Author:Fred Pelard,Jon Glover
Brought to you by Penguin.
Being strategic is a critical skill. It enables you to solve problems on a day-to-day basis while also keeping an eye on the long term, anticipating and mitigating opportunities and threats along the way.
How to be Strategic is your accessible but comprehensive guide to strategic thinking in any situation. Fred Pelard distills 20 years' experience training executives at all levels from leading companies around the world into a range of smartly-illustrated, workable methodologies that will enable you to understand each approach and find your own path to the right solution every time.
'Will help you push through the knotty centre of hard-to-resolve problems. Highly recommended!' Richard Rumelt, author of Good Strategy, Bad Strategy
"A comprehensive, concise, and practical guide that will enable anyone, in any situation, to develop their strategic thinking." Tiffani Bova, Chief Growth Evangelist, Salesforce - WSJ Bestselling Author, Growth IQ
'A wonderful and inspirational look into wide-ranging frameworks and theories to spark new thinking and strategy - Tom Goodwin, author of Digital Darwinism and Head of Futures and Insight at Publicis Groupe
'Practical and comprehensive'. - Roeland Assenberg, Director, Strategy and Banking, Monitor Deloitte Netherlands
© Fred Pelard 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020
I've learned more about strategic thinking from Fred than I did in my time at Harvard Business School
—— John Smith, COO, BurberryPractical and comprehensive, How to Be Strategic reveals how to build your strategic mindset and gives you the most powerful tools
—— Roeland Assenberg, Director, Strategy and Banking, Monitor Deloitte NetherlandsYou can learn more from Fred in a few hours than taking a strategy course over a semester as part of your MBA program!
—— Rajat Sharma, Director, Business Operations, LinkedInFred's energy and expertise shine through irrespectively of the delivery method, and our 500+ learners this year have commented on clear frameworks, engaging style, and relevant examples every time
—— Tanya Dowling, Global Academy Manager, HSBCI really like Fred's ability to explain with real life examples. His approach is far from being 'classic academic'; one could say that his is rather the perspective of a 'literate entrepreneur'. Fred is a very good story teller, and he holds your attention throughout
—— Federico Bonatti, CFO Switzerland, IKEAFred has brought valuable approaches to strategic analysis that have fast become go-to tools for our team. His sharp intellect, and deep knowledge of the tools left us perfectly equipped to use them in practice right away
—— Jon Page, Head of Technology Strategy, BBCSainsbury's have worked in partnership with Fred over many years, to develop the 'Strategic Mindset' of our brightest talent. His content is always hugely popular. Don't miss an opportunity to turn your teams into budding entrepreneurs
—— Stuart Comer, Group Head of Learning & Development, Sainsbury’sFred's concise and disruptive ideas have the power to align teams, change minds and speed up innovation
—— Richard Davidson-Houston, Head of All 4, Channel 4This is a glorious book, with an insight on every page. Above all it taught me that while our individual bodies and brains might reward comparison with our primate relatives, in understanding our social relations we would be much better off comparing the meerkat. And the naked mole-rat. And the bower bird. And the cleaner-fish.
—— Rory Sutherland, author of Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas that Don’t Make SenseIf you've ever wondered why people aren't as cooperative as they ought to be, you'll find the answer right here - mapped out in detail that is full of surprises at every page-turn.
—— Robin Dunbar, Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Psychology, University of OxfordA fascinating exploration of the ties that bind us from our smallest cell to our grandest society. Raihani reveals the deep evolutionary roots of cooperation, drawing on her own extensive scholarship in an entertaining and insightful new look at the risks and rewards of collaborating.
—— Gaia Vince, author of Transcendence and Adventures in the AnthropoceneA well informed, pithy, provocative overview of the evidence that cooperation is the key to success - for microbes and animals as well as for humans.
Raihani weaves a captivating tale through the tree of life, to show how our own societies are shaped by the same evolutionary games as other animals. A beautiful, compelling and unstoppable read... This book will change the way you view your own behaviour.
