Published here November 2010
Introduction | Book Structure
What We Liked | Downside | Summary

Book Structure

According to the Introduction:[4]

"Strategic DNA is a modular approach for driving a company's strategy through its decisions and actions, giving them a family resemblance. It integrates popular management methods with everyday business practices to ensure decisions are framed by a shared vision and actions work together in an overall master plan."

Hence the book contains the following chapters and sections:

Introduction

1.

Vision Formulation: Where Do We Want to Go?

2.

Strategy Clarification and Mapping: How Do We Plan to Get There?

3.

Achievement Target Identification: How Will We Know We Are There?

4.

Strategy Cascading: What Will That Look Like for Each Business?

5.

Project Portfolio Selection: What Will We Do to Get There? What Will We Stop Doing?

6.

Implementation Structure Organization: How Will We Organize Ourselves?

7.

Resource And Accountability Assignments: Who Will Do It? How Much Can They Spend?

8.

Detailed Project Planning: What Exactly Must Be Done?

9.

Work Team Mobilization: How Do We Get Everyone on Board?

10.

Project Execution and Control: Where Should We Be? Where Are We? What Are We Doing About the Difference?

11.

Results Realization Measurement: Are We There Yet?

12.

Learning Analysis and Feedback: What Went Wrong? What Went Right? What Should We Change?

In Conclusion

Footnotes

Further Reading

Speaking The Same Language: People, Teams And Groups

Speaking the Same Language: Glossary

A closer examination of this list shows that the book is, in effect, divided into the consecutive phases of the corporate business life cycle, as follows:

  • Chapters 1 to 4 spell out corporate planning
  • Chapter 5 deals with project portfolio management
  • Chapters 6 & 7 cover program management
  • Chapters 8 to 10 traverse the well-trodden path of project implementation, and
  • Chapters 11 & 12 describe the work of benefits realization and feedback

Each chapter tackles key questions as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Key Questions by Chapter
Figure 2: Key Questions by Chapter

From this framework you will see that the book provides a comprehensive coverage of very practical issues.

Introduction  Introduction
4. Ibid, p xi
 
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