The art of what works. How success really happens (2003)

[...]... Oil—that managed growth by changing their structure.12 The art of what works showed them how In addition to these scholarly sources, we find accounts of the art of what works in the success stories of individual companies, including Microsoft, McDonald’s, Apple, Nokia, and many others And General Electric spread the art of what works throughout its many companies as the “GE Way.” From business newspapers... strategy in one of these ways, instead of using the art of what works But there is really no contradiction You can combine one or all of these schools with expert intuition Von Clausewitz considered them all important Napoleon mas- Introduction 9 tered them, too But in the end they cannot tell you what your strategy should be Only expert intuition does that But how? The four elements of the art of what works—presence... Yet the art of what works remains a secret It is there, but most people fail to see it.Why? Because other explanations get in the way 8 T H E A RT O F E X P E RT I N T U I T I O N To see how that happens, let’s return to the problem of strategy—imperfect information, our fog of war In the art of what works, a coup d’oeil cuts through the fog But other schools of strategy offer other solutions to the. .. stands out as the first scholarly work in the strategic planning school of strategy An Eye for What Works 17 Also, the contrast between Jomini and von Clausewitz continues to this day In his book, Jomini states that strategy is the art of making war on the map, the art of taking in the whole theater of war.” He lists what strategy “thus includes”: 1 Selection of the theater of war and the different... just them: We find dozens of others throughout the ages Napoleon Bonaparte, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Ray Kroc of McDonald’s, and top companies like Nokia, Marriott, Johnson & Johnson the Preface xi list goes on and on The art of what works is the secret of strategy, a timeless truth for success in business or any other field This book presents principles, tools, and examples to help you apply the art of. .. of the scientific method is very much like the art of what works.1 8 We can also add elements of expert intuition to tools from other schools of strategy For example, an exercise in strategic planning or a team dialogue session in the learning organization often begins with the question, What is our vision?” That’s fine In the art of what works, however, we arrive at that vision by asking first, What. .. him.10 Another study of business success, Built to Last, by James Collins and Jerry Porras, also features the art of what works.1 1 It shows us how the most profitable American companies through the twentieth century changed strategy time and again when a coup d’oeil showed them the path to success The same thing can be seen in Strategy and Structure, a classic study by Alfred Chandler of four successful... it offers 2 Determination of decisive points that result from these combinations and the most favorable direction to give to the undertakings 3 Choice and establishment of the fixed base and the zone of operations 4 Determination of the objective point, either offensive or defensive 5 Fronts of operations, the strategic fronts and the line of defense 6 Choice of lines of operations that lead from the. .. Napoleon had mastered the tools and techniques of his day, but the way he combined them came from past achievements: Tactics can be learned from treatises, somewhat like geometry, and so can the various evolutions of the science of the engineer and the gunner; but knowledge of the grand principles of warfare can be acquired only through the study of military history and of the battles of the great captains... where the coup d’oeil of an expert ignites the spark of the art of what works Introduction 7 In business strategy, our study of the art of what works begins with Joseph Schumpeter, an Austrian economist in the early twentieth century Schumpeter said that entrepreneurs create economic growth—not the other way around That is, entrepreneurs do not just take advantage of what economic growth produces They . y0 w0 h0" alt="" The Art of What Works 00 FM Duggan 6/11/03 3:59 PM Page i This page intentionally left blank. The Art of What Works How Success Really Happens William Duggan McGraw-Hill New. is new, but the elements are not. In the art of what works, the answer is always different, but the question is always the same: What past successes can I draw from and combine in this new situation?. do. What works in the future is some combination of what worked before in the past. Great scientists, great artists, great business leaders—they don’t “reach for the stars,” they grasp what works.