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Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win
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Sales rank 219,445
Customers rating (based on 36 reviews)
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Classic Strategies for Unapologetic Winners Great companies stumble and fall when they lose it. Highfliers crash when a competitor notices they don't have it. Start-ups shut down if they can't develop it. "It" is a strategy so powerful and an execution-driven mind-set so relentless that companies use it to gain more than just competitive advantage-- they achieve an industry dominance that is virtually unassailable and that competitors often try to explain away as unfair. In their "hardball manifesto," authors George Stalk and Rob Lachenauer of the leading strategy consulting firm The Boston Consulting Group show how hardball competitors can build or maintain an enviable competitive edge by pursuing one or more of the classic "hardball strategies": unleash massive and overwhelming force, exploit anomalies, devastate profit sanctuaries, raise competitors' costs, and break compromises. Based on twenty-five years of experience advising and observing a range of companies, the authors argue that hardball competitors can gain extreme competitive advantage--neutralizing, marginalizing, or even destroying competitors-- without violating their contracts with customers or employees, and without breaking the rules. A clear-eyed paean to the timeless strategies that have driven the world's winning companies, Hardball redefines and reinterprets the meaning of competition for a new generation of business players.
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| Publisher | Harvard Business School Press | | Release date | 09/2004 | | Availability | Usually ships in 24 hours | | Edition | Hardcover |
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Tough Guys Finish First: George Stalk, senior vice president of Boston Consulting Group, and Rob Lachenauer, chief executive of GEO2 Technologies, advise managers not to tolerate more than a single failure from employees. (@ Wall Street Journal)
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 This is a business survival guide for "predator" and "prey" alike
The idea that everyone likes a good loser...so long as they're on the other team, is a tongue-in-cheek summary of business strategist George Stalk's book titled "Hardball." Stalk and co-author Rob Lachenauer tackle the serious issue of business competition, predicting that it will become so fierce during the next decade that short-term advantages and periodic victories will not be enough to ensure an organization's survival. As the title suggests, the authors state that successful companies of tomorrow must develop an overwhelming competitive advantage that cripples or neutralizes rival companies. Soundview likes this book because it is a radical departure from the dozens of business books that currently tout collaboration, joint-ventures and cooperation with competitors. The authors take the contrarian view that the marketplace of hardball competition will force participants to relentlessly pursue winning in an effort to expand their market position at the expense of others in the space. Furthermore, the authors present detailed case studies of companies (from varied sectors) that ruthlessly utilize the seven hardball strategies listed in the book. Whether or not you belief in this philosophy of business, it's important to know because your competition may be planning a pick-up game of hardball - at your expense!
Gem of a Book !!!
This is a must read for all management students and practitioners. A concise book that distills the essence of Competitive strategy. I would make this a pre-reading for all participants before any Business Planning or Strategic planning session. Very concise and incisive language used to drive home the points.
Great Strategy for Business
John Steinbeck, the great writer, once said that "The things we admire in men, generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of FAILURE in our system. And those that we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of SUCCESS. And while men admire the quality of the first, they love the produce of the second". Well, this book is exactly that. It speaks to the exact words that the great John Steinbeck mentioned so many years ago. If you want to succeed in business, a certain amount of Hardball must be in your quiver of arrows.
Machiavellian Hardball
"Hardball" is about doing what's in your best interest according to the conditions of the situation. "Hardball" is a metaphor for playing in the big leagues with a "winner take all" philosophy. What's excellent about the book is while taking a Machiavellian approach to doing what is necessary for the situation, it does not advocate bloodletting for the sake of shedding blood. If anything, it warns against it. A wounded animal could be at its most dangerous. But, like Machiavelli's, The Prince, one could assert that if your opponent declares war on you, all means for winning should be at your disposal. An excellent book to read in conjunction with "Monopoly Rules: How to Find, Capture and Control the Most Lucrative Markets In Any Business, by Milind M. Lele."
Edward S. Brown III
Core Edge Image & Charisma Institute, Inc.
 Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win
The authors clearly believe in what they've written and have seen many times the characteristics they describe, as shown by the very good use of examples and anecdotes. The authors have an inspirational tone, sometimes a little too much so. The book has a little too much of that inspirational feel and not quite enough depth on some topics. Ultimately, the treatment is a little thin although the book is a good read.
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