Playing to Win
A.G. Lafley · 2013
Strategy
How Strategy Really Works
Former Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley and strategy advisor Roger Martin distill strategy into five essential choices: What is our winning aspiration? Where will we play? How will we win? What capabilities must be in place? What management systems are required? This framework turned P&G from a struggling giant into the world's most admired company.
Context & Background
Written with Roger Martin, Playing to Win emerged from the real-world experience of revitalizing Procter & Gamble. Lafley and Martin argue that strategy is fundamentally about making choices — specifically, choosing where to compete and how to win. Companies that try to be all things to all people end up winning nowhere.
The Strategy Choice Cascade — five interconnected questions that form a complete strategy: Winning Aspiration → Where to Play → How to Win → Core Capabilities → Management Systems. Each choice constrains and enables the next. Lafley and Martin show how P&G applied this framework to brands like Olay, Bounty, and Gillette, making the abstract concept of strategy concrete and actionable.
The book has become the most widely used strategy framework in corporate planning. Its practical, choice-based approach to strategy is taught at Harvard, Stanford, and Rotman, and used by organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to nonprofits and government agencies.
Quotes from Playing to Win
Related Books
Good to Great
Jim Collins
Same genre — complementary perspectives on Strategy
Competitive Strategy
Michael E. Porter
Essential reading in Strategy
The Toyota Way
Jeffrey K. Liker
Complementary insights from Management
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Stephen R. Covey
Related perspective from Leadership