Strategic IQ: Creating Smarter Corporations

Strategic IQ: Creating Smarter Corporations

by John Wells
Released June 2012
Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
ISBN: 9780470978283

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Book description

In today's world, only the smartest survive. The competitive landscape is littered with graves of well-known firms whose revenues, profits and stock prices rose for decades until they suddenly imploded.

In fast-changing business environments, firms must adapt their strategies and innovate to remain at the top. But many successful firms fail to do so. Instead, they succumb to inertia, hesitate, or stick blindly to their old strategies, until it is too late.

The ability to adapt to change is a measure of intelligence; so why do firms demonstrate such low Strategic IQ? What causes inertia and why is it so deadly? How can leaders help their firms to act more intelligently?

This book identifies the key sources of inertia - strategic, structural and huma - and provides practical advice on how they can be overcome to create smarter corporations. It is both a wake-up call for successful firms and a lifeline for firms struggling to succeed.

  • To successful firms - beware! You may already be dead!

  • To struggling firms - have hope! It is possible to pass powerful competitors by raising your strategic, structural and human IQ.

"Hard-hitting and stimulating, Wells' thesis carries a robust message that should make business leaders the world over sit up and think." Archie Norman, Chairman of ITV, UK

"Wells makes a compelling case for dramatic change." Ron Sargent, CEO of Staples, USA

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Perspectives on Strategic IQ from Practitioners and Scholars Around the Globe
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. Preface
  7. Introduction
    1. Why do Successful Companies Fail?
    2. Inertia – A Fatal Disease
    3. In Search of Strategic Intelligence
    4. Smart Strategy
    5. Smart Structure
    6. Smart Minds
    7. The Holistic View
    8. Notes
  8. PART ONE: SMART STRATEGY
    1. 1.1: THE NEED FOR SMART STRATEGY
      1. Why Strategy?
      2. Why Smart Strategy?
      3. Low Strategic Intelligence
      4. What is Strategy?
      5. Moderate Strategic Intelligence
      6. High Strategic Intelligence
      7. Notes
    2. 1.2: LOW STRATEGIC INTELLIGENCE
      1. Level One: The Strategically Blind
      2. Level Two: Strategic Denial
      3. Level Three: Strategic Incompetence
      4. Summary
      5. Notes
    3. 1.3: WHAT IS STRATEGY?
      1. External Scope
      2. Competitive Advantage
      3. Internal Scope, Assets and Architecture
      4. System Causal Logic
      5. Strategic Scorecard
      6. Crucial Assumptions
      7. Extending the Strategic Business Model to Competitors
      8. Notes
    4. 1.4: MODERATE STRATEGIC INTELLIGENCE
      1. External Strategic Review
      2. Internal Strategic Review
      3. Defining Strategic Options
      4. Making Strategic Choices
      5. Sharing and Declaring
      6. Strategy Execution and Change
      7. Strategic Scorecard
      8. Aligning Rewards
      9. Rigorous Revision Cycle
      10. Prepared for Change
      11. Challenges of Maintaining Competence
      12. Summary
      13. Notes
    5. 1.5: HIGH STRATEGIC INTELLIGENCE
      1. A Mind-Set of Change
      2. Creating Problems – Systematically Dissatisfied
      3. Creating Problems – Creative Destruction
      4. The Problems with Creating Problems
      5. Smart Vision
      6. Capacity for Change – Distributed Intelligence
      7. Funding Strategic Innovation
      8. Driven to Strategic Success
      9. Strategy as Learning
      10. Perspectives on Leading Highly Intelligent Firms
      11. Summary
      12. Notes
  9. PART TWO: SMART STRUCTURE
    1. 2.1: THE NEED FOR SMART STRUCTURE
      1. The Stop–Start Cycle of Change
      2. Smart Structure
      3. Smart Asset Management
      4. Formal Architecture – Navigating the Architecture Labyrinth
      5. Informal Architecture – Leveraging Social Mechanics
      6. Towards Smarter Structure
      7. Notes
    2. 2.2: SMART ASSET MANAGEMENT
      1. Introduction
      2. The Nature of Assets
      3. Accounting for Assets
      4. Nurturing Strategic Assets
      5. Trapped by Past Decisions
      6. Playing Asset-Lite – Smart Fashion
      7. Playing Asset-Flexible
      8. Working Capital Lite
      9. Financial Assets
      10. Human Assets
      11. Knowledge Assets
      12. Relationship Assets
      13. Reputation Assets
      14. Declaring War on Fixed Costs
      15. Turning Asset Traps into Opportunities
      16. Summary
      17. Notes
    3. 2.3: FORMAL ARCHITECTURE – NAVIGATING THE ARCHITECTURE LABYRINTH
      1. Introduction
      2. Roles, Responsibilities and Reporting Relationships – The Three Rs
      3. Business Processes
      4. Human Asset Development
      5. Measurement Systems – The Strategic Scorecard
      6. Reward Systems
      7. Communication
      8. Information Systems
      9. Summary
      10. Notes
    4. 2.4: INFORMAL ARCHITECTURE – LEVERAGING SOCIAL MECHANICS
      1. Introduction
      2. Social Mechanics and the Evolution of the Brain
      3. Networking between Large Groups – Intergroup Social Mechanics
      4. The Formation of Informal Architecture
      5. Integrating Across Social Components – From Tribes to Nations
      6. Aligning the Informal and Formal Organization
      7. Turbocharging Informal Architecture – The Promise of Social Networking Technology (SNT)
      8. Progress in Applying SNT
      9. Summary
      10. Notes
    5. 2.5: TOWARDS SMARTER STRUCTURE
      1. Introduction
      2. Low Structural IQ
      3. Moderate Structural IQ
      4. High Structural IQ
      5. Smarter Informal Architecture
      6. Notes
  10. PART THREE: SMART MINDS
    1. 3.1: THE NEED FOR SMART MINDS
      1. Introduction
      2. What is a Mind?
      3. Hiring Smart Minds
      4. Addressing Basic Human Needs
      5. Harnessing Insatiable Human Needs
      6. Notes
    2. 3.2: WHAT IS A MIND?
      1. The Evolution of the Brain
      2. Neuroscience and Behavioural Psychology – The Individual Mind
      3. Neuroscience and Social Psychology – The Collective Mind
      4. The Brain as a Learning Machine
      5. Summary
      6. Notes
    3. 3.3: HIRING SMART MINDS
      1. Recruiting Raw Talent
      2. Selecting for Practical Intelligence
      3. Encouraging Smarter Behaviour
      4. Recruiting Senior Executives
      5. Summary
      6. Notes
    4. 3.4: ADDRESSING BASIC HUMAN NEEDS
      1. Introduction
      2. Basic Human Needs in Business and Society
      3. Employment
      4. Teamwork
      5. Object-Oriented Architecture
      6. Rewarding Change-Makers Rather than Positions
      7. Summary
      8. Notes
    5. 3.5: HARNESSING INSATIABLE HUMAN NEEDS
      1. Introduction
      2. Maslow's Higher Needs
      3. Learning
      4. Self-Fulfilment – Delivering Our Personal Best
      5. Mission – Vision and Values
      6. Teaching
      7. Teaching Organizations to Learn – Leadership Behaviour
      8. Summary
      9. Notes
  11. Bibliography
  12. Index

Product information

  • Title: Strategic IQ: Creating Smarter Corporations
  • Author(s): John Wells
  • Release date: June 2012
  • Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
  • ISBN: 9780470978283