#20 Book announcement: HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY. Strategy Made Simple with the StrategyFrame.
This episode was recorded in German.
The latest findings from strategy research, management education and consulting practice, prepared for immediate use in companies: with the StrategyFrame, the two authors and podcast hosts have developed a new, practical instrument for strategy development and implementation. It connects the strategy process end to end in a hands-on way: from situation analysis and strategic decision-making through the target picture, the formulation and communication of priorities, all the way to implementing the measures.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Whether at the top leadership level of a corporation or in an owner-managed mid-sized company: the StrategyFrame makes strategy tangible, tellable and usable. A book for all strategy makers and everyone who wants to become one.
BENEFITS
The book clears away the strategy myths of the past and walks through every step of strategy work across the entire process. It delivers exactly the knowledge you need along the workflow. With inspiration and real examples from practice, it offers concrete, field-tested guidance for developing and executing strategy.
SHOW NOTES:
Pre-order now:https://www.underwood.de/buch
Christian Underwood:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianunderwood/
Prof. Jürgen Weigand:https://www.linkedin.com/in/j%C3%BCrgen-weigand/
Underwood GmbH:https://www.underwood.de
Detailed episode description:
Why another Strategy Book?
There are already plenty of strategy books on the market. In the new book “Hope Is Not a Strategy,” published in October by Campus Verlag, the authors Christian Underwood and Jürgen Weigand share their experience and advice on strategy development. Above all, they want to make the topic understandable, interesting and immediately usable for everyone.
In this strategy call, they give a first preview of what readers can expect and what the new book adds. So what awaits the reader?
The subtitle of the book is “Strategy Made Simple with the StrategyFrame.” That has two meanings. First, getting started with a strategy process at all, simply making strategy happen. Second, strategy should be simplified to the point where developing it is no longer a burden or an ordeal for the people involved, but something they actually enjoy.
“Hope Is Not a Strategy” delivers exactly those impulses for getting a process started, plus a systematic, structured approach to how to proceed.
Christian Underwood and Jürgen Weigand want to strip the high art of strategy development of its complicated terminology and make it understandable for everyone, including business leaders whose daily work has nothing to do with strategy development.
Because a lot of it is easy to put into practice once you know how it works along the workflow.
What do Christian and Jürgen mean by strategy, put simply?
Strategy is the plan for getting from where you are today into the future and reaching the goals you have set.
The book skips the long historical digressions. Theory takes a back seat so the focus stays on presenting a tool, a workflow with the right knowledge attached. It shows how to move from situation analysis to a target picture, translate it into fields of action, and then shape the implementation of the strategy. You will find plenty of step-by-step guidance for this. You can also apply elements from the book directly in a workshop.
For Christian, this was an essential point. Unlike other strategy books, this one does not just open up a lot of great ideas, it also gives concrete advice on how to put them into practice. That approach is called learning along the workflow. Many books on the market focus on individual pieces or always leave one question open: “And how do I actually do this now?” Christian and Jürgen want to cover the entire strategy process, from formulation through implementation to renewal. Answering the questions “What are the results?”, “What can I learn from them?” and “What comes next?” is part of the process too. The main role model for breaking theoretical approaches down into something workable was Michael Porter. His book contains many well-founded theoretical approaches and perspectives, and at the same time he managed to formulate them in a way that lets strategists put them to work right away.
After reading it, you should be able to get started immediately within a framework that keeps the important factors front and center, so you don't get lost in the details and can focus on the right things.
Who was this book written for? What does the target audience look like? The book is for all strategy makers and everyone who wants to become one. There is no focus on particular company sizes, industries or markets.
Strategy is often placed only at the very top of a company. Large organizations frequently have their own strategy departments and invest a lot of time in strategy development. The goal of this book, by contrast, is to make that knowledge available to anyone who wants to succeed and to build a plan for reaching their goals, so that everyone is able to run a strategy process like this.
For smaller companies and mid-sized businesses in particular, it is exciting that the book enables people to develop and run strategy on their own. Anyone can understand it. That is the essential factor: enabling people to do strategy themselves. This strong self-doing approach is not meant to discourage outside advice and inspiration. Its advantage is that you learn exactly which steps you go through and what happens during each one. Letting external consultants or advisors take a fresh look at your strategy then makes sense at a different point. By using the StrategyFrame, you know where it makes sense to think on your own and where it doesn't. The principle of hope should be abolished in the business world. For everyone looking for pragmatic support, we developed the StrategyFrame. It is an aid and an instrument, a methodology and a process that combines research topics, the latest management thinking and consulting practice. It is a tool that comes from practice and has already been used with a wide range of clients, from hair salons to insolvency administrators to large corporations. It works every time and at every level.
The key factors for balancing rationality and creativity
A big overall picture always helps. A big picture makes it possible to step back, understand how things connect and get clarity and truth. It also supports a holistic approach. The book will first appear in German; the English version is set to reach bookstores in early 2023. That creates the particular challenge of finding the right terms in both languages, so that this clarity of language makes everything understandable even for the untrained strategists of tomorrow.
With guidance on concrete steps, the book offers real support for organizing workshops, scheduling and much more, so theory can be turned into practice. Christian and Jürgen are already working on a digital version as well.
Atwww.hoffnungistkeinestrategie.deyou can pre-order the book. You'll find the link in the show notes.