RICH HORWATH is the CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute and a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author on strategy. He is a former Chief Strategy Officer and professor of strategy and has appeared on ABC, NBC and FOX TV. Horwath has helped more than 50,000 managers around the world develop their strategic thinking skills and is consistently ranked the #1 speaker on strategy & innovation at national conferences.

Introduction 1

Elevate 1

Importance of Strategy 3

Top 10 Strategy Challenges 5

GOST Framework 12

Strategy Defined 14

Thinking Strategically 16

1,000-Foot View 21

Discipline #1: Coalesce 23

Patterns in Strategy 26

Systems 32

Platforms 34

Business Model 39

Phase I of the Business Model: Value Creation 40

Phase II of the Business Model: Value Delivery 44

Phase III of the Business Model: Value Capture 48

Profitable Growth 52

Strategy and Innovation 58

Types of Innovation 59

1,000-Foot View 67

Discipline #2: Compete 69

Competitive Condition 73

Leader 73

Challenger 76

Spectator 82

Competitive Advantage 84

Competitive Intelligence 88

Trade-off Zone 91

Indirect Competition 94

Intangible Competition 97

1,000-Foot View 102

Discipline #3: Champion 103

Using Time Strategically 106

Time Trade-Off Techniques 109

Influencing Strategy Commitment 112

Increasing Buy-In with Social Proof 115

Strategic Behavior 119

Practicing Strategic Thinking 122

Developing Strategy Habits 129

Strategy Conversations 134

The Power of Story 138

Creating a Strategy Story 141

1,000-Foot View 145

Conclusion 147

When to Change Strategy 147

Fire Prevention 149

Tactical Evaluation Matrix 151

Strategy Launch Review 153

Strategy Scaffold 155

Strategic I Am 157

1,000-Foot View 160

Notes 163

Index 173

Acknowledgments 181

About the Author 183