What Is Strategy? It’s a Lot Simpler Than You Think

Рет қаралды 950,191

Күн бұрын

To many people, strategy is a total mystery. But it’s really not complicated, says Harvard Business School’s Felix Oberholzer-Gee, author of "Better, Simpler Strategy".
00:00 To many people, strategy is a mystery.
00:25 Strategy does not start with a focus on profit.
00:52 It's about creating value.
01:00 There's a simple tool to help visualize the value you create: the value stick.
01:30 What is willingness-to-pay?
02:30 What is willingness-to-sell?
03:14 Remind me: Where does profit come in again?
03:48 How do I raise willingness-to-pay?
05:00 And how do I lower willingness-to-sell?
06:18 Real world example: Best Buy's dramatic turnaround
Companies should simplify and focus on two value drivers, he argues: customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. By aligning strategic initiatives on these alone, leaders make their workers’ jobs less complicated and improve customer experiences.
Oberholzer-Gee is the author of the Harvard Business Review article “Eliminate Strategic Overload” (hbr.org/2021/05/eliminate-str...) as well as the book “Better, Simpler Strategy: A Value-Based Guide to Exceptional Performance” (www.amazon.com/Better-Simpler....
Produced and edited by Scott LaPierre
Video by Dave Di Iulio and Elie Honein
Animation by Alex Belser
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Пікірлер: 312

@Willbudi 5 ай бұрын

Strategy is a plan to create value. 1. Not focus on profit 2. About looking forward to planning for the future 3. Building value for customers, employers, and suppliers 4. Value = difference between willingness to pay (customer) and willingness to sell (supplier) 5. How do I raise willingness to pay? Product Quality, Product Complement, Network Effects 6. How do I lower the willingness to sell? Provide better working experience as a trade-off For e.g. Best Buy, increase WTP by offering customers with faster delivery directly from BB neighborhood stores, utilizing BB stores as warehouse

@PGERARD63 Ай бұрын

Where does all the value ends?

@jwp363 7 ай бұрын

Felix, let me disagree, a strategy is not a plan. Strategy is about how-to achieve something - the story if you like. And a plan is about the what, where, and when - more like the chapters of a book.

@victorowino8588 Күн бұрын

How to achieve something equals a plan

@peacebakare Жыл бұрын

This is a super complement of "A Plan is Not a Strategy" by Prof. Roger, that I just watched. I have learned so much about Strategy within 20mins I feel like I have some powers at my disposal right now. Looks like I'll like to have a MBA for structured and consolidated knowledge.

@srinic9319 Жыл бұрын

I was just about to post this 😅 a plan is not a strategy but a strategy is a plan - 😭

@peacebakare Жыл бұрын

@Huy Phạm Quốc Really? So sorry about that. How can I help?

@durgaprasadvadlamoodi1271 Жыл бұрын

i agree, i just watched and explained very well.

@Anurag_Saxena Жыл бұрын

@Huy Phạm Quốc me too. So I watched this video again and concluded that strategy is a "plan to create value". First Prof. Roger sounded incorrect to me. Then I re-watched Prof Roger and found his case study of Southwest explaining his points crystal clear.

@michaelwilliams2337 Жыл бұрын

Prof Martin's video is excellent and probably the only strategy video which really says what strategy is all about in under 10 mins. Felix Oberholzer-Gee's video breezes over the ferocity of competitive forces.

@SiddharthSingh07 Жыл бұрын

Amazing job creating this content - Core concepts simplified under 10 mins Hoping to see more content in this format.

@burhani3071 2 жыл бұрын

Best content for a long time on youtube! Thank you for that HBR and Prof. Oberholzer-Gee.

@carol7roberts Жыл бұрын

Excellently and succinctly explained. Please put Mr. Oberholzer-Gee in more videos! Also, excellent visuals here!! Bravo!!!🏆

@meshangovender 2 жыл бұрын

Profound content. What a gift to be able to explain something so complex so simply. A true MBA in 10 mins

@ChengeerLee Жыл бұрын

Brilliant. And you are an amazing educator. Great work, kudos to the production team. Top notch work!

@PraveenKumar-ed3xt Жыл бұрын

Tons of value loaded video, It can't be simpler than this, so clear, with examples 🙏

@extedax 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent content! If you're looking for a 10min MBA, this the closest you could get to it.

@sergiomujica973 2 жыл бұрын

Exactly! I completely agree. It reminded me of some of my MBA classes.

@contemplore Жыл бұрын

Also #personalMBA by Josh Kauffman. Combine with HBR and Economist guides. For more in business today, learn Economics, Computer science CS50, web3, Mathematical thinking, lateral thinking, design thinking, systems thinking..... And lessons from your specialization specific books/pods/courses/journals...

