In great strategies, the where-to-play and how-to-win choices fit together to make the

company stronger.

Two questions flow from and support the heart of strategy: (1) what capabilities must be in place to win, and (2) what management systems are required to support the strategic choices?

The strategy logic flow:

CONCLUSION: The Endless Persuit of Winning

“For your own company, ask (and honestly answer):

• Have you defined winning, and are you crystal clear about your winning aspiration?

• Have you decided where you can play to win (and just as decisively where you will not play)?

• Have you determined how, specifically, you will win where you choose to play?

• Have you pinpointed and built your core capabilities in such a way that they enable your where-to-play and how-to-win choices?

• Do your management systems and key measures support your other four strategic

choices?

Roger Fisher and William Ury, two Harvard law professors, have done some outstanding work in what they call the “principled” approach versus the “positional” approach to bargaining in their tremendously useful and insightful book, Getting to Yes. Although the words Win/Win are not used, the spirit and underlying philosophy of the book are in harmony with the Win/Win approach. They suggest that the essence of principled negotiation is to separate the person from the problem, to focus on interests and not on positions, to invent options for mutual gain, and to insist on objective criteria—some external standard or principle that both parties can buy into.