Deep Dive: The Proven Method for Building Strategy, Focusing Your Resources & Taking Smart Action

There are business situations in which the goal is to ascend (e.g. to reach a higher level of productivity, efficiency, profitability) and other situations in which the goal is to descend (e.g. to drill down past symptoms to the root causes of a problem) and successfully achieving either goal depends almost entirely on one's attitude. Long ago, Henry Ford observed, "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right." Attitude is even more decisive when there are severe challenges to overcome. Years later, Jack Dempsey had this in mind when explaining that "champions get up when they can't." I mention all this because, in Deep Dive, Rich Horvath makes brilliant use of extended metaphors for both ascension and descent. He provides a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective program by which to prepare to achieve success at either great heights or great depths. More specifically, he explains o The four types of strategic thinkers o The strategic thinking assessment o The three disciplines of strategic thinking Note: It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of an appropriate strategy. I presume to suggest that you think of a strategy as a "hammer" that drives "nails," or tactics. It guide and informs initiatuves to achieve the given goal or objective. Horwath also explains o Which are the most common obstacles to strategic thinking and how to avoid or overcome them o Why competitive advantage is strategy's "Holy Grail" o How and why value discipline "spells success" All this and more is covered in the first two chapters. Then in Chapters 3-5, he introduces and explains three disciplines: #1: Acumen (the deep dive for insight), #2: Allocation (using tangible, intangible, and human resources wisely), and #3: Action (there must be no gap between knowing and doing). The last three chapters focus on teamwork (collaboration determined by mission, vision, and values), "Deep Dive Dangers" (e.g. "anchors" such as pre-judgments or prejudices, erroneous assumptions, false premises), and "The Confidence to Dive" based on appropriate strategy design and coordinated application of the three disciplines). Credit Horwath with skillful use of several reader-friendly devices through his narrative, notably "Drive Master Practice" and "Pearls of Insight" sections that serve two separate but related functions: they suggest action steps and highlight key points. I also appreciate the insertion of boxed comments and insights relevant to the given context. For example, on Page 30 in Chapter 2: "Johnny Cash and the Mini Cooper have both been remarkably successful because they were [begin italics] different [end italics] from their competition in ways their core customers valued." Do not be misled by this book's title. It is not about diving in deep water. Rather, it is about what can be learned from that activity while "building business strategy, focusing your resources, and taking smart action" to achieve business objectives. I conclude with two of my favorite quotations. Both are compellingly relevant to the material that Rich Horwath shares in this book. First, from Michael Porter: "The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do." Now the second from Peter Drucker: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all." Know where not to pursue business objectives before formulating a strategy and then, know what not to do when executing that strategy.

I enjoyed this book on Strategic Thinking as it is practical and easy to read. The Diving metaphor however, is interesting but not essential. The most useful aspect of this book was that it provided original perspectives on well worn topics. There are however, not many references to business case studies, yet the anecdotal evidence provided is more than adequate. The bibliography and end of chapter summaries are very good and appreciated. The author creates a very simple strategic thinking framework that may be easily shared throughout an organisation, which is one of the important themes in the book. The book explains the differences between strategic thinking and strategic planning and why both are relevant and important. There are countless pieces of good advice and warnings of what to avoid. The author clearly knows his topic and his audience. I recommend the book for those starting out in the genre and for those looking for fresh ideas.

Deep Dive is a helpful and concisely written book on strategy. Drawing analogies to diving to explain the concepts of strategy, Horwath makes strategy easy to understand and accessible for anyone interested in learning about strategy. The reason that I subtracted one star from a perfect rating is that I at times felt like the book would have even more value with more theoretical depth. I understand that the premise of the book is to provide a succinct account of strategy, yet diving a little deeper (pun intended) would at times have been welcome to me. The many frameworks and tools that are introduced and explained over the course of the book are great; they help you transform abstract thoughts into tangible plans and insights. Theory is often accompanied by interesting anecdotes, yet I do miss information about the real-world applications of Horwath's self-designed models. Despite the minor points of critcism that I have, I would still recommend this book to anyone looking to learn about strategy. People unfamiliar with strategy and strategic thinking will especially learn a great deal from this book, while more trained 'strategists' will probably find this book a helpful summary of the concepts with some interesting new insights. Recommended!

Parfait.

Having worked with management in different industries in various parts of the country it has become apartent to me that strategic thinking occurs significantly less than I first thought. Business leaders over the past couple of years seem to be very short term thinkers. While times were good it was easy to cover up bad decisions but now that revenues are down it is very obvious that their acumen was overestimated. I was some what surprread in Rich Horwath's book that 85% of executive leadership spends less than an hour a month discussing strategy, what are they doing the rest of the month? I believe all leaders can use further development in the strategic thinking arena to keep their skills sharp and to enhance their companies performance. Rich Horwath offers in his latest book, "Deep Dive", a plunge into waters of business creativity, and the unseen jewels that reside beneath the surface. Complacency has caused more damage in corporate America than foreign competition. New strategies and ways of thinking are how we can turn things around. During an economic downturn, when all of your instinct tells you to hold onto your business model at all costs, this is the precise moment when new strategies are needed the most. What "Deep Dive" does is to identify how to maximize the productivity of a brain storming sessions and eliminate any unnecessary risk when implementing a new strategy. Several great strategic thinking concepts and methods are introduced in "Deep Dive" and are summarized at the end of each chapter. These examples given through out the book can be utilized across any organization in any functional area. Tools such as the OODA Loop and Contextual Radar methods reveal the context in which particular ideas need to flourish. Rich drives home the fundamentals of his program, stating and restating his three central strategic points, `Acumen, Allocation, Action', which form the outline of his chapters. Rich Horwath has created a wonderful compilation of methods for businesses that make strategic thinking more clear in this complex global marketplace we live in. He provides a complete list of references given where readers can find further information on the particular methods that suit them or their company best. What "Deep Dive" provides is a sense of focus on the importance of constantly shifting the way a business rides the rough and tumble waters of our economic reality. "Deep Dive" is about being objective and not just following the school of fish swimming along the surface. Leaders looking to delve down below the surface and open their eyes to see what is going on around them will be justly rewarded.

As a manager or leader you can never rely on a single source to drive your strategic design. Therefore this book provides more insight in to the strategic process. I enjoyed it.

Dense, digestable, clear. A quick read for the depth of material. Obviously based on clarity gained from years of experience. In the advertising program where I teach, we do a strategic kind of advertising, which means that no design or word in the final advertising execution is random; it all supports the "single most important thought" or "SMIT." That SMIT is arrived at through research, but more importantly, through thinking. This book has already helped provide me with a better framework for strategy theory, so I can share with students more clearly. This is important because when you're about to navigate uncharted territory, you can't depend on experience alone. You have to create a theory of something you've never experienced. Creativity is this way, by definition. And even though innovation implies risk, good thinking and research can help us hedge our bets tremendously. The cons: Analogies could be better (they sometimes break down kind of quickly), but if you understand the material, you can come up with better ones on your own. In the end, they were still helpful in making the concepts understandable. Note: I noticed someone gave this book 3 stars. After reading the 3-star review, I can only guess that that person must have speed-read the book (only getting the main conclusions, which doesn't always help you understand what you're reading) or already understands most of the concepts. I think most of the rest of us will get a lot out of this book.

The ideas here are great but it isn't the easiest read. Recommend it when you have time (a long flight, with a few naps in between)