Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works

performance in the marketplace. And it all starts with an aspiration to win and a definition of what winning looks like.

Deep consumer understanding.

To determine how to win, an organization must decide what will enable it to create unique value and sustainably deliver that value to customers in a way that is distinct from the firm’s competitors. Michael Porter called it competitive advantage—the specific way a firm utilizes its advantages to create superior value for a consumer or a customer an

strategy is an iterative process in which all of the moving parts influence one another and must be taken into account together.

Two questions flow from and support the heart of strategy: (1) what capabilities must be in place to win, and (2) what management systems are required to support the strategic choices?

Strategy can be created and refined at every level of the organization using the choice cascade framework. Each

It can also be tempting to view a where-to-play choice as a given, as having been made for you. But a company always has a choice of where to play.

Do start with consumers, rather than products, when thinking about what it means to win.

But it is only through making and acting on choices that you can win. Yes, clear, tough choices force your hand and confine you to a path. But they also free you to focus on what matters.