A ground-breakingstrategy book
Many strategy books suggest simplistic solutions to complicated problems. They offer rules based on anecdotal evidence pieced together from today’s hero companies, and they promise top line and margin growth to executives applying those rules. Unsurprisingly, many business strategies fail, despite great execution.
Fad-Free Strategy provides a ground-breaking alternative. It recognizes that the choices that customers make rather than supposedly universal rules ultimately determine the success of a business strategy. It offers rigorous yet highly accessible economic tools to uncover hidden customer preferences. As a result, executives will be able to predict with confidence which strategic options will lead to commercial success.
Endorsements
An illuminating book that reaches beyond unrepresentative examples and management fads to take a nitty-gritty perspective on value-driven strategy.
Pankaj Ghemawat, Global Professor of Management and Strategy at the NYU Stern School of Business, and Professor of Strategic Management at IESE Business School
By applying the evidence-based principles proposed by Fad-Free Strategy, Deneffe and Vantrappen enable managers to get a much better grip on customers’ true preferences, including those for sustainable offerings, and on their attitudes towards the businesses supplying those. That understanding is critical for making strategic choices from which both business and society benefit. A must-read book for leaders of the future!
Paul Polman, Former Chief Executive Officer, Unilever
Building from one of the best summaries and critiques of classic strategy, Fad-Free Strategy goes beneath the covers and into the pragmatic detail of developing customer-driven approaches that will be valuable to all intelligent managers.
David J. Collis, Thomas Henry Carroll Ford Foundation Adjunct Professor of Business Administration, Strategy unit, Harvard Business School
Fad-Free Strategy is a refreshing real-world approach to strategy that every smart manager must be craving for. It explains by means of real case examples how to translate an overall vision and ambition into specific customer-driven decisions. If you want to be more confident with the tough choices you make, this book is a must-read.
Hubertus M. Mühlhäuser, Chief Executive Officer, CNH Industrial
This book shows — in line with its authors’ no-nonsense attitude — how to take strategy from big ideas to very practical questions and evidence-based assessments, which is critical to ensure a strategy's successful implementation.
Eric J. Van den Steen, Royal Little Professor of Business Administration, Strategy unit, Harvard Business School
Fad-Free Strategy debunks the many myths about business strategy that managers have adopted. The book offers a highly credible customer-centric alternative.
Marc Grynberg, Chief Executive Officer, Umicore
Applied economics at its best! This book establishes that “rigorous” and “applied” are not two contradictory terms when it comes to business strategy.
James J. Anton, Wesley A. Magat Professor of Economics, Duke University, The Fuqua School of Business
Fad-Free Strategy is a surprisingly refreshing read, even for hands-on decision makers. Whilst others are either solely academic or merely focus on explaining some famous anecdotal examples from the business world, this book offers much more – a crystal clear content with evidence-based validation and pragmatic tools with a credible approach to real business challenges.
Jochen A. Haug, Member of the Board of Management, Allianz Insurance Germany
Demystifying management fads, the authors show in a practical manner how to mitigate risks when building and implementing customer-centric and value-driven strategies. A highly recommended reading.
André Salles, General Manager, Lactalis Do Brazil
The Authors
Dr. Daniel Deneffe is the Managing Director of Deneffe Consulting and a former Partner at Arthur D. Little. He also teaches Business Strategy in the Real World at Harvard University’s Division of Continuing Education and is a Professor of Strategy at Hult International Business School.
Herman Vantrappen is the Managing Director of Akordeon, a strategic advisory firm. A former Partner at Arthur D. Little, he has published numerous articles in a variety of journals, including Long Range Planning, MIT Sloan Management Review, Strategy & Leadership and Harvard Business Review.