The art of what works : how success really happens

Defining the best strategic approach for your business or a solution to a particular problem need not come from scratch. You can borrow ideas from someone else and make them your own. In fact, from Napoleon to Jack Welch, the greatest leaders and the most successful businesses have been doing just that for centuries. While most guides on strategy argue for a particular plan or system to ensure business success, The Art of What Works eschews that approach. Strategy is not one-size-fits-all. Cisco's approach wouldn't work for General Motors. However, some elements of Cisco's approach to business, may be suitable for a particular issue GM is facing. The Art of What Works argues that there are no good strategies or bad strategies - just strategies that work best in a given situation. The trick is to distill and synthesize those elements that are most appropriate to develop new strategies for your business. The Art of What Works provides leaders with a new framework for developing creative strategies. Creative strategy is really very simple.; By learning from experience - your own and others' - you bring to bear new combinations of strategic thinking to any new situation, providing insight from many sources. This kind of thinking allows you to create new strategies through a synthesis of things that worked in the past. As you process all the information you can from various sources, you see a new combination to apply to the current situation. Jack Welch perfected the art of creative strategy. His appropriation and regeneration of Six Sigma is a perfect example. Welch liked what he saw in the Motorola program and applied it to GE, turning it into one of GE's most successful initiatives. The key is to find the strategy that works best for your business at any given point in time, whether based on your own experience or others', whether it worked at one time or whether it didn't. Doing so requires a new way of thinking about strategy. In this insightful, practical guide, author William Duggan lays the groundwork for mastering the art of creative strategy. The result is a winning framework for strategy built on a synthesis of ideas.; In The Art of What Works, readers will learn: How to take direct advantage of expert ideas in business strategy; How to decide on a course of action ... and make appropriate changes along the way; How to help good ideas rise to the top; Strategy isn't rocket science. Through a thoughtful framework and a beautifully simple approach, The Art of What Works offers a way to cut to the chase to find a faster, better path to success. Read more... Abstract: Outlines a program for understanding how and why others succeeded, and then drawing on their successes to help solve your business problems. This book reveals how to transform intuitive observation into a structured program designed to save time, energy, and money for yourself and your organization. Read more... How to Find Effective Solutions for Any Business Problem—By Recognizing and Building On the Successes of Others“There is nothing new under the sun.”Though coined more than 2,000 years back, this truism has straight-line relevance to today’s business world. Because while every business situation you confront is unique, it is invariably made of questions and elements that have been confronted—and solved—by others before you. The Art of What Works outlines a step-by-step program for understanding how and why others succeeded, and then drawing on their successes to help solve your own business problems. Outlining an approach that is exceedingly straightforward yet dramatically effective, this landmark book will help you to:Systematically draw on the past successes of others to fuel innovations of your own Lead effectively by learning how to construct one, dramatic solution from several elements Overcome obstacles that prevent good ideas from taking shape, and rising to the top What has worked in the past, more often than not, will work again in a new combination. The Art of What Works reveals how to transform this intuitive observation into a structured program designed to save time, energy, and money for both yourself and your organization, by giving you the freedom to recognize—and rely on—the simplicity of what works. “The operative assumption is that someone, somewhere, has a better idea; and the operative compulsion is to find out who has that better idea, learn it, and put it into action—fast.”—Jack WelchFew individuals in business history can match the bottom-line success of former GE CEO Jack Welch. Welch has become a business school archetype for corporate innovation and impact by working almost exclusively from one strategic credo—while you can seek new and innovative solutions to suit your present needs, you can only, in the end, do what has already been done.As simple as it may appear, that credo is actually the profound secret to achieving breakthrough success. The Art of What Works presents principles, tools, and examples for observing what has worked and what hasn’t in the real world. The key is in understanding and benefiting from coup d’oeil, the sideways glance that allows you to use existing knowledge to power your own endeavors. Cutting against the conventional wisdom of “original is best”—which was the principal driver behind the dot.com and telecom debacles—this insightful and practical guide features:Examination of today’s three leading schools of strategy—and how the art of what works improves each one Guidelines for consistently getting results-driven, “highly calculable” success by first understanding the achievements of others Examples of the art of what works in action, from Ray Kroc to Bill Gates, Disney to Du Pont While the content of all successful ventures changes on a case-by-case basis, the structure remains remarkably similar. The Art of What Works brings unique and valuable insights to today’s business leadership precisely because it claims to provide no world-changing structures or paradigm-shattering methodologies—just solid, proven strategies that have worked before, are working today, and will provide value far into the future.From ancient strategist Sun Tzu through latter-day business legends like Welch, Steve Jobs, and many others, the value of adopting great ideas and adapting them to one’s own benefit is well known. A commonsense approach to creating effective new strategies from ones that are proven to work From Napoleon through Jack Welch, great leaders have always "borrowed" great ideas from others. The Art of What Works cuts against the grain of today's one-size-fits-all strategic gurus to argue that there are no intrinsically good or bad strategies—just flexible strategies that work best in given situations. Welch's appropriation of Six Sigma from Motorola, and use of its best features to revitalize GE, is a recent example of this approach. In this insightful and practical guide, leading strategist William Duggan lays the groundwork for building new strategic frameworks by observing what works—and what doesn't—in the real world. The Art of What Works shows business professionals how to: Recognize and adopt great ideas and strategies Modify strategically sound ideas to their own benefit Decide on a course of action—then modify it when necessary From Napoleon through Jack Welch, great leaders have always "borrowed" great ideas from others. The Art of What Works cuts against the grain of today's one-size-fits-all strategic gurus to argue that there are no intrinsically good or bad strategies - just flexible strategies that work best in given situations. Welch's appropriation of Six Sigma from Motorola, and use of its best features to revitalize GE, is a recent example of this approach.In this insightful and practical guide, leading strategist William Duggan lays the groundwork for building new strategic frameworks by observing what works - and what doesn't - in the real world. The Art of What Works shows business professionals how to: * Recognize and adopt great ideas and strategies * Modify strategically sound ideas to their own benefit * Decide on a course of action - then modify it when necessary" A practical guide to creating effective strategies for business shows managers how to adopt great ideas, modify others, and decisively choose a course of action. 12,500 first printing. In 2001, the Nobel Prize in economics went to Joseph Stiglitz, George Akerlof, and Michael Spence for showing how and why markets again and again fall prey to imperfect information.