Playing to Win

"One of the best books on Strategy is Roger Martin and A. G. Lafley's Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works." -- TIME magazine "Winner -- Thinkers50 Best Book Award 2012 and 2013." -- Thinkers50 (thinkers50.com) "Playing to Win is a rare tale from the front lines of business and from two of its smartest minds." -- Washington Post "[Playing to Win]: How Strategy Really Works may be the best business and strategy book I've read since Michael Porter. There is plenty of practical advice, including the fact that business people often confuse a vision for a strategy. Instead, the authors claim "winning through distinctive choices is the always-and-forever job of every strategist." -- Jonathan Becher, SAP via Forbes.com Lafley and Martin have artfully combined two virtues that don't often mix: rigor and brevity. Winning strategy doesn't come from inspirational happy-talk; it comes from deeply substantive hard thinking, and they tell us how it's done, with many examples. The book is short, crisp, a pleasure to read. -- Fortune "I doubt there are two more intelligent business minds out there than Lafley and Martin. Playing to Win meets the high expectations raised by those two names, and is the best business book I've read so far this year." -- Jack Covert, 800 CEO READ "clear and effective" -- WSJ.com (Wall Street Journal) "Read their book. They, in turn, are sure to inspire you." -- Forbes.com "I hate CEO books...[but]...this book totally rocks. It's a beautiful manual...a triumph. -- Tom Keene, Bloomberg TV "This is a fascinating tale, featuring a cast of familiar brands, including Pampers, Tide and Olay, each of which went through a transformation under Mr. Lafley's eye." -- The Economist "this new offering by former Procter & Gamble CEO Lafley (coauthor of The Game-Changer) and Martin (dean of the Rotman School of Management and author of Fixing the Game) is a clear standout...This collection of insights and captivating examples about strategy is a must-read for leaders at any level in the for-profit or not-for-profit world." -- Publishers Weekly "Strategy lessons, 101... a manual for strategy practitioners." -- Financial Times "The many stories from one of the biggest consumer goods firms in the world, with its many successes (and some failures too) along with the framework of the strategy to win, make this an interesting read." -- livemint.com "a highly readable book that provides the reader with a very good understanding of the process and the real building blocks of value creation." -- Ottawa Business Journal "Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works--written by an impressive duo: former Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley and Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto Roger Martin--is not just an insiders' tale of the workings of a successful global corporation. It's the story of how you can do what top brands do: Create and execute stellar strategy well. Lots of books are published about business strategy, many of them either badly written or not relevant to associations, or both. This one is an exception." -- Associations Now (ASAE: American Society of Association Executives) "interesting and thought-provoking work on business strategy" -- Business World "The best practitioner-focused strategy book I have ever read, and all the more useful for the fact it is concise, well-structured and compelling, with almost no jargon." -- Strategic Management Bureau "Unlike many management texts, which read as if written for CEOs of multi-billion-dollar businesses, these tales from the fast-moving consumer goods front are useful for acquiring, extending or defending market share at any size of company." -- The Deal: The Australian Business Magazine "I wish this book had been availa

A.G. Lafley has been named the new Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chairman of Procter & Gamble, where he previously served as CEO from 2000-2009. Under Lafley's leadership, P&G's sales doubled, its profits quadrupled, its market value increased by more than $100 billion, and its portfolio of billion-dollar brands--like Tide, Pampers, Olay, and Gillette--grew from 10 to 24 as a result of his focus on winning strategic choices, consumer-driven innovation, and reliable, sustainable growth. Roger Martin is Dean of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and an adviser to CEOs on strategy, design, innovation, and integrative thinking. In 2011, Roger was named by Thinkers50 as the sixth top management thinker in the world. This is his eighth book; he also contributes regularly to Harvard Business Review, the Financial Times, and the Washington Post, among others. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an AB in economics from Harvard College.