The Strategy Paradox: Why committing to success leads to failure (and what to do about it)

The Strategy Paradox: Why committing to success leads to failure by Michael E. Raynor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Someone needs to write an adaptation of this book for Entrepreneurs, or at least for people in business who don't work for Fortune 500 companies. The ideas are excellent and, as far as I know, not discussed in any other business book, but it would be great if they could be made more actionable for your average person (who doesn't respond to shareholders, have multiple departments under them, or can afford to allocate Microsoft-style resources to different strategies).

Some quotes I liked:

"If diversification efforts lower the performance of the firm overall, but the performance of each new business venture is still above the firm's average cost of capital, then diversification will 'create' value." (p. 161)

"...nothing big starts big, and tomorrow's whale is today's minnow. The problem is that most of today's minnows are tomorrow's meals, and knowing which is which remains a challenge." (p. 184)

"And when it comes to strategy and the long term, uncertainty is the only constant, and choosing options over commitment is the most reasonable response to that uncertainty." (p. 271)



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