Shelf-to-Strategy: Playing to Win

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Strategy work for me always felt a bit too abstract. And hey, no one loves drowning in thought more than I do.

But during the three years that I worked in marketing, I always tried my best to become more focused on execution. So much so that I actually started to not take strategy that seriously.

You know how it is. You find different opinions (especially on a platform like LinkedIn) about what constitutes a successful business.

Vague concepts are always thrown around, like "Hard Work," "Good Strategy," or "Market Research."

But no one actually sits down and shows you a good framework unless you comment something random like "WANT" or "YES" or "DADDY" on their post.

My point is, I have always been on the search for a proper framework to organize my business ideas. I remember the first time I discovered the Business Canvas Framework. I was like: Wow, this is it. This will unlock everything I need for turning a successful idea into an amazing product.

Obviously, I was wrong. But to be honest, it did help me think better about products.

Ever since then, I am always on the lookout for frameworks that make sense and give me an understanding of how I can think right about strategy.

So that’s why I decided to grab Playing to Win by A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin.

Why I Picked Up "Playing to Win"

I was on Reddit in search of a good marketing strategy book. Spending some time on LinkedIn made me too attached to tactics from gurus that never did more than actually teach tactics.

So, Playing to Win is where I landed. I know, ironic given the title. However, I will happily say that this book was a pleasant surprise.

Stick around until the end of this post, I have a really neat announcement that will take your company strategy creation to the next level.

What Strategy Actually Is (And What It Isn't)

So, the book talks about strategy. The most important insight that I got from this is that strategy is all about making choices.

It’s simple enough, but it helps reduce the blurriness that is generally associated with strategy talk.

Most importantly, it’s about making choices that lead to winning in the certain segment you are targeting by offering superior value to consumers relative to the competitors.

It is fundamentally about choice because it requires making explicit decisions to do some things and not others, which forces a company's hand but also frees it to focus on what matters for winning. And "winning" is an important word there.

The framework also gives a lot of importance to the idea that a part of winning is knowing what constitutes losing. It’s a general theme in the book, and they apply it to understanding what strategy isn’t.

According to the authors, strategy is not:

• A Vision: This lacks a guide to action.

• A Plan: This doesn't guarantee a competitive advantage.

• Optimizing the Status Quo: This doesn't address larger competitive shifts.

• Following Best Practices: This is just a recipe for mediocrity.

• Denying that Long-Term Strategy is Possible: This just puts a company in reactive mode.

The Strategic Choice Cascade

So now that we know what the book isn’t trying to do, what is it trying to do really?

Basically, the framework is defined as The Strategic Choice Cascade. It is a coordinated and integrated set of five choices that form the foundation of strategy.

The five core questions are:

1. What is your winning aspiration?

2. Where will you play?

3. How will you win?

4. What capabilities must be in place?

5. What management systems are required?

   
   

Let’s try to break down a little bit what each of these means.

1. What is your winning aspiration?

This defines what winning means for you. This is not meant to be finance-centered, but customer-oriented. What is your ideal future? What is really winning for you?

Now, maybe what comes to mind is a mission statement. Even though the authors didn’t want to admit it, it’s a bit like that.

In their defense though, mission statements tend to be too general, and asking “What does winning mean for us?” is more concrete. J

ust like we will see with the whole framework, this doesn’t only apply to the whole company, but also to specific functions as well.

2. Where will you play?

In marketing terms, this might simply mean: What’s your target market? Who are your customers? Where are you placing or positioning your company?

But I think the book gives a fresh perspective by also defining where you will NOT play. It keeps the focus on the hard choices that you have to make.

3. How will you win?

Closely linked to "where to play" choices is "how will you win." Fundamentally, these two are the heart of strategy.

Basically, there are two ways you can win: Cost Leadership or Differentiation. In simple terms, make the same product but cheaper than the competition, or be different enough that customers are willing to pay more.

When I first read this, I was kind of taken aback a little. Seriously? That’s all you can do? But, yes, when you think about it, it’s all you can do.

The authors actually have a great section at the end explaining why these two options are fundamental from the lens of microeconomics (for all you nerds out there).

Regardless, "how to play" basically defines your go-to-market strategy.

Note: This cascade of choices is not linear. Which makes sense. When you make choices about your aspirations and your "where to play," while thinking about "how to play," you will probably want to go back and change the "where to play" a little for things to make more sense.

4. What capabilities must be in place?

What are your strengths that would allow you to win in the "where" and "how" you already decided?

Again, this will probably make you go back and edit stuff you’ve thought about before.

Identifying your capabilities will allow you to know what you can do, and what you should improve. This decision is vital and is closely supported by our final choice.

5. What management systems are required?

This part is my favorite because it’s more about the execution side of the coin. What kind of structures and systems do you need to make sure that the strategy is not only clearly communicated but applied at every level and function of the organization.

My Critique: Is This Only for Big Corporations?

And boom! there it is.

Now, after reading through the chapters that explain each strategy choice and reading through examples from P&G’s products, I was left a bit unsatisfied.

As someone who doesn’t work in a conglomerate, the use cases were pretty useful in understanding the concepts, but I couldn’t help but stop sometimes and say things like,

"Yes, that part makes sense because you are a billion-dollar company, now how can I apply this to my startup?"

To be honest, finishing the book didn’t completely seal the deal for me. But it did help, because the authors went on to talk about something more concrete, supporting systems for your decisions that make creating the same strategy for your small business a bit easier.

I am talking about the Strategy Logic Flow and the Reverse-Engineering Process.

The Reverse-Engineering Process

The latter is my favorite because it literally had "testing" in the process. Which I love.

In simple terms, the Strategy Logic Flow allows you to understand your company’s current reality by analyzing 4 different angles: Industry, Customer Value, Relative Position, and Competition.

The Reverse Engineering Process helps with choosing what’s right for each of those angles, which eventually gives you a clearer idea of where and how you will play to win.

It basically allows for creativity in coming up with choices, setting criteria for their success, seeing which ones we are not sure of, testing them, and then ditching the strategic flow if one of the criteria is not met.

Eventually, you will choose the strategic flow with the least friction to better your odds of winning. It was a very useful perspective that I will probably use in my day-to-day or when I am helping companies understand their markets.

Conclusion: How to Apply This to Small Business

This is basically a summary of the book. If you are reading this and are interested in marketing or strategy (even if you are experienced) it’s a pretty solid refresher with clear examples.

I would recommend it even more to people who want to hold managerial positions in large companies, as the use cases will be much more relatable.

At the end, I couldn’t help but think about how I could apply this to my startup or personal project, more precisely, how people can apply this to their small businesses.

A lot of the examples given in the book involve people making many decisions, having discussions, and possessing the expertise to talk about these kinds of things, which is generally not available to small businesses.

So I think AI could be helpful here.

Now, I’m not someone who believes AI is the solution to everything, but to be honest, AI can help you gain different perspectives and offer predictive text on things you might have missed, especially when you don’t have anyone to bounce ideas off.

I’ve always found AI helpful when reading books, almost like having someone to talk to. It helps energize me and open up my mind. It’s like talking to myself, but less lonely, you know? (Or maybe even more lonely, come to think of it).

Something New I'm Building

So, what I’m doing right now is creating a tool that will guide you through this whole process and support you along the way using AI.

I’ll create all the prompts, make sure they’re solid and well-crafted, and build a simple interface where you can enter your company details.

Based on that, you’ll go through different strategic choices. It will all be driven by you: your choices, your input. The AI will simply help you organize your thoughts and suggest alternatives to help you think through the process.