Reinventing Strategy: Using Strategic Learning to Create and Sustain Breakthrough Performance »

WILLIE PIETERSEN was raised in South Africa and received a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. After a period spent in the practice of law, he embarked on an international business career. Between 1974 and 1994, Pietersen ran multibillion-dollar divisions of several major global corporations, including Unilever, The Seagram Company, and Sterling Winthrop. In 1998, Pietersen was named Professor of the Practice of Management at the Columbia University Business School. He serves as an advisor and consultant to many global companies, including Sony, Ericsson, Deloitte & Touche, SAP, and The Chubb Corporation, and is Chairman of the Menlo Park-based think tank Institute for the Future.

Reinventing Strategy

Are you prepared to conquer the single greatest leadership challenge facing any corporate executive in the new economy? To compete in today's ever-shifting landscape, you need to drive your company beyond one-time improvement and achieve continual adaptation and renewal. In Reinventing Strategy, the creator of the Strategic Learning process shows how this proven system enables business leaders to repeatedly develop superior insights and transform them into winning strategies.

Unlike many books on business strategy, this completely practical guide combines clear explanations of what your company needs to do with a unique four-step process for getting it done: Learn, Focus, Align, Execute. Refreshingly concrete examples show you how to use Strategic Learning to consistently outthink, outmaneuver, and outperform your competition.

This comprehensive guide features dozens of real-world stories from major companies such as Seagram, Unilever, Sony, and more, vividly illustrating Strategic Learning's effectiveness in do-or-die situations. It also demonstrates practical procedures for mobilizing an organization to capture and act on insights, transform corporate culture, and overcome resistance to change.

The time to adapt and innovate is before change is thrust upon you. Reinventing Strategy supplies the leadership tools and techniques your company needs to stay ahead of the curve and achieve superior performance while everyone else is struggling to cope with unexpected shifts in the competitive environment. No one who leads an organization-or aspires to do so-can afford to ignore this compelling book.

Acknowledgments.
Introduction: A Journey of Discovery.
The New Playing Field.
The Challenge of Change.
The Search for an Answer.
The Strategic Learning Process.
Winning the Battle for Insight: Doing a Situation Analysis.
Defining Your Focus.
Aligning the Organization.
Transforming the Culture.
Overcoming Resistance to Change.
Implementing and Experimenting.
Strategic Learning as a Path to Personal Growth.
Creating an Environment for Success.
Index.