The Strategy Quest

Citation

Childe, S. (1998), "The Strategy Quest", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 18 No. 11, pp. 1152-1153. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijopm.1998.18.11.1152.1

It is often very difficult for managers to stop fire‐fighting and develop well thought‐through strategies. In this book, Terry Hill attempts to encourage them by providing a plausible account of a company going through a strategy‐making process. The book provides an outline of what has to be done and shows that a clear strategy can be the result.

Written in the form of a novel, Hill takes the reader through the process as seen through the eyes of John Hart, the CEO of a manufacturing company, as he tries to get the company back on track. Hart is mentored by his consultant friend Ian Macallister who teaches him that “strategy is a way of thinking”. With Macallister’s help, Hart mobilises his management team who question their own assumptions about the business and jointly develop their strategy. Given typical functional roles, they begin by saying just what would be expected of a manufacturing director/finance director/personnel manager, etc., before arguing out their differences. An interesting device is that Hart’s wife runs a completely different type of company, which allows the author to use their exchanges to question some of Hart’s views, and hopefully those of the reader.

Macallister’s approach is of course firmly rooted in Hill’s own approach to strategy as described in his textbooks, which involves developing focus and integrating the company’s functions, instead of allowing incompatible functional strategies to develop. It provides a case study which illustrates the approach very well, and in fact gives a clearer description of Hill’s order‐qualifying and order‐winning criteria. Strategy experts will criticise the lack of any positive reference to the capabilities and competencies views of strategy, but this is an introductory book intended to motivate managers and to get them started, not to lead them through an MBA.

It is unusual to see a management book written as a novel, so comparison with Goldratt’s The Goal (1984) is inevitable. Like Goldratt, Hill begins by firmly rooting the story in the day‐to‐day realities of managerial life. As Hart wakes up and gets ready for work, we are presented with the typical concerns of a manager, about such things as where his wife is, where he lives and how the company is going. Hill tries to develop a character whose situation the reader might understand. This may be overdone, and some of this, such as the frequent references to places and names intended to root the story in reality, tend to clutter the early chapters. Goldratt has the edge on readability, but hopefully many of the managers who liked the novel style will also read Hill, even if they find the story slightly less exciting.

Much of the dialogue is unconvincing, often drifting into an unrealistic textbook style, and the standard of proof reading leaves a lot to be desired. The characters are not particularly strong, nor the story particularly riveting, but then “strategy is a long haul”. It is to be hoped that the reader will not be put off, as the content becomes much more interesting after the first few scene‐setting chapters. I hope that many managers will read it and begin to think strategically. Perhaps in the second edition some of the heavy‐going dialogue and continuity will be sharpened up, and more managers will take up the quest. I am sure no book does a better job of showing managers both what strategy is and how to do it.