Redefining Strategy for Survival

Todd over at 800-CEO-Reads reports on Chris Zook's latest book Unstoppable, which comes out from Harvard Business School Press next week.

The stunning results from their research showed:

• 153 of the top 500 companies in 1994 did not even survive the following decade intact.
• They either ended up in bankruptcy or were acquired and integrated into a larger company.
• Of the 347 companies that survived and maintained independence, we judged that 130 had undergone a fundamental shift in their core business strategy and its key parameters.
• In other words, nearly six out of ten companies faced threats to their survival or independence, and only about half were able to meet those threats by redefining their strategies.

The rest of his book gives strategies for how to redefine the core of your business by uncovering and growing hidden assets.

BOTTOMLINE: Discipline VI. Step Back, and Discipline I. Decide What's Important are reviewed by Six Disciplines clients during the annual planning retreat that define (or redefine) the core strategies of their businesses.