Once in a generation, a book comes along that transforms the business landscape. For today's business leaders, The New How redefines the way companies create strategies and win new markets.

Management gurus have always said "people matter." But those same gurus still relegate strategy to an elite set of executives who focus on frameworks, long presentations, and hierarchical approaches. Business strategy typically has been planned by corporate chiefs in annual meetings, and then dictated to managers to carry out. The New How turns that notion on its head. After many years of working with Apple, Adobe, HP, and many other companies, Nilofer Merchant discovered the secret sauce: the best way to create a winning strategy is to include employees at all levels, helping to create strategy they not only believe in, but are also equipped to implement.

In The New How, Nilofer shows today's corporate directors, executives, and managers how they can transform their traditional, top-down approach to strategy planning and execution into collaborative "stratecution" that has proven to be significantly more effective.

• Enhance performance and outcomes by deflating the "air sandwich" between executives in the boardroom and employees

• Recognize that strategy and execution are thoroughly intertwined

• Understand how successful strategy is founded in effective idea selection-a pile of good ideas doesn't necessarily build good strategy

• Create company strategy and link it to targeted execution, using the practical models and techniques provided

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 9 Ratings

Must-read for leaders/managers/coaches, business and non-profit - 2010-01-03
Reviewer Rating:
I rarely say "must read", but this is a rare book.

Nilofer Merchant has accomplished what few business writers have:
- Implementing the ideas in this book will substantially transform organizations.
- These transformations will make the organizations simultaneously more competitive AND better places to work.
- Leaders at all levels can apply these learnings, although I most want this book to get into the hands of C-levels (the world hasn't changed yet!) and those that advise them.
- The book is so well-written that there's a good chance that readers will actually stay with it, remember it, refer back, and work toward the changes recommended.

Nilofer, former star performer at Apple and Autodesk, now strategy consultant to high-tech CEOs, has one foot grounded in the top-down reality of today's large organizations and another stepping forward into the more networked, collaborative, far more agile world of tomorrow's successful companies.

As an executive coach with roots in corporate strategy, I applaud Nilofer's theme that people at all levels in your organization have knowledge, insight, and solution-finding smarts that go largely untapped as companies currently set strategy and navigate fast-moving markets to deliver. For all the talk of "talent management" people at mid and front-line levels are seldom engaged in the decisions that matter most. This has to change, and here is your roadmap.

I rate this book, along with Heifetz & Lansky's "Practice of Adaptive Leadership", as highest-value reading that give me, at the opening of this perilous decade, the most optimism that people in big organizations can get their acts together and thrive.

Right on time! - 2010-01-07
Reviewer Rating:
New How is my first "must-read" book for 2010.

It seems that there is growing evidence our organizations, institutions and our way of leadership are poorly equipped for the 21st century. This timely work from Nilofer Merchant lays out a framework for focusing relentlessly on what truly matters so that organizations can be successful today and tomorrow. We all know that there has always been a significant gap between what organizations and "leaders" say and what organizations and "leaders" actually do...this book tackles that gap head-on and provides a framework for closing it. This is about delivering on promises and about understanding how value is really created today.

"Having a great strategic direction or idea without a prepared set of people who "get it" is effectively the same as having a bad idea." ...sounds like common sense but this happens over and over and over again in companies big and small. Nilofer provides sound guidance for really tapping into the unique potential of your organization.

This is one of those books that everyone will be talking about at the end of the year...don't wait until everyone else has already read it.

please give my MBA tuition to Nilofer Merchant! - 2010-01-31
Reviewer Rating:
I highly recommend this book!

I'm 2 years into my 3 year MBA program at Santa Clara University and the content of this book is the most useful instruction I have come across. Reading the New How and having Nilofer Merchant lecture my management course was a terrific experience and a defining turning point for me. I know what I want to accomplish but the `how' has been somewhat elusive. The New How dives right into the issues that stop companies from reaching their full potential.

If you want to make your work place a better, more productive and collaborative environment, this book is a MUST read. I've never plugged anything online before and I doubt I'll do it again anytime soon.

Thank you Nilofer for sharing your insight with us!

A playbook for more effective organizations - 2010-01-19
Reviewer Rating:
The business world, especially technology markets, are experiencing unprecedented--and increasing--rates-of-change, but few companies handle this well. Merchant shows how companies are better served by enabling strategy to flow from all parts of the organization, leveraging the knowledge inherent in all parts of the organization. This understanding allows organizations to adapt more quickly to changes because the strategy is a "how" not a "what." This is important, because with rapid market changes, businesses simply can't wait for the next strategic planning cycle to adapt.

From the opening story of why a big multi-product product roll-out didn't work, The New How is filled with real-world examples salted with practical wisdom for how to make organizations and leaders more effective. Throughout the book , she draws on the advice she has given successful Silicon Valley companies like Adobe and Symantec for the past 10 years, skillfully merging the "what" and the "how" of strategy development into a highly readable guide of principles, techniques, and methodology.

Do Yourself a Favor - Please Read - 2010-01-14
Reviewer Rating:
The New How is one of those books that presents common-sense in the most compelling of ways. If you have ever listened to the "blah blah blah" of the "strategic plan" presentation, this book will have you shaking your head in absolute recognition of a couple of facts. Strategy cannot be created in a vacuum. Strategy and execution of the strategy ARE connected (i.e. the real work starts when the PC projector light bulb cools and the Powerpoint presentation ends). That often times the best people to get involved in developing the strategy are those that not only have to execute, but have to deal with channel partners, employees, vendors and those oh so pesky customers.

I defy anyone to read this book and not complete it without recognizing their own past behaviors, those of their team or those of their leaders. One of the great things about this book is that the message is communicated in a concise but light hearted way. The book grants every reader the right to self deprecation, and you will exercise it. The reason? This is content that absolutely everyone can relate to.

The New How presents a simple and elegant road map for HOW to develop a collaborative environment to close the gap (affectionately referred to as the "Air Sandwich") between the leaders (who often appear to develop the strategic plan in a vacuum) and the do-ers (those who are most often charged with executing a strategy that is not clear, not planned or just off base). Been there??

The book is easy to read and cleverly sprinkled with some really great and amusing illustrations (cleverly done!) .

Whether you are in business, run a business, are involved with a volunteer group or just want to better understand how to connect the dots between "what" and "how", the New How will make you think and - in all likelihood - make you change some pervasive personal or organizational habits.

Highly recommended.

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