—— Seirian Sumner, Professor of Behavioural Ecology, University College LondonA fascinating deep dive into what makes us powerfully social creatures. Raihani takes us on a gripping journey from the Kalahari desert to modern city living. From economics to colonies of reef fish, cooperation is one of nature's marvels and Raihani is a compelling guide.
—— Vaughan Bell, Associate Professor in Clinical PsychologyWith colourful examples from ants to meerkats and cleaner fish to chimps, Raihani expertly explores the biology and dynamics of social interactions that underpin human cooperation and competition... Essential reading for everyone from ecologists to economists. Kept setting off idea fireworks in my brain!
—— Kevin Mitchell, author of Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We AreThe Social Instinct is filled with curious intellectual adventures at every turn [and] achieves the difficult task of being accessible to evolutionary novices and experts alike.... A must-read account for anyone with an interest in how cooperation has shaped the world around us.
—— Nicole BarbaroFrom cells to cities, cooperation is one of the deepest trends in the living world - and one of real keys to our success as a species. Raihani does a great job of explaining where it came from and why it matters. An insightful, entertaining, and extremely informative book.
—— Steve Stewart-Williams, author of The Ape That Understood the UniverseNichola Raihani['s]... rewarding analysis ranges from genetics to politics, and from the individual to the international, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
—— Andrew Robinson , NatureThe Social Instinct fascinatingly combines vivid descriptions of the rich varieties of cooperation that exist in the natural world with thoughtful insights into how cooperation between humans is in some ways surprisingly similar and in others very different. A great read.
—— Matthew TaylorIn her energetic analysis, psychologist Nichola Raihani recontextualizes cooperation within the framework of evolution and reveals the competition for survival that still bubbles below its surface... Raihani offers insight into how our hardwired drive to cooperate could help us meet the challenges rushing at us, from pandemics to climate change.
—— Scientific American[A] bravely exposing deep dive into the emotional murk of her [Havey’s] restless mind….[it] reveals…the irresistible writerly impulse to pin experience to the page.
—— Anthony Cummins , i[The Shapeless Unease] reads like a dream sequence… Even reading this made me feel dizzy… [Harvey is] a vigorous, eloquent writer… she conveys the way sleeplessness takes you into the death zone of life.
—— Ysenda Maxtone Graham , TabletMesmerising…at times, bitingly funny… [The Shapeless Unease is] an engrossing portrait of the fragility of identity and coherency in the grip of insomnia. I hadn’t read Harvey before this, but her facility with language here captivated me and I’ll be seeking out her novels next.
—— Valerie O’Riordan , BookmunchUrgent and full of arresting images and insights.
—— Stephanie Cross , Lady[The Shapeless Unease] is littered with sharp insights expressed in exquisitely lucid prose but is as amorphous as its title suggests.
—— Keiron Pim , SpectatorIt’s a claustrophobic, enlightening, moving, existential treatise on sleep, insomnia and death. And it’s funny, too.
—— Sadie Jones , GuardianI wish I had saved The Shapeless Unease to read in isolation but Samantha Harvey’s book about insomnia, time, death and so many unknowable things is a blessing to have in lonely times. It is a profound and stunning book but funny, too.
—— Fatima Bhutto , Evening StandardA beautiful, jagged little book about insomnia and so many unknowable things: life and death, Buddhism, and how language alters our thinking. But I was most struck by its form and structure.
—— Fatima Bhutto , New Statesman[Samantha Harvey's] cerebral, startlingly clear account of somehow pulling through [from insomnia] carries an electric charge and meditates on not only the mystery of sleep but also writing, swimming and dreams.
—— Net-a-Porter[The Shapeless Unease] is beautifully crafted and its achievement makes itself more apparent on a second reading.
—— Richard Gwyn , Wales Art ReviewA masterpiece, so good I can hardly breathe. I'm completely floored by it.
—— Helen MacdonaldThis book seems appropriately messy-haired and wild-eyed... Anyone who has lain awake the night before a big test will recognize such manic flourishes. Harvey captures the 4 a.m. bloom of magical thinking; stories proliferate within stories... To read Harvey is to grow spoiled on gorgeous phrases.
—— Katy Waldman , New Yorker