Hardball
Subtitle: are you playing to play or playing to win?
By: George Stalk, Robert Lachenauer, with John Butman
Contributors: Lachenauer, Robert; Butman, John
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 175
ISBN-13: 9781591391678
Subjects: Toughness (Personality trait); Success in business; Industrial management; Competition; Strategic planning
Description: "Hardball takes leaders deep inside the world of hardball competition - a world where the players are zealously committed to winning and relentlessly driven to strengthen their competitive positions, creating a virtuous cycle that puts them far out of competitors' reach. Based on twenty-five years of experience advising and observing a range of companies, Stalk and Lachenauer reveal how hardball competitors achieve decisive victories - without bending the law and without compromising their obligations to customers and stakeholders. These companies often play rough, and they don't apologize for it. Yet they are also extraordinarily adept at the "soft" side of management - rallying talent and building culture through a laserlike focus on the few issues most critical to success." "Using detailed and engaging stories from many industries, Hardball outlines seven classic hardball strategies: unleash massive and overwhelming force, exploit anomalies, threaten competitors' profit sanctuaries, take it and make it your own, entice competitors' into retreat, break industry compromises, and hardball M&A. The authors reveal who uses hardball strategies, under what circumstances each strategy is most effective, and how to orchestrate the attack."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 161-163) and index.
Table of contents: title: The hardball manifesto; title: Unleash massive and overwhelming force; title: Exploit anomalies; title: Threaten your competitor's profit sanctuaries; title: Take it and make it your own; title: Entice your competitor into retreat; title: Break compromises; title: Hardball M&A; title: Changes in the field of play; title: The hardball mindset.