Praise for Playing to Win
“Reading Playing to Win is like having prime seats at the Super Bowl of strategy. You’ll learn the strategies consumer goods powerhouse Procter & Gamble uses to get its innovative products into millions of homes—plus tested methods for winning your own marketplace contests. If you’re a marketer or a leader, you need to read this book.”
—Daniel H. Pink, author, Drive and A Whole New Mind
“This is the best book on strategy I have ever read. Lafley and Martin get to the heart of what’s important: how to make choices in order to control events rather than allowing events to control your choices. Everyone wants to win; this book sets down with calm authority the steps you must take to turn aspiration into reality.”
—Sir Terry Leahy, former CEO, Tesco
“Lafley and Martin teach us how to develop and then how to deploy strategy. Their recommendations apply at every level—corporation, business units, products, and teams. This is a great book.”
—Clayton M. Christensen, Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School; author, The Innovator’s Dilemma
“Most authors conduct research before they write a book. Lafley and Martin went out and did something. They used their simple, subtle framework—Where will we play? How will we win?—to double the value of one of the world’s greatest businesses. And now they’re showing you how to do the same. Read this book… before your competitors find it.”
—Chip Heath, coauthor, Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work
“Playing to Win is a rare combination of depth of thinking and ease of use. It clearly explains what business strategy is and isn’t, and how to develop it. Lafley and Martin distill their hard-won experiences and offer insights, practical hands-on tools, and tips that will inspire and allow you to think strategically in new ways about your own business.”
—Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO, Lego Group
“A great CEO and a renowned educator join forces to create a must-read for anyone thinking about strategy.”
—Jack Welch, former Chairman and CEO, General Electric
“Here is business strategy through the eyes of the man who led Procter & Gamble’s stunning turnaround and success in the 2000s and the strategist who advised and worked with him. Lush with insights that show the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of two master strategists.”
—Scott Cook, cofounder and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Intuit
“Lafley and Martin have invested their respective careers in understanding the complexity of strategy. What has emerged in this seminal work is a simple and rich framework that can help business leaders think through strategic choices. It is an eminently helpful guide to choice making, which is the most essential part of leadership.”
—James P. Hackett, President and CEO, Steelcase Inc.
“Playing to Win is an insightful do-it-yourself guide that demystifies what it takes to craft, implement, and continuously improve effective business strategies. Using relevant, real-world examples, Lafley and Martin offer proven techniques for competing and winning in today’s challenging global business environment.”
—Jim McNerney, President, CEO, and Chairman, Boeing
“I love this book; it is thought provoking and acts as a catalyst to ask questions—about ourselves and our business life course. In a day and age when information and instant communication are relentless components of business and our lifestyle, A.G. Lafley and Roger Martin suggest we take an important pause to actually question our strategic road maps and the associated plans we need in order to succeed in this marketplace.”
—Thomas Tull, founder and CEO, Legendary Pictures
A.G. LAFLEYROGER L. MARTIN
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW PRESS
Boston, Massachusetts
Copyright 2013 A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be directed to [email protected], or mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business School Publishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lafley, A.G. (Alan G.)
Playing to win : how strategy really works / A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-4221-8739-5 (alk. paper)
1. Strategic planning. 2. Success in business. 3. Organizational change. 4. Procter & Gamble Company. I. Martin, Roger L. II. Title.
HD30. 28. L34 2013
658.4’012—dc23
The web addresses referenced in this book were live and correct at the time of the book’s publication but may be subject to change.
Inspired by Peter Drucker (1909–2005), mentor and friend
Contents
| Introduction | How Strategy Really Works |
| One | Strategy Is Choice |
| Two | What Is Winning |
| Three | Where to Play |
| Four | How to Win |
| Five | Play to Your Strengths |
| Six | Manage What Matters |
| Seven | Think Through Strategy |
| Eight | Shorten Your Odds |
| Conclusion | The Endless Pursuit of Winning |
Acknowledgments
Appendix A: P&G’s Performance
Appendix B: The Microeconomic
