Making strategy requires undertaking major―often irreversible―decisions aimed at long-term success in an uncertain future. All leaders must formulate a clear course of action, yet many lack confidence in their ability to think systematically about their strategy. They struggle to apply the abstract lessons offered by conventional approaches to strategic analysis to their unique contexts. Making Great Strategy resolves these challenges with a straightforward, readily applicable framework. Jesper B. Sørensen and Glenn R. Carroll show that one factor underlies all sustainably successful strategies: a logically coherent argument that connects resources, capabilities, and environmental conditions to desired outcomes. They introduce a system for formulating and managing strategy through a set of three core activities: visualization, formalization and logic, and constructive argumentation. These activities can be implemented in any organization and are illustrated through examples and case studies from well-known companies such as Apple, Walmart, and The Economist . This book shows that while great strategic thinking is hard, it is not a mystery. Widely applicable and relevant for managers and leaders at all levels, especially executive teams charged with setting the course of their organizations, it is essential reading for anyone faced with practical problems of strategic management. Sørensen and Carroll have developed an incredibly powerful yet simple way to build a compelling corporate strategy. After reading the book you’ll wonder why everyone doesn’t do it this way. -- Andy Rachleff, cofounder, CEO, and executive chairman, Wealthfront; previously cofounder and senior partner, Benchmark Capital This is simply one of the best methods I’ve come across for how to devise, develop, and deploy corporate strategy. It is a must-read for every executive responsible for or frustrated by their own company’s strategy. This book taught me not only how to pressure-test our strategy but also how to constantly rewrite it―making us stronger, over and over again. -- David Rogier, CEO and founder, MasterClass Making Great Strategy is about how managers should make strategy. Hindsight is always 20/20, but, while in the middle of figuring out what to do and what not to do, it is always important to ‘think about how we think.’ This book helps you do that. -- Michael A. Cusumano, SMR Distinguished Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and coauthor of Strategy Rules and The Business of Platforms More than ever, we need tools to argue in reasonable and robust ways and to recognize and cultivate the wisdom of a group of people unified by a common vision and moving in the same strategic direction. This book is a set of interlocking tools that creates systems and clarity, reveals biases, ensures equity in decision making, and brings people together to achieve a common goal―a viable and robust strategy. This is not a checklist but a GPS for leaders and teams to create their own roadmaps to the future. -- Gail Crider, president and chief executive officer, National Arts Strategies Many books have been written about strategy, but few have fundamentally changed the way we think about the topic. Making Great Strategy does exactly this. By leveraging the discipline of critical analytical thinking, pioneered at Stanford's business school, this book propels us beyond generating great strategy and toward the ongoing evaluation and revision of it. Both are essential elements to operating in a dynamic world. -- Michael Arena, vice president of talent and development at Amazon Web Services and author of Adaptive Space Great strategy is the result of thinking critically. Making great strategy equates to making great investment opportunities, which, by definition, means it is hard to do. So, the questions are: How do you know before you invest if you’ve made a great strategy? And how do you make a great strategy to begin with? This book will help you understand that these are the same question―and it will help you answer it. -- Paul Branstad, former senior partner, director, and global head of strategy, Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc., president and CEO, Safeharbor Advisors, Ltd. Sørensen and Carroll are esteemed social scientists who have brought an essential, transformative perspective to business strategy. Great strategies don’t come from matrices, lists, or machine learning. Great strategies are, at root, strong logical arguments―yes, innovative, competitively focused, analytically rigorous. But Making Great Strategy reinforces that it is strong logic, not intricate gnomic tools, that distinguishes great strategies from those doomed to fail. -- William F. Meehan III, Raccoon Partners Lecturer in Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business; senior partner emeritus, McKinsey and Company; and coauthor of Engine of Impact: Essentials of Strategic Leadership in the Nonprofit Sector Strategic success, Stanford profe