📖 Playing to Win

How Strategy Really Works by A.G. Lafley & Roger L. Martin

November 04, 2024

Is your strategy designed to beat the competition—or just survive?

In Playing to Win, former P&G CEO A.G. Lafley teams up with author and advisor Roger L. Martin to show that winning—whether in business or everyday life—boils down to smart, strategic choices. From setting clear goals to knowing where and how to compete, their practical approach emphasizes the importance of making deliberate decisions.

SMARTEST TAKEAWAYS
Five Essential Strategic Choices

1️⃣ What is your winning aspiration? Define what success looks like for you, personally or professionally. Set an ambitious yet clear goal that guides every other strategic choice.

2️⃣ Where will you play? For business, identify specific markets, customer segments, or channels. In your life, concentrate on specific relationships, health priorities, or personal projects. The key is to be focused and intentional.

3️⃣ How will you win? Find your edge—be it price, quality, or innovation—and leverage it. But whichever differentiator you pick, make sure it aligns with your strengths and values.

4️⃣ What capabilities must be in place to win? Identify the skills, habits, and tools needed to support your goals. Building these foundations will strengthen your ability to follow through on your aspirations.

5️⃣ What management systems are required to support your choices? Put structures in place and create checkpoints to monitor progress. This will keep your eyes on the prize and expose what isn’t working so you can adapt.

INSIGHTFUL EXAMPLE
Playing to Win at P&G

Lafley explains how P&G revitalized its Olay skincare brand by asking these five questions. Instead of targeting all women, P&G narrowed its focus to women over 35 who valued premium skincare. They focused on innovation to meet this group’s unique needs, creating a line of products that combined anti-aging science with a luxurious feel. This strategic focus helped Olay become a billion-dollar brand, and it shows how carefully defining choices can drive success.

A QUOTE TO REMEMBER
Winning Requires Hard Choices

“Winning requires making hard choices about where to play and how to win.”

A.G. Lafley & Roger L. Martin, Playing to Win

BOOK FACTS
Playing to Win

  • Publication date: February 5, 2013

  • Print length: 272 pages

  • Listening length: 7:09

  • Ratings: 4.5 Amazon, 4.0 Goodreads

Today’s book was recommended by Scott Levy, Founder and CEO of ResultMaps, the Strategy Execution Software that empowers teams to hit their numbers 2x faster.

SCOTT’S FAVORITE TAKEAWAYS
Strategy Principles

  1. Strategy is about making choices: It’s not a plan or set of goals; it is a set of integrated decisions about where to play and how to win. It’s a lot of “no’s” to keep you focused.

  2. Focus on playing to win, not just playing: Otherwise you end up with undifferentiated failures.

  3. Strategy is customer-centric: Focus on the customer. If you have a multi-tiered model then it’s your customer and the end-user; your internal financial goals are not a starting point for strategy.

  4. Develop core capabilities: Identify and intentionally cultivate the unique skills and resources to actually deliver on your promise (aka Value Proposition).

  5. Align management systems to execution of strategy: Whatever processes, structures, and metrics you use, they exist only to support the chosen strategy and guide decision-making.

  6. Strategy is iterative: It’s an ongoing process of learn-adapt-refine.

  7. Lead or lose: To win, you need strong leadership who is willing to make tough choices—especially saying no to things that don’t support the strategy.

For more of Scott’s takeaways from the book—including a 7-step decision-making process and 6 strategy traps to avoid—check out his post on LinkedIn.

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