StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad: Using Strategic Thinking to Defeat Bad Strategy and Save Your Plan

Business strategy is difficult to grasp partly because it is abstract. Case studies help but don’t reveal all the facets and pitfalls of business strategy. Most of us learn business strategy as a result of studies or the case study approach pioneered by Harvard Business School. As strategy is long term, we tend to focus on more immediate (but less important) needs first – devoting even less time to strategic thinking.

This book provides a fictitious case study where several elements of strategic thinking and business execution can be brought together. Each chapter focuses on one such facet and in an few pages distills its salient features. The real innovation of this work is not that it has created a case study with all the major elements of business strategy, but it is that the storyline has borrowed from the superhero genre to create a battle of good and evil. Elements of good strategy are personified as superheroes while barriers to good strategy are personified as villains. The work resembles a Marvel comic book in which superheroes join forces to combat a group of villains.

While the narrative is playful and easy to follow, the content is hardcore business strategy. Tools used for strategic management are illustrated and used as they are in business school. The application is also authentic, as it would be with a case study. Most executives generally want to work on strategic initiatives (ie work with the superheroes) but have to overcome barriers (vanquish the villains). The graphic book format helps with identifying activities that take away from strategic thinking (personified as villains). This book is a novel way of presenting business strategy and one that will most likely help readers retain the lessons longer than the more traditional methods used today – an excellent book for pleasure or learning.