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The Power of Strategy

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The Power of Strategy

World.Minds,

5 min read
5 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Everybody talks about strategy, but what does it really mean?

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

In this accessible presentation, Claudio Feser, the director of McKinsey & Company’s Swiss office, describes how strategy can – and cannot – be useful. If you’ve studied strategy, most of the facts Feser provides will be familiar, but his particular take on it is refreshing. getAbstract recommends this video to aspiring strategic thinkers and to those interested in the history of business or in critical thinking about their industries.

Summary

Ask 150 people to explain “strategy,” and you’ll get 150 different definitions. Even experts’ definitions vary widely. Today, people often mislabel something as “strategic” to indicate that it is important. In fact, the word “strategy” comes from the Greek term strategos, meaning “general.” A general leads his army in battle. Thus, a strategy is “an integrated handful of decisions” made in advance of uncertain circumstances to reach specific goals. These decisions are difficult to undo. For instance, it is hard to unsell a company once you’ve sold it. Essentially, business strategies are tools to aid decision making. These tools are based...

About the Speaker

Claudio Feser is the director of McKinsey & Company’s Swiss office.

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    E. M. 8 years ago
    There seems to be a problem with the link. You can't see the video.
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      8 years ago
      Dear Emilia,

      Many thanks for making us aware of this glitch and helping us to improve our service. As Zurich.Minds (now World.Minds) has undergone a rebranding of late, its old links unfortunately no longer work. I've replaced the old link with a link to YouTube, which, I hope, will allow you to watch the full video. I will also repair the outdated links in our other Zurich.Minds summaries, which may suffer the same issue.

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