Explains how companies must pinpoint business strategies to a few critically important choices, identifying common blunders while outlining simple exercises and questions that can guide day-to-day and long-term decisions.

*THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER* HOW DOES A PIT CREW CHANGE FOUR WHEELS IN 1.9 SECONDS? AND WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR A COMPANY LIKE BLACKBERRY? WHAT IS RON DENNIS' SECRET TO GOOD TIME MANAGEMENT? AND HOW CAN THAT HELP TV PRODUCERS? WHY IS F1 THE PERFECT EXAMPLE FOR LEADERSHIP, MOTIVATION AND STRATEGY? AND WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM IT? In The Winning Formula, driver, commentator and entrepreneur David Coulthard opens the doors to the secretive world of F1 and reveals in simple, entertaining and utterly compelling terms how he has been able to master this mind-boggling variety of disciplines by applying the skills honed from his years at the top of the world's most demanding motorsport. By recounting his own stories, and combining them with first-hand experience of stellar individuals such as Lewis Hamilton, Ron Dennis, Sir Frank Williams, Christian Horner and Sebastian Vettel, Coulthard provides a fascinating fly-on-the-wall insight into F1 but at the same time offers an invaluable guide to the business of sport and the sport of business.

When Richard Rumelt's Good Strategy/Bad Strategy was published in 2011, it immediately struck a chord, calling out as bad strategy the mish-mash of pop culture, motivational slogans and business buzz speak so often and misleadingly masquerading as the real thing. Since then, his original and pragmatic ideas have won fans around the world and continue to help readers to recognise and avoid the elements of bad strategy and adopt good, action-oriented strategies that honestly acknowledge the challenges being faced and offer straightforward approaches to overcoming them. Strategy should not be equated with ambition, leadership, vision or planning; rather, it is coherent action backed by an argument. For Rumelt, the heart of good strategy is insight into the hidden power in any situation, and into an appropriate response - whether launching a new product, fighting a war or putting a man on the moon. Drawing on examples of the good and the bad from across all sectors and all ages, he shows how this insight can be cultivated with a wide variety of tools that lead to better thinking and better strategy, strategy that cuts through the hype and gets results.

Whether you are a student or a working professional, you can benefit from being better at solving the complex problems that come up in your life. Strategic Thinking in Complex Problem Solving provides a general framework and the necessary tools to help you do so. Based on his groundbreaking course at Rice University, engineer and former strategy consultant Arnaud Chevallier provides practical ways to develop problem solving skills, such as investigating complex questions with issue maps, using logic to promote creativity, leveraging analogical thinking to approach unfamiliar problems, and managing diverse groups to foster innovation. This book breaks down the resolution process into four steps: 1) frame the problem (identifying what needs to be done), 2) diagnose it (identifying why there is a problem, or why it hasn't been solved yet), 3) identify and select potential solutions (identifying how to solve the problem), and 4) implement and monitor the solution (resolving the problem, the 'do'). For each of these four steps - the what, why, how, and do - this book explains techniques that promotes success and demonstrates how to apply them on a case study and in additional examples. The featured case study guides you through the resolution process, illustrates how these concepts apply, and creates a concrete image to facilitate recollection. Strategic Thinking in Complex Problem Solving is a tool kit that integrates knowledge based on both theoretical and empirical evidence from many disciplines, and explains it in accessible terms. As the book guides you through the various stages of solving complex problems, it also provides useful templates so that you can easily apply these approaches to your own personal projects. With this book, you don't just learn about problem solving, but how to actually do it.

Sun Tzu Bing Fa™ Masterpiece: Five Strategy Formulas For Building Real Success simplifies everything you have discovered and learned in previous series of Sun Tzu Bing Fa™ Masterpiece book collection into five simple strategy formulas you can use to achieve your personal victory and business success. The first formula addresses your strategic plan and strategic position. The last four formulas address your strategy and strategy cycle. Applying these five strategy formulas will make you decisive in the way you lead, effective in the way you think and make decisions, adaptive in the way you perform, and competitive in the way you take actions. For more information on our business strategy books, business strategy planners, business strategy courses, and business strategy certification programs, visit our websites: www.JamesSonhill.com and www.SunTzuStore.com.

Annotation In a global market economy, a viable business cannot be locked into a single form or function anymore. Rather, success is contingent upon a self-renewing capacity to spontaneously create structures, functions, and processes responsive to a fluctuating business landscape. Now in its third edition, Systems Thinking synthesizes systems theory and interactive design, providing an operational methodology for defining problems and designing solutions in an environment increasingly characterized by chaos and complexity. The current edition has been updated to include all new chapters on self-organizing systems, Holistic, Operational, and Design thinking. Gharajedaghi covers recent crises in financial systems and job markets, the housing bubble, and environment, assessing their impact on systems thinking. A companion website to accompany the book is available at www.interactdesign.com. Four NEW chapters on self-organizing systems, holistic thinking, operational thinking, and design thinking Covers the recent crises in financial systems and job markets globally, the housing bubble, and the environment, assessing their impact on systems thinking Companion website to accompany the book is available at interactdesign.com

This book provides a framework to help managers go beyond simply fighting fires every day, offering the tools to address the underlying causes of recurring problems and deliver long-term solutions. The most obvious part of any problem is the pain it causes. The desire to end the pain and find a solution – any solution – that will make it go away now is usually so great that it blinds managers to the underlying systemic cause of the problem. The result is that we ‘solve’ the problem today and then it comes back again tomorrow or next week, again and again. We are only addressing the symptoms but never understanding the cause – like picking the flower heads off weeds but not digging them out at the roots. Schaveling and Bryan offer the insights and tools managers and leaders need to achieve a longer term and more effective approach by stepping back and analysing the system as a whole. And at the heart of any system are human beings – notoriously short-term and pain-averse creatures who will behave in whatever way minimises pain today even at the expense of pain tomorrow. They show how to detect the behavior patterns that have become engrained in the organisation and which underlie complex situations so that root causes of problems can be identified. Once the system responsible for the problem is understood smarter decisions can be made to devise interventions that solve the core problem instead of wasting energy fighting the symptoms.