6 books in this category
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by Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris
Cited by 1 other books and connected to 0 more in strategy. If you read one book in this category first, the citation network says make it this one.
Ranked by how often they are cited by other books in the collection. These are the titles later authors keep returning to — read one and you will recognise its fingerprints across the rest of the category.
by Hamilton Helmer
Helmer develops a first-principles theory of business strategy grounded in Power, defined as conditions that create potential for persistent differential returns. He catalogs seven distinct Powers (scale economies, network economies, counter-positioning, switching costs, branding, cornered resource, process power) and maps each to the competitive dynamics that make it durable.
by Verne Harnish
Harnish updates his Rockefeller Habits into a practical framework for mid-market CEOs, organised around four decisions (people, strategy, execution, cash) that determine whether a company scales beyond inflection points. By last name, Harnish distills tools like the One-Page Strategic Plan, meeting rhythms, and priorities-metrics-quarterly themes into a playbook grounded in case studies of firms that crossed from $10M to $1B.
by Richard Rumelt
Rumelt argues that most corporate strategy is actually bad strategy masquerading as vision, goals, and fluff, and that good strategy has a specific logical structure he calls the kernel: diagnosis, guiding policy, and coherent action. He draws on military history, business turnarounds, and decision science to show how insight into the crux of a situation beats template-driven planning.
by Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt, and Sven Smit
The McKinsey authors draw on a database of 2,400 large companies over ten years to show that corporate strategy is dominated by a power curve of economic profit, and that moving up it requires five big moves rather than incremental planning. Bradley, Hirt, and Smit diagnose the social side of strategy rooms, where political dynamics and behavioural biases produce hockey-stick forecasts divorced from base rates.
by Avinash Dixit
Dixit introduces game theory as a practical tool for strategic thinking in business and daily life. Understanding how actors anticipate each other's moves turns negotiation from instinct to strategy.