Strategy Rules: Five Timeless Lessons from Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs - Hardcover

Yoffie, David B.; Cusumano, Michael A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062373951 ISBN 13: 9780062373953

Publisher: Harper Business, 2015

Synopsis

The authors of the bestselling Competing on Internet Time (a Business Week top 10 book) analyze the strategies, principles, and skills of three of the most successful and influential figures in business—Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs—offering lessons for all managers and entrepreneurs on leadership, strategy and execution.

In less than a decade, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Andy Grove founded three companies that would define the world of technology and transform our lives. At their peaks, Microsoft, Apple, and Intel were collectively worth some $1.5 trillion. Strategy Rules examines these three individuals collectively for the first time—their successes and failures, commonalities and differences—revealing the business strategies and practices they pioneered while building their firms.

David B. Yoffie and Michael A. Cusumano have studied these three leaders and their companies for more than thirty years, while teaching business strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship at Harvard and MIT. In this enlightening guide, they show how Gates, Grove, and Jobs approached strategy and execution in remarkably similar ways—yet markedly differently from their erstwhile competitors—keeping their focus on five strategic rules.

Strategy Rules brings together the best practices in strategic management and high-tech entrepreneurship from three path-breaking entrepreneurs who emerged as CEOs of huge global companies. Their approaches to formulating strategy and building organizations offer unique insights for start-up executives as well as the heads of modern multinationals.

About this title

Review

“Warts and all, here is the inside story on how three unlikely leaders changed the world forever and created a trillion dollars of market cap. Two brilliant business professors with unique access provide lessons for any business and its leaders.” (Scott Cook, Founder & Chairman, Intuit)

“No one but these co-authors could have distilled the histories of these great CEOs and their world-changing firms into a handful of lucid and logical guidelines for all strategic thinking. Everyone in business --whether in big companies or small -- should read, mark, and digest this book.” (Reed Hundt, CEO, Coalition for Green Capital; former chairman, FCC)

“Brilliantly and accurately explains how these legendary high-tech CEOs shaped the world we live in. A must read for today’s aspiring leaders”. (John Sculley, former Apple CEO)

“This is not just about strategy for technology companies but about how bold, passionate and deeply knowledgeable leaders work. It is required reading for those who aspire to push the boundaries of business. ” (John Browne, former CEO BP and former board member of Intel)

From the Back Cover

Between 1968 and 1976, Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs launched three companies that would define the world of high technology, create more than a trillion dollars in value, and transform our lives. How did they realize these incredible achievements? Strategy Rules examines these three individuals collectively for the first time—their successes and failures, comonalities and differences—revealing the business strategies and practices they pioneered while building their firms.

Eminent business professors David Yoffie and Michael Cusumano have studied these three leaders and their companies for nearly thirty years, while teaching business strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School and the MIT Sloan School of Management. In this enlightening guide, they show how Gates, Grove, and Jobs became masters of strategy. As CEOs, each approached strategy and execution in remarkably similar ways—yet markedly differently from their erstwhile competitors—keeping their focus on five rules:

• Look Forward, Reason Back: They determined where they want their companies to be in the future and could "reason back" to identify the moves that would take them there.

• Make Big Bets, Without Betting the Company: All three men made enormous strategic bets but rarely took gambles that put the financial viability of their companies at undue risk.

• Build Platforms and Ecosystems: Technology leaders have to create industry platforms that enable other firms to create complementary products and services that make the platforms increasingly valuable.

• Exploit Leverage and Power: Gates, Grove, and Jobs often turned opponents’ strengths into weaknesses and used enormous resources (once they had them) to dominate competitors.

• Shape the Company around Your Personal Anchor: From Gates’ understanding of software to Grove’s devotion to process discipline and Jobs’ obsession with design, all three built their companies around their personal strengths while compensating for their weaknesses.

Strategy Rules brings together the best practices in strategic management and high-tech entrepreneurship, providing unique insights for start-up executives as well as the heads of modern multinationals.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Business
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0062373951
• ISBN 13: 9780062373953
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 272