Strategic Planning

If you read (or listen to) nothing else on strategy, listen to this book. This selection of current and classic Harvard Business Review articles will help you understand the dynamics of competition, find new sources of advantage, and create and capture lasting value.

In AI and the Octopus Organization: Building the Superintelligent Firm, leading futurist Jonathan Brill and innovation expert Stephen Wunker unveil a groundbreaking vision for how organizations must evolve to survive and thrive in the age of artificial intelligence. Drawing inspiration from the octopus, an ancient creature noted for both rapid adaptation and distributed intelligence, the authors show that only businesses that rewire their structure, leadership, and decision-making can unlock AI's full potential.

Under the aegis of machine learning in our data-driven machine age, computers are programming themselves and learning about - and solving - an extraordinary range of problems, from the mundane to the most daunting. Today it is machine learning programs that enable Amazon and Netflix to predict what users will like, Apple to power Siri's ability to understand voices, and Google to pilot cars.

Half of all Americans have money in the stock market, yet economists can't agree on whether investors and markets are rational and efficient, as modern financial theory assumes, or irrational and inefficient, as behavioral economists believe - and as financial bubbles, crashes, and crises suggest. This is one of the biggest debates in economics, and the value or futility of investment management and financial regulation hang on the outcome. In this groundbreaking book, Andrew W. Lo cuts through this debate with a new framework.

In The Web3 Era, David Shin connects pivotal moments from the history of human progress and global trade with current events that are shaping the world of tomorrow through a fascinating and insightful exploration of the long-term, next-level use cases of non-fungible tokens and digital assets, and their implications for industries that leverage these advancements.

Businesses, organizations and society-at-large are all subject to unforeseeable events and incidents that often have a dramatic impact upon prosperity and profit. Due to their unpredictable nature, business leaders and executive teams are unable to prepare for these specific events. But, through innovation, strategizing and an open-minded approach, they can restructure their organization and practices in order to mitigate (or even take advantage of) the impact of such events.

You can build a home service business that is profitable EVERY month of the year. Offseasons will keep you poor. I hate offseasons. I used to waste $100,000 every winter. I didn't know how to generate leads during the slow months. My revenue dropped. My profits went negative. I had to lay off all my employees! This book fixes that problem. This book contains the playbooks that took me from sleeping in my office closet to owning a business that generates $50,000,000+ per year. When I started my lawn care business, I had no systems. This almost cost me my life in a workplace accident.

Great companies stumble and fall when they lose it. Highfliers crash when a competitor notices they don't have it. Start-ups shut down if they can't develop it. "It" is a strategy so powerful and an execution-driven mindset so relentless that companies use it to gain more than just competitive advantage—they achieve an industry dominance that is virtually unassailable and that competitors often try to explain away as unfair.

You're probably aware that generative AI can output quality text and create stunning images in seconds. But smart managers are now using gen AI for high-level work—problem-solving, driving innovation, strategic thinking, and dozens of other applications. Managers who develop their generative AI capabilities will soon be leaping ahead of those who don't. Fortunately, you can start today and see immediate results. The HBR Guide to Generative AI for Managers is packed with practical tips, prompts, and case studies to accelerate and improve countless aspects of your work.

As AI rapidly reshapes the enterprise landscape, the real challenge isn’t adopting it—it’s adopting it responsibly. Data privacy. Regulatory pressure. Ethical deployment. The stakes have never been higher. Building Your Private AI is a strategic, non-technical guide tailored for business executives ready to scale AI while safeguarding trust, compliance, and performance. With real-world insights from UPS, Tesla, Mayo Clinic, and Siemens, author Daniel J. Jacobs offers a proven roadmap to secure, enterprise-ready AI transformation.

Knowing the concepts of management accounting can have a very positive impact on your business. Through management accounting, you can create forecasts for the future, make smart buying decisions, analyze the rate of return on an investment and much more. Management accountants do a lot when it comes to the management aspect of running a business. Perhaps you are a management accountant, thinking of becoming one, or will be hiring someone who is proficient in the field. If so, this book is for you.

The essential complement to the pathbreaking Competitive Strategy, Michael E. Porter's Competitive Advantage explores the underpinnings of competitive advantage in the individual firm. Competitive Advantage introduces a whole new way of understanding what a firm does. Porter's groundbreaking concept of the value chain disaggregates a company into activities, or the discrete functions or processes that represent the elemental building blocks of competitive advantage.

There is no CEO task more significant than leading change in an organization whose old business model needs updating. Large-scale change involves rethinking how to engage customers, partners, and suppliers with new technology and hard decisions about how to reorganize internal operations—plus the challenges of executing the transformation. Too many things can go wrong, from natural organizational resistance and inertia, to lack of strategic focus, to execution problems. And yet, organizations today must be more dynamic than ever before.

A breakthrough solution is exposed when some unexpected events force Caroline and Paul, a married couple working for their family's retail business, to make a few small changes in the way things are done. A solution that propels the family's regional chain of stores into a very profitable, rapidly growing, international enterprise. If there is a hint of Jonah, from The Goal, reappearing in this novel, it is Henry, the soon-to-retire president and majority owner of the company who logically states that, "if you do not deal directly with the core problem, don't expect significant improvement."

In today's environment of partial attention and isolating remote work, few things are more satisfying than group experiences that produce powerful, meaningful connections and output. But this kind of enlivening, collective work doesn't happen by chance. It must be consciously designed and purposefully activated—in a team, an organization, and a culture. The good news is that making space for this kind of work doesn't have to be hard. There's a technique available to everyone, with no special certification required: gamestorming.

In Humanocracy, Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini make a passionate, data-driven argument for uninstalling bureaucracy and reinventing management as we know it. In this extensively updated and expanded edition, listeners will find new and compelling case studies, the latest research findings, and a wealth of fresh and provocative insights.

Managing an effective sales organization is key to revenue generation, customer satisfaction, and business results. But whether you're a sales manager or leading a large sales force, it's increasingly challenging to balance success today with driving the digital sales transformation that will position your team for the future. With actionable insights and examples from many industries worldwide, the HBR Sales Management Handbook provides the resources you need to build value for your company, your customers, and your sales teams.

In The Innovator's Solution, Clayton Christensen and Michael Raynor expand on the idea of disruption, explaining how companies can and should become disruptors themselves. Now with a foreword by innovation expert Scott Anthony, this classic work shows just how timely and relevant these ideas continue to be in today's hyper-accelerated business environment and will help anyone trying to transform their business right now.

2018 Nautilus Book Awards Silver Winner What if you could unlock a better answer to your most vexing problem—in your workplace, community, or home life—just by changing the question? Talk to creative problem-solvers and they will often tell you, the key to their success is asking a different...

In this expanded second edition, The Zig Zag Principle continues to offer a proven strategy for achieving business goals through strategic flexibility and resourceful planning. Building on the original's foundational concepts—assessing resources, adapting to change, and leveraging multiple opportunities—this edition integrates contemporary insights and real-world examples, including a fresh look at the impact of artificial intelligence.