What Is Strategy? It’s a Lot Simpler Than You Think

23 Feb 2022

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To many people, strategy is a total mystery. But it’s really not complicated, says Harvard Business School’s Felix Oberholzer-Gee, author of "Better, Simpler Strategy". 00:00 To many people, strategy is a mystery. 00:25 Strategy does not start with a focus on profit. 00:52 It's about creating value. 01:00 There's a simple tool to help visualize the value you create: the value stick. 01:30 What is willingness-to-pay? 02:30 What is willingness-to-sell? 03:14 Remind me: Where does profit come in again? 03:48 How do I raise willingness-to-pay? 05:00 And how do I lower willingness-to-sell? 06:18 Real world example: Best Buy's dramatic turnaround Companies should simplify and focus on two value drivers, he argues: customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. By aligning strategic initiatives on these alone, leaders make their workers’ jobs less complicated and improve customer experiences. Oberholzer-Gee is the author of the Harvard Business Review article “Eliminate Strategic Overload” (https://hbr.org/2021/05/eliminate-strategic-overload) as well as the book “Better, Simpler Strategy: A Value-Based Guide to Exceptional Performance” (https://www.amazon.com/Better-Simpler-Strategy-Value-Based-Exceptional/dp/1633699692/). Produced and edited by Scott LaPierre Video by Dave Di Iulio and Elie Honein Animation by Alex Belser Follow Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/harvard-business-review/ https://www.facebook.com/HBR/ https://twitter.com/HarvardBiz https://www.instagram.com/harvard_business_review Sign up for Newsletters: https://hbr.org/email-newsletters #HarvardBusinessReview #Strategy #WhatIsStrategy Copyright © 2022 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved.

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