Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution

Robert Simons

Nov 2010 · Harvard Business Press

About this ebook

To stay ahead of the pack, you must translate your organization's competitive strategy into the day-to-day actions carried out in your company. That means channeling resources into the right efforts, achieving the right balance between innovation and control, and getting everyone pulling in the same direction. How to keep all this on track?

Identify critical gaps in your strategy execution processes, focus on the most important choices you must make, and understand what's at stake in each one. In this concise guide, Harvard Business School professor Robert Simons presents the seven key questions you and your team must continually ask, beginning now.

These questions--including "Who is our primary customer?" "What critical performance variables are we tracking?" and "What strategic uncertainties are keeping us awake at night?"--force you to reexamine the emerging data and unspoken assumptions underlying your strategy and how it's implemented through your business processes and structures. Simons's extensive examples then help you understand your options and position you to make the tough choices needed to excel at execution.

Drawing on decades of research into performance management systems and organization design, Seven Strategy Questions is a no-nonsense, must-read resource for all leaders in your organization.

Ratings and reviews

Very insightful and a knowledgeable read. This book is a must read for business people at all levels.

About the author

Robert Simons is the Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. For twenty-five years, he has taught accounting, management control, and strategy implementation courses in the Harvard MBA and Executive Education programs. His research has been published in journals including Sloan Management Review and Strategic Management Journal.