Six strategy traps.

• Author: Lafley, A.G.
• Position: Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works - Brief article - Book review

From Playing to Win by A. G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin. Copyright [c]2013 by the authors. Published by Harvard Business Review Press (www.hbrorg/books).

THERE IS NO PERFECT STRATEGY--no algorithm that can guarantee sustainable competitive advantage in a given industry or business. But there are signals that a company has a particularly worrisome strategy. Here are six of the most common strategy traps:

* The do-it-all strategy: Failing to make choices, and making everything a priority. Remember, strategy is choice.

* The Don Quixote strategy: Attacking competitive "walled cities" or taking on the strongest competitor first, head-to-head. Remember, where to play is your choice. Pick somewhere you can have a chance to win.

* The Waterloo strategy: Starting wars on multiple fronts with multiple competitors at the same time. No company can do everything well. If you try to do so, you will do everything weakly.

* The something-for-everyone strategy: Attempting to capture all consumer or channel or geographic or category segments at once. Remember, to create value, you have to choose to serve some constituents really well and not worry...