Playing to Win

How Strategy Really Works

By: Roger L. Martin, A.G. Lafley

Narrated by: LJ Ganser

Playing to Win, a noted Wall Street Journal and Washington Post best seller, outlines the strategic approach Lafley, in close partnership with strategic adviser Roger Martin, used to double P&G’s sales, quadruple its profits, and increase its market value by more than $100 billion when Lafley was first CEO (he led the company from 2000 to 2009). The book shows leaders in any type of organization how to guide everyday actions with larger strategic goals built around the clear, essential elements that determine business successwhere to play and how to win.

Lafley and Martin have created a set of five essential strategic choices that, when addressed in an integrated way, will move you ahead of your competitors. They are: (1) What is our winning aspiration? (2) Where will we play? (3) How will we win? (4) What capabilities must we have in place to win? and (5) What management systems are required to support our choices? The result is a playbook for winning.

The stories of how P&G repeatedly won by applying this method to iconic brands such as Olay, Bounty, Gillette, Swiffer, and Febreze clearly illustrate how deciding on a strategic approachand then making the right choices to support itmakes the difference between just playing the game and actually winning.

Playing to Win outlines a proven method that has worked for some of today’s most celebrated brands and products. Let this book serve as your new guide to winning, as well.

©2013 A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

The word “massteige” should have appeared at most once

There is about two hours of really good material in this 8 hour audiobook. I understand that the author has a long history at P&G but many of the stories seemed less like valuable business parables and more like P&G as copy. The book was also highly repetitive.

Mind changing

I have been a follower of "classical" strategy, the Porter way. I always had a difficulty to link theory to practice. This book is THE bridge that brings Porter to real world leaders. Full of examples, everything is very well explained, it's not a book for academics, it's written for the rest of us who are looking for a place in the market. Lafley and Martin show that choosing the place and how to behave there is key to business.

amazing strategy book

interesting approach to strategy creation. I loved every bit of this book. it is now one of my Go To's

Best strategy book

Great summary of strategy broken into easy to apply segments. One of the few books that I use as an essential reference.

Great Strategy Framework

A real world strategy management framework... amazing job by the authors! Thanks so much for putting this together.

very good strategic framework

very good strategic framework for cpg companies. it compiles key issues to consider when crafting strategy

Impactful Read

Really enjoyed this book. The frameworks derailed can be applied to business and life and could yield significant results if executed correctly.

Useful if you've also read BOS and BMC

What made the experience of listening to Playing to Win the most enjoyable?

The book is based on the experience of 2 top professionals, a Harvard Business School professor and the former CEO of P&G. The cascades choices associated with choosing where to play and how to win can drive innovation for your organisation. The playbook described in this book is helpful for (top) management teams who have to change their organisations business model. Although nothing is reaaly new, I found it to be a useful addition to other books I've read.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Playing to Win?

An insight this book will gave me is how important it is for a company to have a winning aspiration. This sounds like a wide open door - the way Lafley & Martin put it you'll understand that for most organisations, it isn't.

Which character – as performed by LJ Ganser – was your favorite?

n/a its a management book.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

n/a its a management book.

Any additional comments?

In my opinion the book does does repeat itself quite a bit. Which is useful for a management audiobook, I suspect it can be tedious should you buy a "read" version. I found the concepts in the book useful, gave me perspective in how to fit in more established approaches such for e.g. blue ocean strategy (BOS) and the business model canvas (BMC) - although those topics are NOT covered in this book. You'll have to make these links yourself.

Required reading for business execs

This book does an excellent job capturing the essence of business strategy and providing interesting and relatable examples. Highly recommend.

P&G Stan Account

This is good stuff. I’ll be using it.

But be prepared… this guy loooooves P&G and he’s going to tell you alllll about it.