Cut Costs, Grow Stronger : A Strategic Approach to What to Cut and What to Keep

Cut Costs, Grow Stronger : A Strategic Approach to What to Cut and What to Keep PDF Author: Paul Leinwand
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 1422161803
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 79

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Book Description
For most companies, cost cutting in a down economy means across-the-board slashing that "spreads the pain" of budget reductions across many departments. While that may sound like the best approach for getting critical results fast and for limiting political infighting, it is a mistake-one that will leave your company weaker, not just smaller. Instead, companies that need to reduce costs should treat the challenge as an opportunity to identify and reinforce their key capabilities, while divesting from those activities that do not truly reflect the business's strengths or long-term goals. This more strategic approach will make your company more resilient as tough times continue and more robust as recovery begins. In Cut Costs, Grow Stronger, an e-book published as part of the Harvard Business Press Memo to the CEO series, Booz & Company's Shumeet Banerji, Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi provide executives with the tools they need to rapidly implement capabilities-driven cost reduction. First they demonstrate how to identify and clearly articulate your company's key capabilities-not just core competencies or skill sets, but those very few strengths that, in combination, define how your organization competes. You can then use this information to create your company's unique blueprint for effective and efficient cost reduction. The authors' detailed, step-by-step framework walks you through the process, which can be completed in as little as two or three months-it's something that you can do now. This practical guide to capabilities-driven cost-cutting is the tool executives need to confront the challenge of today's economy while strengthening the foundation for what will set their company apart in the future.

Cut Costs, Grow Stronger : A Strategic Approach to What to Cut and What to Keep

Cut Costs, Grow Stronger : A Strategic Approach to What to Cut and What to Keep PDF Author: Paul Leinwand
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 1422161803
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 79

Get Book Here

Book Description
For most companies, cost cutting in a down economy means across-the-board slashing that "spreads the pain" of budget reductions across many departments. While that may sound like the best approach for getting critical results fast and for limiting political infighting, it is a mistake-one that will leave your company weaker, not just smaller. Instead, companies that need to reduce costs should treat the challenge as an opportunity to identify and reinforce their key capabilities, while divesting from those activities that do not truly reflect the business's strengths or long-term goals. This more strategic approach will make your company more resilient as tough times continue and more robust as recovery begins. In Cut Costs, Grow Stronger, an e-book published as part of the Harvard Business Press Memo to the CEO series, Booz & Company's Shumeet Banerji, Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi provide executives with the tools they need to rapidly implement capabilities-driven cost reduction. First they demonstrate how to identify and clearly articulate your company's key capabilities-not just core competencies or skill sets, but those very few strengths that, in combination, define how your organization competes. You can then use this information to create your company's unique blueprint for effective and efficient cost reduction. The authors' detailed, step-by-step framework walks you through the process, which can be completed in as little as two or three months-it's something that you can do now. This practical guide to capabilities-driven cost-cutting is the tool executives need to confront the challenge of today's economy while strengthening the foundation for what will set their company apart in the future.

Fit for Growth

Fit for Growth PDF Author: Vinay Couto
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119268532
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
A practical approach to business transformation Fit for Growth* is a unique approach to business transformation that explicitly connects growth strategy with cost management and organization restructuring. Drawing on 70-plus years of strategy consulting experience and in-depth research, the experts at PwC’s Strategy& lay out a winning framework that helps CEOs and senior executives transform their organizations for sustainable, profitable growth. This approach gives structure to strategy while promoting lasting change. Examples from Strategy&’s hundreds of clients illustrate successful transformation on the ground, and illuminate how senior and middle managers are able to take ownership and even thrive during difficult periods of transition. Throughout the Fit for Growth process, the focus is on maintaining consistent high-value performance while enabling fundamental change. Strategy& has helped major clients around the globe achieve significant and sustained results with its research-backed approach to restructuring and cost reduction. This book provides practical guidance for leveraging that expertise to make the choices that allow companies to: Achieve growth while reducing costs Manage transformation and transition productively Create lasting competitive advantage Deliver reliable, high-value performance Sustainable success is founded on efficiency and high performance. Companies are always looking to do more with less, but their efforts often work against them in the long run. Total business transformation requires total buy-in, and it entails a series of decisions that must not be made lightly. The Fit for Growth approach provides a clear strategy and practical framework for growth-oriented change, with expert guidance on getting it right. *Fit for Growth is a registered service mark of PwC Strategy& Inc. in the United States

Playing to Win

Playing to Win PDF Author: Alan G. Lafley
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 142218739X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
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.