@stevenmalolo938 Жыл бұрын

I love how you broke it down so we can understand. Love the content!

@Ms.T 9 ай бұрын

The anticipation of starting my dream job in a couple of weeks thrust me into this journey... I started with optimization of the Game theory in in my career, then I stumbled on "Planning is not a Strategy" to wit; a strategy is a plan that is based on logic that is simple & can be tweaked(with a pre-established tweaking mechanism) when it is not working... Full circle moment... 🎉

@SalawuIbrahim 2 жыл бұрын

This is amazing! I feel a lot smarter on the topic of strategy. I'm also aware enough that I need to learn so much more to be able to take advantage of this body of knowledge I just acquired. Thank you Felix!

@osama151189 Жыл бұрын

Thank you! I like how straightforwardly you educate.

@adriendeotto7971 Жыл бұрын

Anyone who tries to grasp what strategy is should start with this video. A big thank you to Felix Oberholzer-Gee and the HBR channel for sharing such high-quality content and insights 🙏

@teezfeelz-1716 2 ай бұрын

Hi Adrienne, I found the piece a little confusing especially around willingness to sell. What Am I missing. Can you explain to me like you would a 10year old.

@avono5330 3 ай бұрын

its a plan to create value. the beginning phase to achieve a benefit (a measurable outcome). determining optimal customer willingness to pay/price. determining willingness to sell for employees/compensation. the middle between the opposing position reflects company success.

@kumbukanikachingwe9919 Жыл бұрын

Thanks very much Havard, watching these videos really helps alot. It's kinda like we are on campus, i had to watch these episode 5 times to really get hold of WTP and WTS. Thanks.

@sahanglp3i-271 16 күн бұрын

Thanks to Harvard Business Review for the amazing videos ...

@Kakanato 2 жыл бұрын

Felix, you have just increased your value by increasing the willingness to pay and decreasing the willingness to sell! Awesome real life example!

@culturapoliticaycomputador9999 Жыл бұрын

This is a valuable video, it's a gift for all of us. Thank you Mr. Felix Oberholzer-Gee.

@abubalo 2 жыл бұрын

I am impressed by HBR consistency to release great video after great video👏

@abirahmed1292 2 жыл бұрын

Can we see this in real world" Wow, that question and answer really made the difference for me, you created a real value guys. Thanks

@robinzhang6205 Жыл бұрын

Hi ROFESSOR OBERHOLZER-GEE,I'm just in "Business Strategy" class online, good to see you here

@swezin7125 8 ай бұрын

I learn a lot within 20 mins and thank you so much.

@phathiswantshakaza7631 Ай бұрын

Strategy is not complicated, it's all about a plan to create value. customers are willing to pay for what they want

@floydmunetsi 2 жыл бұрын

Really great video... Clear and concise lesson.

@nhungphuong2461 Жыл бұрын

This is high-value content! So impress. Thank Prof.

@innovationconnected6762 7 ай бұрын

Love the video but have a different opinion on one point: What customer value is. I see it from a customer's point of view: If I pay $100 for something, how much value will I realize over and above that inital investment? Buying something is a sunk cost, the value is in what I get out of the investment. What Prof Felix described to me (value stick) is really a price stick, the range in which a seller and buyer can potentially agree on a price.

@alexisazria1169 Жыл бұрын

This is an excellent explanation. Thank you.

@matthew4031 2 ай бұрын

That was one of the most value pack videos I’ve ever watched

@drannoc100 Жыл бұрын

One’s think the more employees are engaged, the more they’ll be “willing to sell.” This phrase/concept of “willingness to sell go ‘down’” seems really about “enlarging” the portion/likelihood of willingness to sell instead of the actual level of willingness to sell. - Correct me if I am wrong.

@PhirunKao 2 жыл бұрын

It's the best 10 mins about strategy!

@monkichi1112005 Жыл бұрын

simply explanation and easy to understand

@samartharya5668 2 жыл бұрын

Beautiful video. Stick diagram makes it lot easier to understand. Example of Best Buy suits well too. Would love to read more.

@miguelsalazar1602 Жыл бұрын

Wow! The content of this video is really good. I wish there we're more professors and intelectuales that could talk about business like this, without the jargon and mambo jumbo that most business teachers use.

@Anurag_Saxena Жыл бұрын

First, i watched prof Roger's video on strategy. Then, I watched this video twice and concluded that strategy is a "plan to create value" and Prof. Roger sounded incorrect to me. Then I re-watched Prof Roger and found his case study of Southwest explaining his points crystal clear. In plans, even deviations from goals are anticipated and there's plans in advance to fix them. In strategy, one isn't sure what sort of deviations come ahead and there's no plans in advance to fix them. One needs to twist and turn the strategy as and when the deviations arise.

