Reinventing Strategy - by Willie Pietersen - Remarks

Introduction
PART I: THE NEW LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE
PART II: IMPLEMENTING STRATEGIC LEARNING AS A LEADERSHIP PROCESS
PART III: STRATEGIC LEARNING FOR PERSONAL GROWTH
Remarks
Reading Suggestions & CONTENTS
About the Author

Remarks

Pietersen begins Reinventing Strategy heralding new leadership challenges, new rules of competition, new playing fields, new games, and the new economy; nonetheless, the ideas he explores do not venture into any virgin territory. Strategy, culture, leadership, innovation, learning, and change are all familiar topics, endlessly explored in the business (and other) literature to yield an ocean of ideas, both serendipitous and mundane. The author spreads a wide net, gathering in such forward thinkers as Lester Thurow, Arie de Geus, Robert Reich, Clayton Christensen, Charles Handy, Andy Grove, Henry Mintzber, Peter Senge, Charles Darwin, Carly Fiorina, Jay Galbraith, Michael Porter, Edgar Schein, B.F. Skinner, Richard Pascale, Collins and Porras, Peter Drucker, David Nadler, and others of renown. There’s not much, in terms of basic business theory that you won’t recognize.

However, as Pietersen is quick to point out, “our issue here is not what’s new; it’s what’s important.” Thus, he critically examines timeless lessons in light of current challenges, offering his unique perspective on what’s important. The result is, as Bob Johansen (president of the Institute for the Future) notes in his foreword, “a wonderful mix of theory and practice, plus commonsense reasoning that works—for all the right reasons. … [filling] a genuine void between organizational learning and strategy, without the cumbersome jargon of either field.”

This lack of cumbersome jargon is an extremely valuable characteristic of the work. Readers get an “insights-to-action” guide, which delineates a practical, proven methodology that can be used by anyone to create and sustain an adaptive organization. And, it is offered as a distillation and simplification of the essential consequences and implications of a comprehensive range of business theories into a clear and concise hands-on “playbook” that can be used as a constant reference for strengthening the interrelated processes of strategy and leadership.