Leadership and Strategy

Leadership and strategy are intricately connected--one of the primary responsibilities of leaders is to formulate strategy. In an organization, only the leader has the power to implement strategic change. Thus strategic thinking is a necessary and fundamental cognitive ability of a leader.

Components of Strategic Thinking

Strategic thinking requires both an idealism (to imagine a better world) and a realism (to acquire the resources, skills and organization to get there). However, most organizations focus on short-term thinking for their employees and leave long-term strategy to the executives.

Communication and Realistic Strategy

But no high-level executive in any organization is fully knowledgeable about the details of operations. Thus for realistic strategy, there is a need for good top-down and bottom-up communication. When organizational communication is only top-down, high-level strategy can become only wishful thinking by the CEO.

The Purpose of Strategic Thinking

The purpose of proper strategic thinking is to eliminate wishful-thinking from organizational strategy. Strategic thinking is necessary at every level of an organization, not just at the top.

Illustrations and Examples

This book uses actual histories of business successes and failures to illustrate theoretical concepts in strategic thinking.