@HS-wd5mp 8 ай бұрын

Absolutely stunning! Thank you so much.

@andessepta2535 2 жыл бұрын

Great and clear explanation. Thanks for sharing.

@user-HRARTIST 6 ай бұрын

Fantastic explanation!!!!! Many thanks!!!!!

@cesarsanchez5576 6 ай бұрын

So value is the result of immaterial and subjective appreciations of customers and employees

@melomelody91 2 жыл бұрын

Bravo!! I love how you made it so simple to understand the concepts!

@joaquinjackson7510 2 жыл бұрын

Very good explanation! Thank you

@socratesbleu Жыл бұрын

I want to take his class. I understood half of what he said but was engaged the whole way

@manojphatak763 2 жыл бұрын

OMG. That is the best damn explanation of strategy and value I have EVER heard !!!

@DodaGarcia 10 ай бұрын

That's fantastic! One question I have is: in the example of decreasing willingness to sell by improving the job conditions, where does the financial investment get factored in? Because while not a one-to-one comparison to just increasing pay, it's still not free to implement.

@atogweoghieaga2205 Жыл бұрын

This is unbelievable. No one has ever strategy this way!

@moisestatis5418 Жыл бұрын

Great video, liked it so much. Thank you! Look forward to find more like this.

@josephinebardot8403 Жыл бұрын

Thank you a lot for this video. This is very interesting and informative. Keep posting like those amazing videos, this is awesome.

@oliverwills1750 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the explanation. Very much appreciated HBR.

@somosagricultura Жыл бұрын

Interesting topic. It's great to learn about strategy because it's easy to get wrong about this concept.

@gyanprakashgupta4629 Жыл бұрын

Amazing...could not have learnt more within 10 minutes

@MohamadShurrab Жыл бұрын

Excellent! Strategy is a Plan to Creat Value. This is where I differ with Professor Roger piece on Strategic Planning where he completely disconnects both.

@blurayism 8 ай бұрын

Simple & clear explanation😀

@pujadeshani2419 Жыл бұрын

Excellent explanation. Go straight to my brain. Thank you...............................🙏🙏🙏🙏

@romp39 Жыл бұрын

Product/Customer experience and employee experience are the two foundational factors. Sounds simple but as the layers of management there is more and more Vaseline on the lens when it comes to observing and measuring the quality of these experiences.

@Potencyfunction Жыл бұрын

The value created is the future profitability, partenerships, fame, costumers and employes loyality. It is a language that is not understood by non professionals

@patriciatejado4334 2 жыл бұрын

Excelente explicación. Gracias!

@joaonogueirasantos8211 Жыл бұрын

Amazing content. It's like being at Harvard Business School! This quality teaching should be accessible to everyone in the world! Thank Prof. Felix!

@idrissakfalen8290 7 ай бұрын

The explanation is perfect. Understanding strategy starts with these foundations. I would just like to add something because I think welliness to sell doesn’t rely solely on compensation, it varies from a company to another. This could be entirely true if it’s a consulting firm where up to 60% of the revenue is spent on compensation but for other firms, like manufacturing firms, you just can’t apply the same logic cause the part of main costs are way higher than compensation and the perspective to create value decreasing wellinness to pay is comme merely different.

@vinatram9930 5 ай бұрын

you have a point.

@muteeburrehman7628 Жыл бұрын

So much insight really helpful and amazing

@diklaakrat5413 2 жыл бұрын

Great video! Thanks for sharing your work!

@utsabsarkhel4026 Жыл бұрын

Thank you professor

@rabinraj15 Жыл бұрын

Superb!! Thank you very much 👍🏽

@richardabbe799 2 жыл бұрын

Great discussion on this topic! Thanks!

@sakshisingh-nt8re 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks HBR for such helpful videos

@ramcharankotari8980 Жыл бұрын

Thank you Felix

@cara804 Жыл бұрын

i love this is in direct difference to strategy is not a plan via HBR...

@melissaprice1424 Жыл бұрын

The reason why this seems so simple is because it is simplistic. Willingness to sell is impacted by many more things than satisfaction with the job - as any contact with contemporary economics should tell you. Such as cost of living pressures, to give the most obvious example, and straight out desperation, as well as personality and ethical considerations. Government policy to influence willingness to sell etc. You'd have to do better than this to sell a Harvard course to me. Like the relationship between an employee's willingness to sell their labour and their willingness to part with their money (say, to pay for an economics course) and the "value" perceived in the whole process.

@herrysantoso2523 2 жыл бұрын

Very good sharing!. It is simple and powerful! thanks

@ranganatht.r.1417 2 жыл бұрын

… a very interesting, informative and impressive video. Thanks a lot.

@choupi0645 Жыл бұрын

Inspiring content! I am gonna use this concept into real life, thanks!

