I try to keep on top of the latest strategic frameworks and research coming from leading institutions by reading books and various business mags. I'll keep the blog up to date with what I'm reading now as well as provide my views on what I'm reading. The first installment is a review of The Strategy Paradox.
The Strategy Paradox comes from Michael Raynor, the co-author with Clayton Christenson on "The Innovator's Dilemma". Michael presents an interesting view into the "uncertainties" that businesses face about the future given changing industries, regulations, environments, etc. He writes that in order to execute a particular strategy successfully, you must fully commit to that strategy. The paradox is that this same commitment can come back to bite you if the future doesn't turn out quite as you expected.
The book certainly brings to light the theory around developing real options and provides a very basic framework about how to develop the right options. However, the framework is not rigorous in its presentation and would require a strong personal interpretation by those who choose to use it. In the end, most of the book spends its time convincing you that the future is uncertain (which most people know anyway) with interesting examples of Sony's Betamax and MiniDisc failures and very little time in developing a truly useful framework for the problem. This could have easily been adapted into an HBR article and given the reader the same takeaways.
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