Review of Strategy Rules

David B. Yoffie, a professor of international business administration at Harvard Business School, and Michael A. Cusumano, a management professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have written 21 books between them. They also co-authored the bestseller Competing on Internet Time. Here, they apply their combined 30 years of experience to answering the question of how exemplary CEOs master the often-contradictory disciplines of strategy and execution. Unsurprisingly, their choices of exemplars are top tier: Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Intel CEO Andy Grove and Apple’s late CEO Steve Jobs. A glance at the title might make you turn away in anticipation of another rehash of clichés or a too-familiar trudge through the Great Man theory of leadership. Indeed, with these three subjects of obsessive reportage, the authors can’t avoid telling some tales you’ve already heard. Crucially, though, they turn both familiar and new episodes from these superstars’ careers into cogent, applicable lessons in leadership, foresight, nimbleness and self-belief. getAbstract recommends this astute, well-written assessment of world-beating strategies.