Editor's letter

Citation

Randall, R.M. (2013), "Editor's letter", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 41 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-06-2013-0042

Editor's letter

Article Type: Editor's letter From: Strategy & Leadership, Volume 41, Issue 5

While this issue of Strategy & Leadership was being put together, two of the objects of our editorial attention each received a new title and started a second career. The star innovators of Brian Leavy's latest masterclass, "Where to play and how to win – strategy fundamentals the Procter & Gamble way," are A.G. Lafley and Roger Martin whose new book, Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works (Harvard Business Press, 2013) spotlights some approaches the authors developed to practice Michael Porter's strategy fundamentals at P&G. The masterclass guides executives through the highly effective application models they introduced starting in 2000 when Lafley was CEO of P&G and Martin was a consultant to the firm.

But now Lafley has something in common with leadership paragons Steve Jobs and Howard Schultz. He's been offered a second act! In May, Lafley was rehired as CEO of P&G and in a vote of affirmation the stock price shot up. In another development, Martin, who has been serving as Dean at Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, will instead take a leadership position in the school's Martin Prosperity Institute – now headed by Richard Florida – and will also be a consultant and a member of a number of corporate and foundation boards.

In an expansion of S&L's usual peer review process, and in light of the Lafley reappointment, I sent the Leavy masterclass to more than a dozen senior academics and veteran top managers to update them. Some of their responses: "Very interesting read." "Another very helpful masterclass." "I learned quite a bit from it." From such knowledgeable readers these are strong endorsements.

This issue is replete with star innovators. In an article that looks at the constant redeployment of the resources of the firm, Rita Gunther McGrath offers a how-to for "Continuous reconfiguration in the transient advantage economy." McGrath, a Columbia University Business School professor, is the author of The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business (Harvard Business Press, 2013). She is known as one of the pioneers of "discovery-driven planning," a framework for strategy development in new business venturing.

Professor Mark R. Kennedy, author of "Social media provides a megaphone for organizations intent on shaping the corporate environment," earned recognition in a different arena. A two-term Minnesota congressman who gave up his seat to run for the US Senate, Kennedy has also been a senior executive with several major corporations. He now leads George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management. His first-hand experience with government, business and the host of social and political activists that try to shape corporate policy has informed his article.

And in this issue we also have the innovator who brought strategic insight to the leadership job hunt. Former Harvard professor Michael Watkins wrote a best-selling book ten years ago that quickly became required reading for executives considering a job offer. More than a million copies later The First 90 Days (Harvard Business Press, 2013) has been revised and reissued. Anyone interviewing for an executive position will find this book an invaluable guide to understanding how to analyze and shape decision making during the critical first three months on the job. We asked Watkins to tell us what he has learned after getting feedback from a generation of executives who have used his analytic models.

In a bonus masterclass, the leading proponent of radical management, Steve Denning, who on his Forbes.com blog dons his helmet as the scourge of failed leadership and outmoded ideas, here introduces a set of 18 books that taken together introduce best practices for thriving in the new Creative Economy.

Good reading,

Robert M. Randall
Editor-in-Chief