Strategy: Fast Track to Success

229 Pages·2009·3.429 MB·English

by  David McKean

ABOUT THE AUTHOR GET THE RESULTS YOU F EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO
A
S ACCELERATE YOUR CAREER ACCELERATE YOUR CAREER
T
WANT IN STRATEGY. T
R
DAVID McKEAN is the managing A The Fast Track books provide you with a
director of IT Leaders Ltd, a C complete resource to get ahead as a manager
FAST. K
leading provider of business T – faster. Specially designed to help you develop
strategy and technology O the skills you need to fast track your career,
leadership development. He S each book is broken down into four key areas:
U
has over 15 years’ experience C
of working with businesses all To move up the business ladder, you will need to get C Awareness - find out where you are now and
E
over the world to develop and involved in creating strategy and gain experience in the S what you need to do to improve
implement strategy. Clients include Capita, more common strategic techniques. More importantly, S
Barclays, Accenture and AT&T, as well as Business building - the tools and techniques
you need to focus on the really valuable activities – good
public sector organisations. The company has S FAST TRACK TO SUCCESS used by high performance teams
pioneered best-in-class processes in several networking, crisp planning and effective implementation.
T
management disciplines and designed software Fast Track to Success: Strategy will teach you the key skills Career development - the steps you should
solutions to support them. you need to excel in strategy and accelerate your career R STRATEGY take now if you want to get ahead
In 1994, David joined Cable & Wireless as the development. It includes: A Director’s toolkit - tips to get you to the top.
programme director for the third GSM license And make sure you stay there!
T
in France. Since that time, he has worked for Strategy in a nutshell - a Simple checklists to help
several international blue chip companies in series of FAQs to give you you identify the strengths E DAVID McKEAN
Russia, France, Asia and Holland, running large a concise overview of the and weaknesses of your Fast Track features include:
G
strategy development and business change subject capabilities and those of
programmes. In Asia in particular, he worked your team Y The Fast Track Top 10 – a summary of
closely with culturally diverse organisations The top 10 tools and the information you need to shine
to help them build clear strategies to meet the techniques to develop your Tips on how to progress
Quick Tips and FAQs
priorities of different stakeholders. It was this approach to strategy your career, whether it’s
D
work that led him to recognise the real difficulties your first 10 weeks in Real-life case stories
Advice on leading your A
that companies have in developing a smart the job or whether you’re V Practical career guidance – includes a
process for strategy that delivers real results. team – how to decide your looking to get right to ID framework of objectives for your first
leadership style and build
the top M 10 weeks in a new role
David is a regular conference presenter in your team
Europe, the Middle East and Asia on strategy c Expert Voices – the state of the art view
K
and technology leadership. E from today’s leading experts
A
Don’t get left behind, set out on the Fast Track today. For more
N
resources, log on to the series website at www.Fast-Track-Me.com.
www.Fast-Track-Me.com is a highly
interactive resource, custom-designed to
complement the books – log on now to get
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO ACCELERATE YOUR CAREER
on the Fast Track today.
£14.99
BUSINESS
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FASTTRACK TO SUCCESS
STRATEGY
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Inanincreasinglycompetitiveworld,webelieveit’squalityof
thinkingthatgivesyoutheedge–anideathatopensnew
doors,atechniquethatsolvesaproblemoraninsightthat
simplymakessenseofitall.Themoreyouknow,thesmarter
andfasteryoucango.
That’swhyweworkwiththebestmindsinbusinessandfinance
tobringcutting-edgethinkingandbestlearningpracticeto
aglobalmarket.
Underarangeofleadingimprints,includingFinancialTimes
PrenticeHall,wecreateworld-classprintpublicationsand
electronicproductsbringingourreadersknowledge,skillsand
understanding,whichcanbeappliedwhetherstudyingoratwork.
TofindoutmoreaboutPearsonEducationpublicationsortellus
aboutthebooksyou’dliketofind,youcanvisitusat
www.pearsoned.co.uk
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FASTTRACK TO SUCCESS
STRATEGY
DAVIDMcKEAN
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PEARSONEDUCATIONLIMITED
EdinburghGate
HarlowCM202JE
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FirstpublishedinGreatBritainin2009
©PearsonEducationLimited2009
TherightofDavidMcKeantobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhasbeenassertedbyhim
inaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988.
ISBN:978-0-273-71990-8
BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
McKean,David,charteredengineer
Strategy/DavidMcKean.
p.cm.-- (Fasttracktosuccess)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-273-71990-8(pbk.:alk.paper) 1. Strategicplanning.2.
Management. I.Title.
HD30.28.M383862009
658.4'012--dc22
2009005448
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrieval
system,ortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopy-
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LicensingAgencyLtd,SaffronHouse,6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS.Thisbook
