Short and sweet. . - not exactly - WIP - book review for Making Sense of Strategy - book review

Automotive Design & Production, July, 2002 by Gary S. Vasilash

Generally, business books tend to be so boring as to cause a certain sudden on-set of sleepiness, which can be troublesome if the text in question happens to be a hefty tome of erudite and heavily Footnoted reasoning. Troublesome because you may drop said text on your foot, which would cause you to be jerked into full consciousness via a broken foot. This is not the type of problem that you'll encounter with Making Sense of Strategy by Tony Manning (Amacom: New York) because the entire book is just 98 pages long. The author claims that the book can be read in less than an hour, which I suppose is possible but which, I think, is a bit of an underestimation because reading that requires thinking is slower than that which you can just plow through. And you'll want to think about what he has to say. Manning also claims that the book "tells you everything you need to know about strategic management," which could be an overestimation oF its comprehensiveness. [And why, then, does he provide a list of books on a rec ommended reading list?]

That said, Making Sense of Strategy is worth however long it takes you to go through it. Manning is right on target with his emphasis on action. He notes, "Traditionally, strategy and implementation have been seen as different issues. First you think, and then you do. And this is precisely why execution comes unstuck." The thinkers ought to be involved in the nitty-gritty doing. As he points out, "Until you do, you never know what you can do. Your grand visions remain mere theory. You learn nothing-- about the world at large, or about your capabilities. Discovery is impossible. On the other hand, when you do snap into action and try something-anything--you quickly Find out what works and what doesn't, and you lay stepping stones For Future progress."

One of the problems that vexes too many organizations, large and small, is that the people who are creating the strategy don't know whether it is actually possible to do what they want accomplished. It is one thing, say, to put out grandiose numbers related to quality or sales, as in, "We will improve our quality by x%!" or "We will increase our sales by x%!" (stated is a basso profundo manner, of course), without having the slightest idea of whether the processes are in place to achieve that quality or the markets are sufficiently active to support that growth.

Another point that Manning makes is that Focus is key. As he puts it, "The most important resources you have are money and minds. Both are limited. If you're not clear where you'll apply them, if you try to protect yourself by doing a bit of this and a bit of that, you'll never be great at anything." But it is more than just not being great. "If you don't apply a critical mass of resources to getting what you want, you'll Fail."

One of the real charms of this book is that Manning is succinct. And he doesn't pull any punches. Read it.