@bayou__ 9 ай бұрын

I Love It, Unique selling Point. Customers believe the want to pay.

@annemaxwell9975 Жыл бұрын

This commentary is far superior to the explanation offered by the other professor with whose language I took issue with. I still say Strategy is the why and the vital plan to achieve it's likely success or to optimise the desired outcome is the what, which, where, when, who and how.

@gavincampion4961 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent video! Thanks for sharing.

@sendyardi5190 Жыл бұрын

In this video, Felix Oberholzer-Gee explains that strategy is a plan to create value and that a company's financial success is the result of its strategy, not the starting point. He describes value as the difference between willingness to pay and willingness to sell, which is split between customers, employees, and the company. The ways to increase willingness to pay are through product/service quality, complements, and network effects. The two ways to attract talent are to pay more or make the job better. Although both methods create value, paying more shifts value from the company to the employees, while making the job better lowers willingness to sell.

@Dakid015 10 ай бұрын

Good summary! Thanks!

@Hakimshafin Жыл бұрын

Thank you sir ❤️

@AllofGodsWord Жыл бұрын

Great video and points made. The only thing I would change is the word choices of "willingness to sell". Most of the examples didn't align well; their "willingness to sell" didn't decrease in a logical sense, at least not with the visual being used. Perhaps flip it to "Reluctance to Sell". If the reluctance to sell decreases (goes down) and the willingness to buy increases (goes up), basically stretching out the line more, this signifies an increase in value. Similarly, if reluctance to sell increases (goes up) and willingness to buy decreases (goes down), basically compressing the line, this signifies a decrease in value.

@OwlofAsia Жыл бұрын

A lot to think about. Thank you

@nambokki 2 жыл бұрын

Big thank you!

@user-tu3wv3gv6j 4 ай бұрын

What about the cost of making the Job a better Job? That will also redistribute the value -- from company to employees. We will need to calculate the difference between 'what if we pay extra to the employees' vs 'what will I spend to create a better working environment or culture'

@monicaviola5018 2 жыл бұрын

amazing video, though even more when you questioning about this for a whole month. Terima kasih 🙌

@BayuHendra-wb2zx 3 ай бұрын

Thanks tricks and strategies for success, always good luck

@messiahscent Жыл бұрын

One video states that a plan is not a strategy, another video defines a strategy as being a plan to create value. Life is hard

@irataliki1705 Жыл бұрын

Haha.. I was about to comment the same thing!

@TheJaredtheJaredlong Жыл бұрын

Just semantics. The other video was using planning to describe the delegation and allocation of resources, while this video is using planning to describe the organization of ideas and priorities.

@ishushamit 2 жыл бұрын

This is brilliant

@MontyCerf 3 ай бұрын

This is excellent.

@Rach09_ Жыл бұрын

Thank u for sharing ☺️👌🏻

@dougr550 Жыл бұрын

A big part of strategy is a set of ideas that you are going to organize around to deliver value. Not surprisingly strategy is applied at many different levels, from the operating model and the way you organize, to individual initiatives. Project management vs Agile would be an example of two different strategies to solve at times the same problem. The problem with the very best strategies is that very few people seem to understand them ;)

@someonenamedbob Жыл бұрын

I"m curios what do you mean by agile?

@dougr550 Жыл бұрын

@@someonenamedbob Agile is a software development philosophy for addressing the uncertainty that exists in terms of what to do and how to do it when building software. This philosophy has also been adapted for use in other settings, but is at its heart rooted in Lean management.

@someonenamedbob Жыл бұрын

@@dougr550 Oh that I've heard about it before, don't know much about it though.

@user-st7qh1wg8k 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you

@lotannaobika6153 Жыл бұрын

This is a superb content

@MaxRuso Жыл бұрын

So insightful tnx

@mrbonbonist 2 жыл бұрын

Just finished his book on strategy.Totally recommend it.

@philippededeken4881 Жыл бұрын

He's ignorant about the topic. What a waste of time.

@mrbonbonist Жыл бұрын

@@philippededeken4881 your comment is a waste of time.

@MA-nm3rk Жыл бұрын

THANK YOU

@albertomontes3390 Жыл бұрын

in this video, it says strategy is a plan, and in other video, it says strategy is not a plan. very usefull...

@alishamazaya4247 2 жыл бұрын

This is gold

@alphonsusraj8510 9 ай бұрын

As its core strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve some specific goals. It involves making decisions to allocate resources and navigate tasks and challenges in order to reach desired outcomes.

@iangrant3615 Жыл бұрын

This is interesting, although I'd suggest if you need to explain willingness to buy/willingness to sell, it highlights that those terms are not clear or intuitive enough to be effective. The explanation was effective and made an impact, but the original terms remain ambiguous.