Organizational Strategy
Ideas matter.
Businesses start as ideas. Ideas transform them. And more often than not, what they sell are ideas—bundled into a brand, organized to create a better way of life, or collated to create a new way to communicate. Search our website to see how some of our ideas might transform your business or browse our roster of thought leaders.
What Is Strategy? / by Michael E. Porter
The quest for productivity, quality, and speed has spawned a remarkable number of management tools and techniques: total quality management, benchmarking, time-based competition, outsourcing, partnering, reengineering, change management. Although the resulting operational improvements have often been dramatic, many companies have been frustrated by their inability to translate those gains into sustainable profitability. → more
Geometry of Competition / by Bruce W. Chew
A senior Monitor consultant makes clear for managers the complex interaction between today's activities and tomorrow's advantage. → more
Competitive Strategy / by Michael E. Porter
What forces drive competition in an industry- What moves will competitors make- How will one's industry evolve- How do strategic planners respond to competitive actions- How can a firm be best positioned to compete in the long run? → more
Competitive Advantage / by Michael E. Porter
The success or failure of any firm depends on competitive advantage-delivering the product at lower cost or offering unique benefits to the buyer that justify a premium price. But exactly how does a company achieve cost leadership- And how does it differentiate itself from its rivals? → more
Planning Is Dead, Long Live Planning / by Joseph B. Fuller
Traditional planning systems were developed in the 1960s and 1970s, when companies generally faced an easily defined set of competitors who were well-known to them and who shared the same cost structure. The external world was relatively safe and stable, and planning systems were designed to guard against internal uncertainty. Today, it is almost impossible to separate those who plan from those who must implement. → more
Strategic Planning in the 21st Century / by Joseph B. Fuller
Traditional strategic planning systems are widely viewed as inefficient and ineffective. In this white paper, Monitor founder Joe Fuller considers what planning might mean in the real-time world of the new economy. → more
Business as War / by Mark B. Fuller
Companies now compete on their ability to convert informed choice into timely action-change means doing it more effectively. Learning how means borrowing lessons from the Pentagon to improve performance in three related areas-gathering better information, establishing a framework for making decisions, and practicing integration of the pieces. → more
Fast-Cycle Strategy / by Paul Magill
The author draws on his decade of consulting to high-tech companies to distill the essence of fast-cycle strategy-that is, strategy that yields informed choices and timely action. → more
On Competition / by Michael E. Porter
For the past two decades, Michael Porter's work has defined our fundamental understanding of competition and competitive strategy. On Competition brings together, for the first time, more than a dozen of Porter's articles; two entirely new pieces written especially for this collection as well as eleven of his landmark articles from Harvard Business Review. → more
Strategic Planning in an Era of Total Competition / by Mark B. Fuller
Liberalized markets, increasingly demanding customers, expanding sources of knowledge, revolutionary advances in information technology, drastically shortened time lines, and the empowerment of individual decision makers within companies-all these developments put unprecedented demands on strategic planning. → more
Putting an End to the Ritual of Reorganization / by Joseph B. Fuller
Over the past decade companies have demonstrated an increasing propensity to change their organizational structures. Like a drunken sailor weaving down a sidewalk, more and more companies lurch from one reorganization to the next-always a bit out of balance, always a bit too optimistic about the next reversal of course being able to set things right. Facing complex and often intractable problems, companies choose time and again to reorganize-each time hoping that this time they will finally get it right. → more
Co-opetition / by Adam Brandenburger, Barry Nalebuff
Using case studies from companies such as American Airlines and Nintendo, Co-opetition was one of the first books to take game theory and make it relevant and understandable for managers. As one CEO said about the book, "Co-opetition gives executives what they need most: a technique for making the right strategic decisions, even in the most complicated business situations." → more
The Art of the Long View / by Peter Schwartz
In The Art of the Long View, Peter Schwartz describes his scenario approach to visualizing the future and its applications for business and society. → more
An Open Letter to the CEO / by Joseph B. Fuller
Leadership in a time of uncertainty is a fundamentally different task than leadership in an era of unparalleled growth. While meeting the street numbers may have been necessary and financially rewarding, it created a distorted operating logic in many companies. Restoring sound strategic decision-making and a rational market-driven logic is an absolute requirement going forward. → more