for businesses;
• Myth 29: The first thing to do in a recession is cut costs;
• Myth 30: Process management improves performance;
• Myth 31: Mergers and acquisitions create value for shareholders;
• Myth 32: Outsourcing is good for firms;
• Myth 33: Adopting management fads is pointless;
• Myth 34: Financial analysts like firms that have an original strategy;
• Myth 35: Consultants always help improve performance