Strategy That Works

Strategy That Works PDF Author: Paul Leinwand
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
ISBN: 1625275218
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
How to close the gap between strategy and execution Two-thirds of executives say their organizations don’t have the capabilities to support their strategy. In Strategy That Works, Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi explain why. They identify conventional business practices that unintentionally create a gap between strategy and execution. And they show how some of the best companies in the world consistently leap ahead of their competitors. Based on new research, the authors reveal five practices for connecting strategy and execution used by highly successful enterprises such as IKEA, Natura, Danaher, Haier, and Lego. These companies: • Commit to what they do best instead of chasing multiple opportunities • Build their own unique winning capabilities instead of copying others • Put their culture to work instead of struggling to change it • Invest where it matters instead of going lean across the board • Shape the future instead of reacting to it Packed with tools you can use for building these five practices into your organization and supported by in-depth profiles of companies that are known for making their strategy work, this is your guide for reconnecting strategy to execution.

Better, Simpler Strategy

Better, Simpler Strategy PDF Author: Felix Oberholzer-Gee
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 1633699706
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
Named one of the best strategy books of 2021 by strategy+business Get to better, more effective strategy. In nearly every business segment and corner of the world economy, the most successful companies dramatically outperform their rivals. What is their secret? In Better, Simpler Strategy, Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee shows how these companies achieve more by doing less. At a time when rapid technological change and global competition conspire to upend traditional ways of doing business, these companies pursue radically simplified strategies. At a time when many managers struggle not to drown in vast seas of projects and initiatives, these businesses follow simple rules that help them select the few ideas that truly make a difference. Better, Simpler Strategy provides readers with a simple tool, the value stick, which every organization can use to make its strategy more effective and easier to execute. Based on proven financial mechanics, the value stick helps executives decide where to focus their attention and how to deepen the competitive advantage of their business. How does the value stick work? It provides a way of measuring the two fundamental forces that lead to value creation and increased financial success—the customer's willingness-to-pay and the employee's willingness-to-sell their services to the business. Companies that win, Oberholzer-Gee shows, create value for customers by raising their willingness-to-pay, and they provide value for talent by lowering their willingness-to-sell. The approach, proven in practice, is entirely data driven and uniquely suited to be cascaded throughout the organization. With many useful visuals and examples across industries and geographies, Better, Simpler Strategy explains how these two key measures enable firms to gauge and improve their strategies and operations. Based on the author's sought-after strategy course, this book is your must-have guide for making better strategic decisions.

Right Away & All at Once

Right Away & All at Once PDF Author: Greg Brenneman
Publisher: Rosetta Books
ISBN: 0795346530
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
An expert in business turnaround shares his inspiring approach to problem-solving: “A fascinating read” (Mitt Romney). Visionary leader Greg Brenneman believes that true business success and personal fulfillment are two sides of the same coin. The techniques that will grow your business will also help you achieve a rich, purposeful, and integrated life. Here, Brenneman takes what he’s learned from turning around or tuning up many businesses—including Continental Airlines and Burger King—and distills it into a simple, clear, five-step roadmap that anyone can follow. He teaches you how to: *prepare a succinct Go Forward plan *build a fortress balance sheet *grow your sales and profits *choose all-star servant leaders *empower your team For more than thirty years, Brenneman has seen these steps foster dramatic results in a variety of business environments. But he also came to realize that he could apply these same principles to improve his life and build a lasting moral legacy. He found he could make better decisions by carefully taking the most important facets of his life—faith, family, friendship, fitness, and finance—into consideration. Brenneman’s inspiring examples, from both his business and his life, demonstrate the astounding effects these steps can have when you apply them—right away and all at once.

The Essential Advantage

The Essential Advantage PDF Author: Paul Leinwand
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 1422136515
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Conventional wisdom on strategy is no longer a reliable guide. In Essential Advantage, Booz & Company's Cesare Mainardi and Paul Leinwand maintain that success in any market accrues to firms with coherence: a tight match between their strategic direction and the capabilities that make them unique. Achieving this clarity takes a sharpness of focus that only exceptional companies have mastered. This book helps you identify your firm's blend of strategic direction and distinctive capabilities that give it the "right to win" in its chosen markets. Based on extensive research and filled with company examples--including Amazon.com, Johnson & Johnson, Tata Sons, and Procter & Gamble--Essential Advantage helps you construct a coherent company in which the pieces reinforce each other instead of working at cross-purposes. The authors reveal: · Why you should focus on a system of a few aligned capabilities · How to identify the "way to play" in your market · How to design a strategy for well-modulated growth · How to align a portfolio of businesses behind your capability system · How your strategy clarifies growth, costs, and people decisions Few companies achieve a capability-driven "right to win" in their market. This book helps you position your firm to be among them.

