Book Review: Strategy and the Fat Smoker

                  Want to Change a Client? - Read This First   

 

David Maister has written a new book titled “Strategy and the Fat Smoker”.  David has published a number of books over the years and he has a fondness for thinking big thoughts in the professional services space.  David is a former Harvard Business School faculty member and is very well-known in the professional services field.

 

 

David’s book is quite interesting on several levels.  The first and the most obvious one is that he tackles the problem that stymies corporations and consultancies. More specifically, he examines why companies have such a difficult time implementing a new business strategy.  It doesn’t matter whether a company is facing an immediate crisis and it must change on a dime or whether its sees change coming on the horizon and has the luxury of a methodical adaptation to the new strategy. Company after company fails to execute against its new strategy.

 

 

We’ve all seen it before.  A new CEO arrives on the scene to pull a company out of the ditch. A new vision and mission emerges from some back room or via a number of committees. Next, a hurried-up communication campaign is undertaken to roll out these new ideals to management and workers alike.

 

 

If you had any experience in business you know what happens next.  Naysayers, doubters and cynics start to pick apart the new vision.  Others adopt a wait-and-see attitude before expending their emotional capital into this new vision.  Others still flat-out ignore the new vision and maintain business as usual.  Will the new strategy falter?  Yes.  Why?  David addresses this at length in his new book.

In Chapter 4, Dave dissects a company’s workforce into a nifty little 2-by-2 matrix.  I will not spoil what David has written, but, I will say this one chapter is worth the price of the book alone.

 

 

In case you’re wondering, David’s book title is actually an integral part of the story he weaves.  You see all of us have our vices and most of us have a particular weakness or tendency towards one.  But, we really need to give up our bad vices if we are to become healthier and live longer.  And while we all know the logic why we should live differently, we still choose to do that most illogical and irrational of acts.  Remember that whenever your company or your client insists that your firm should embark on a new strategy.  No matter how rational and logical your arguments are for change, don’t be surprised if countless thousands fail to follow your lead.  It’s at that juncture you’ll wish you’d read David’s new book.

 

 

(According to David, the book will be available starting January 2008.  It will be published by Spangle Press.  Ask for by ISBN 978-0-979-8457-0-3)