Table Of ContentSTRATEGY GENIUS
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STRATEGY
40 insights
from the
science of
strategic thinking
RICHARD A D JONES
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AboUT ThE AUThoR
Richard Jones is a consultant and entrepreneur who works
on complex strategic and technology issues – developing and
implementing new strategies and business models from the USA
to Kazakhstan and from the Arctic Circle down to South Africa.
Client work includes Shell, BT, Nike, BCG, Santander, RBS,
Boots, Vodafone, Siemens and Johnson & Johnson.
The technology consultancy he co-founded (venturateam.com)
is considered a leader in next generation telecoms and it has also
bootstrapped its own successful operator in the highly competitive
Swedish telecoms market – serving 155,000 subscribers and being
ranked number 4 in the world for broadband service value prior
to a sale to TeliaSonera.
He has founded or helped several other start-ups achieve returns
of 40 to 75 times for shareholders. He has applied these skills to
helping develop new business units for companies like BT.
The latest venture, founded with his colleagues, is taking the
open access Fibre to the Home (FTTH) elements of the Swedish
operation global – with the first client delivering what is believed
to be the first gigabit, triple play services for subscribers in the
whole of Africa.
He is very active across a number of disruptive technology
areas – mobile Internet, FTTH and cloud – including as
Chairman of the Smart Cities – Operations and Applications
Committee for the FTTH Council MENA. Richard regularly
chairs a number of technology conferences across Europe
and MENA covering cutting-edge telecoms, smart cities and
technology. He also delivers keynote speeches on strategy and
disruption for companies like NBC/Universal.
Richard is the author of several books, including Project
Management Survival (also available in Chinese, Polish and
Latvian) and The One Day MBA – a book on the different skills
required by executives who want to gain experience fast.
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He has a degree in electronics, a masters equivalent in
engineering, an MBA with distinction from the University of
Warwick and is also studying for a doctorate in the strategy of
technology companies.
If you’d like to get in touch Richard can be contacted at
[email protected]
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the nice people at Hodder & Stoughton for
asking me to write the book and their help in editing it. Strategy is
such an important topic but so badly understood. It’s been a pleasure
working with Iain, Alison and the others to deliver a book that I hope
will help companies create and execute better strategies.
I also want to thank Stefan Stanislawski and Mikael Sandberg, my
partners within Ventura Team (venturateam.com). We’re into our 15th
year of the adventure and have delivered strategy, business modelling,
change management and implementation projects around the world
together. I think it’s rare to find people you really like and respect that
you can work with, but I’m lucky as they are two of the best.
Finally, thanks to my lovely wife Julie and Harry and Will for the
support, love and laughter, as well as allowing me the time to write
this book.
PeRmIssIons
Chapter 16 Figure 16.1 Reprinted by permission of Harvard
Business Review. From Tilt: Shifting Your Strategy from Products to
Customers by Dawar, Niraj, 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Harvard
Business Publishing; all rights reserved
Chapter 37 Figure 37.1 Reprinted by permission of Harvard
Business Review Press. From Repeatability: Build Enduring
Businesses for a World of Constant Change by Zook, Chris & Allen,
James, 2012. Copyright © 2012 by Harvard Business Publishing; all
rights reserved
Chapter 39 Figure 39.1 Reprinted by permission of Harvard
Business Review Press. From The Balanced Scorecard by Kaplan,
Robert S. & Norton, David P. 1996. Copyright © 1996 by Harvard
Business Publishing; all rights reserved
Chapter 40 Figure 40.1 Reprinted by permission of The Academy of
Management Executive. Hambrick, Donald C. & Fredrickson, James
W. (2001), ‘Are you sure you have a strategy?’, The Academy of
Management Executive, Vol. 15 No. 4 pp 48–59. Copyright © 2001
Chapter 40 Figure 40.2 Reprinted by permission of Harvard
Business Review Press. From Playing to Win: How Strategy Really
Works by Lafley, A. G. & Martin, Roger L. 2013. Copyright © 2013
by Harvard Business Publishing; all rights reserved
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‘Richard Jones is, for a broadcaster like me, on the fast dial for
comment about almost everything. I am, like most of my breed,
lazy and a skimmer. Richard always places the context and
arrows the opinion. So this is so appropriate – genius conflated
into something you can understand. A bit like Richard, really.’
Michael Wilson – Director of Business and
Economics Editor, Arise Global Networks
‘Good strategic thinking is often preached; here are some good
questions and frameworks for practitioners.’
Peter Davidson, FREng – Formerly Senior Innovation
Advisor to the Department for Business, Enterprise and
Regulatory Reform (BERR) and Department for
Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS)
‘Strategy is one of those topics that many people talk about
without having much idea what they mean. Richard Jones is one
of the exceptions. His latest book gets straight to the point and
you can see that this is someone who not only understands the
topic and can explain it well, but has actually done these things
and put into practice the stuff he talks about. A very good book;
I recommend it strongly.’
Peter Hiscocks – CEO Judge Business School
Executive Education, University of Cambridge
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First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Hodder & Stoughton. An Hachette UK company.
First published in US in 2015 by Quercus US.
Copyright © Richard A D Jones 2015
The right of Richard A D Jones to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted
by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Database right Hodder & Stoughton (makers)
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tion. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the
Rights Department, John Murray Learning, at the address below.
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this
same condition on any acquirer.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this title is available
from the British Library.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: on file.
Paperback ISBN 978 1 47360 538 1
eBook ISBN 978 1 47360 539 8
1
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coNTENTS
Introduction xi
About this book xiv
1. Do you have a good strategy? 1
2. Can your people say what your strategy is? 7
3. So what is strategy and what should
it deliver? 12
4. The right amount of strategic ambition 18
5. Why things going well can be so dangerous 23
6. Disruptive technologies 28
7. From tough competition to hypercompetition 34
8. Responding to hypercompetition 42
9. Exploiting disruption 48
10. Routes to resilience 55
11. Seeing disruption coming 62
12. Picking which competitive advantage to pursue 69
13. What is the theory of your firm? 75
14. Competitive adaptability through adaptability 80
15. Why stopping is as important as starting 88
16. Marketing as strategy 94
17. Understanding your market situation 100
18. The new dynamics of competition 107
19. How to avoid your business model getting into trouble 113
20. Matching strategy to your situation 119
21. Generic strategy options and what they mean for you 123
22. Creating adaptability to deal with a changing environment 129
23. Learning from failure 135
24. Creating new business models 140
25. How to identify new business models 145
26. Managing risk in your business model 151
27. Sustainability, feasibility and acceptability (SFA analysis) 157
28. Bold retreat 163
29. Strategy – art or science 168
30. How strategy shapes structure 174
31. Getting the business model right 180
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