The Final Frontier

The Final Frontier PDF Author: Justin Pettit
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119376572
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
The energy industry's accelerated evolution requires visionary change The Final Frontier parses the evolution of the oil and gas sector to map out a plan for going forward. The global energy industry is huge, and it is in disarray; between low oil and gas prices, climate change, rising development costs, and ever-mounting regulations, the need for change has been made crystal clear—but planning is much easier than implementation, and stasis is not progress. This book shows how redesigning internal operating models can bring about the necessary change in the implementation of upstream capabilities-driven strategies. From integrated, national, major, and independent oil companies, to the service companies in the upstream supply chain, there isn't an enterprise in the sector that cannot benefit from reduced costs and increased efficiency. Knowing that change is necessary is not enough—this book shows you what to change, and how to change it to get off the treadmill and start moving forward. With expert guidance through each redesign element, this insightful guide provides more than simply ideas: it provides real, practical guidance on transforming operations to keep pace with the changes and create lasting advantage. Identify the most relevant organizational capabilities for your resource portfolio, as well as the changes that can translate into savings and efficiency Build a workable plan for real-world implementation Redesign the operating model most suited to the needs of your business on an organization-wide basis Learn what to do differently and how to do it differently The energy industry has made great strides: our understanding of the global resource base, the nature of ownership and principal stakeholders, new technologies for resource development, and our economics and business models have all undergone a tremendous revolution, but now the more difficult—and more valuable—task begins. The Final Frontier helps you navigate the future and implement the changes necessary to avoid getting left behind.

Waging War on Complexity Costs (PB)

Waging War on Complexity Costs (PB) PDF Author: Stephen A. Wilson
Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional
ISBN: 0071713506
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Shed Revenue-Draining Complexity Costs by Thirty Percent! “This is an ambitious book packed with insight and fresh thinking. Separating good from bad complexity costs is a critical task facing companies today, and the authors provide a compelling roadmap for solving the problem.” Michael B. McCallister, President and CEO, Humana Inc. “Waging War on Complexity Costs examines an incredibly important and often overlooked aspect of business and organizations in general—regulators and government officials should read this book and take notice. Complexity dramatically increases costs and risk of failure. It is like a cancer that eats away at efficiency and profitability.” Andy Beal, Chairman and CEO, Beal Bank “This is by far the best and most useful explanation of how to address complexity in a business. Waging War on Complexity Costs frames the issue in a way that companies can finally tackle the problem—this book delivers.” Ahmad R. Chatila, CEO, MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. “This is the first book that really targets organizational complexity in a compelling way, making this a must-read for any organization that is looking to distance itself from the competition. After years of cost-cutting, many companies are realizing that they still don’t have a discernable cost advantage. This book provides the platform to achieve just that, by attacking the complexity that bogs them down.” Tom DiDonato, EVP Human Resources, American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. About the Book: Complexity costs are the single biggest determinant of your company’s cost competitiveness. For the past two decades the pursuit of growth has created massive complexity in processes, product portfolios, and organizations, adding costs that companies can ill afford. The only good news is that your competitors may be carrying as much complexity as you are. Learn how to eliminate this complexity, and you can create a tremendous cost advantage over your competition. In Waging War on Complexity Costs, Stephen Wilson and Andrei Perumal deliver a powerful and practical approach for reclaiming your cost advantage. This executive-level resource presents a wealth of insight and new research to definitively answer key questions such as: How can I quantify the cost of complexity without getting lost in a sea of data? Where are the biggest opportunities for reducing product, process, and organizational complexity, and how can I cut through the interdependencies that trap these costs? How can I see results quickly by taking targeted actions against key levers? How do I keep complexity costs at bay? It is not enough to attack bloated product portfolios. Substantive cost improvements require addressing the complexity in the underlying processes and organizational structures. Waging War on Complexity Costs provides a wealth of relevant case studies with examples from Kraft, Tesco, Fiat, and the U.S. Navy and highlights specific strategies for reducing costs by 15-30% in significant portions of your business. Tomorrow’s consumers are emerging as wellinformed customers who know what they want and the price they’re willing to pay for it. Complexity not only drives costs; it creates a barrier between you and the customer. Declare a war on complexity costs and prepare for profitable growth.

Beyond Digital

Beyond Digital PDF Author: Paul Leinwand
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 1647822335
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 147

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Book Description
Two world-renowned strategists detail the seven leadership imperatives for transforming companies in the new digital era. Digital transformation is critical. But winning in today's world requires more than digitization. It requires understanding that the nature of competitive advantage has shifted—and that being digital is not enough. In Beyond Digital, Paul Leinwand and Matt Mani from Strategy&, PwC's global strategy consulting business, take readers inside twelve companies and how they have navigated through this monumental shift: from Philips's reinvention from a broad conglomerate to a focused health technology player, to Cleveland Clinic's engagement with its broader ecosystem to improve and expand its leading patient care to more locations around the world, to Microsoft's overhaul of its global commercial business to drive customer outcomes. Other case studies include Adobe, Citigroup, Eli Lilly, Hitachi, Honeywell, Inditex, Komatsu, STC Pay, and Titan. Building on a major new body of research, the authors identify the seven imperatives that leaders must follow as the digital age continues to evolve: Reimagine your company's place in the world Embrace and create value via ecosystems Build a system of privileged insights with your customers Make your organization outcome-oriented Invert the focus of your leadership team Reinvent the social contract with your people Disrupt your own leadership approach Together, these seven imperatives comprise a playbook for how leaders can define a bolder purpose and transform their organizations.