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Stop Distinguishing Between Execution and Strategy

Harvard Business Review

Consider the recent article, “ Why Strategy Execution Unravels — and What to Do About It “ by Donald Sull, Rebecca Homkes, and Charles Sull, in the March 2015 issue of HBR. That’s because execution actually is strategy – trying to separate the two only leads to confusion. Emphasis added].

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Business Competition Has Not Gotten Fiercer

Harvard Business Review

Puzzling anecdotes abound: Microsoft has missed out on a series of new products in the past decade, yet as Don Sull points out , it continues to be highly profitable. Another is that short-term oriented companies are so desperate for margins that they’re hollowing out their operations or eating their R&D seed-corn.

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Is It Better to Be Strategic or Opportunistic?

Harvard Business Review

I spoke with contributor Don Sull , who teaches strategy at MIT and the London Business School, about the tension between scholars who put sustainable competitive advantage at the center of strategy and those who argue that some industries are changing too quickly to allow for sustained performance. It’s easy to get caught up in the hype.

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