maynotbelent,resold,hiredoutorotherwisedisposedofbywayoftradeinanyformof
binding or cover other than that in which it is published, without the prior consent of
thePublishers.
Thepublisherisgratefulforpermissiontoreproducethefollowingcopyrightitems:Figure
on page 48 from ‘How competitive forces shape strategy’, Harvard Business Review,
March/April,(Porter,M.E.,1979);Figureonpage66from‘Strategiesofdiversification’,
HarvardBusinessReview,Sept/Oct,(Ansoff,I.,1957).
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CONTENTS
TheFastTrackway vii
Abouttheauthor x
Awordofthanksfromtheauthor xi
StrategyFastTrack xiii
Howtousethisbook xvii
Fast-Track-Me.com xviii
A AWARENESS 1
1 Strategyinanutshell 5
2 Strategyaudit 21
B BUSINESSFASTTRACK 33
3 FastTracktopten 37
4 Technologies 85
5 Implementingchange 103
C CAREERFASTTRACK 117
6 Thefirsttenweeks 121
7 Leadingtheteam 137
8 Gettingtothetop 157
D DIRECTOR’STOOLKIT 173
T1 Teamstrategyaudit 177
T2 Strategyprojectchecklist 183
TheFastTrackway 189
OthertitlesintheFastTrackseries 191
Glossary 192
Index 201
v
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THE FAST TRACK WAY
Everythingyouneedtoaccelerate
yourcareer
The best way to fast track your career as a manager is to fast track the
contribution you and your team make to your organisation and for your
team to be successful in as public a way as possible. That’s what the
FastTrackseries isabout.TheFastTrack managerdeliversagainstper-
formance expectations, is personally highly effective and efficient,
develops the full potential of their team, is recognised as a key opinion
leader in the business, and ultimately progresses up the organisation
aheadoftheirpeers.
You will benefit from the books in the Fast Track series whether you
are an ambitious first-time team leader or a more experienced manager
who is keen to develop further over the next few years. You may be a
specialist aiming to master every aspect of your chosen discipline or
function, or simply be trying to broaden your awareness of other key
managementdisciplinesandskills.Ineithercase,youwillhavethemoti-
vation to critically review yourself and your team using the tools and
techniquespresentedinthisbook,aswellasthetimetostop,thinkand
actonareasyouidentifyforimprovement.
Do you know what you need to know and do to make a real differ-
ence to your performance at work, your contribution to your company
and your blossoming career? For most of us, the honest answer is ‘Not
really, no’. It’s not surprising then that most of us never reach our full
potential. The innovative Fast Track series gives you exactly what you
need to speed up your progress and become a high performance
vii
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viii THEFASTTRACKWAY
manager in all the areas of the business that matter. Fast Track is not
just another ‘How to’ series. Books on selling tell you how to
winsalesbutnothowtomovefromsalespersontosalesmanager.Project
management software enables you to plan detailed tasks but doesn’t
improve the quality of your project management thinking and business
performance. Amarketing booktells you about theprinciplesof market-
ingbutnothowtoleadateamofmarketers.It’snotenough.
Specially designed features in the Fast Track books will help you to
see what you need to know and to develop the skills you need to be
successful.Theygiveyou:
(cid:2) the information required for you to shine in your chosen
functionorskill–particularlyintheFastTracktopten;
(cid:2) practical advice in the form of Quick Tips and answers to
FAQs from people who have been there before you and
succeeded;
(cid:2) state of the art best practice as explained by today’s academ-
icsandindustryexpertsinspeciallywrittenExpertVoices;
(cid:2) case stories and examples of what works and, perhaps more
importantly,whatdoesn’twork;
(cid:2) comprehensivetoolsforacceleratingtheeffectivenessandper-
formanceofyourteam;
(cid:2) a framework that helps you to develop your career as well as
produceterrificresults.
FastTrackisaresourceofbusinessthinking,approachesandtechniques
presentedinavarietyofways–inshort,acompleteperformancesupport
environment.Itenablesmanagerstobuildcareersfromtheirfirsttentative
stepsintomanagementallthewayuptobecomingabusinessdirector–
acceleratingtheperformanceoftheirteamandtheircareer.Whenyouuse
the Fast Track approach with your team it provides a common business
languageandstructure,basedonbestbusinesspractice.Youwillbenefit
from the book whether or not others in the organisation adopt the same
practices;indeediftheydon’t,itwillgiveyouanedgeoverthem.EachFast
Track book blends hard practical advice from expert practitioners with
insightsandthelatestthinkingfromexpertsfromleadingbusinessschools.
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THEFASTTRACKWAY ix
The Fast Track approach will be valuable to team leaders and man-
agers from all industry sectors and functional areas. It is for ambitious
people who have already acquired some team leadership skills and
haverealisedjusthowmuchmorethereistoknow.
If you want to progress further you will be directed towards additional
learning and development resources via an interactive Fast Track web-
site,www.Fast-Track-Me.com.Formany,thesebooksthereforebecome
the first step in a journey of continuous development. So, the Fast Track
approachgivesyoueverythingyouneedtoaccelerateyourcareer,offer-
ing you the opportunity to develop your knowledge and skills, improve
your team’s performance, benefit your organisation’s progress towards
itsaimsandlightthefuseunderyourtruecareerpotential.