Book cover of Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works

Book description

Are you just playing--or playing to win? Strategy is not complex. But it is hard. It's hard because it forces people and organizations to make specific choices about their future--something that doesn't happen in most companies. Now two of today's best-known business thinkers get to the heart of strategy--explaining what…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

3 authors picked Playing to Win as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

My own early experiences with strategy were pretty uninspiring – slow, incremental, and almost entirely analytical. But the framework that Roger and AG lay out in Playing to Win changed it all for me. It’s practical. It’s understandable. And it is aimed at not just understanding the world as it is, but at imaging a world that might be different… and forging a real strategy to bring that new world to life. The book is based on the approach to strategy Roger honed in his career as a management disclosure and that AG practiced as CEO at Procter & Gamble.…

This is your strategy playbook: it will teach you to think systematically about the amorphous subject of strategy. It is both concrete and an eye-opener on what strategy is and can do for an organization. Use it as a step-by-step guide to think about strategy, and use it also to understand what strategy is.

From Niraj's list on marketing strategy.

This is the story of how P&G does marketing, written by their most successful CEO. Now, of course, P&G is hardly a small business. But they’re one of the most successful marketing businesses of all time, and their rigorous, analytical approach is something that all small businesses can learn from.

It’s based around the simple idea of deciding “where to play” and “how to win”. But that simple idea enabled Lafley to double P&G’s sales, quadruple its profits, and increase its market value by more than $100 billion in just ten years. If we can achieve a tiny fraction of…

From Ian's list on small business marketing.

If you love Playing to Win...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

Want books like Playing to Win?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Playing to Win.

Browse books like Playing to Win

Book cover of Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most
Book cover of Thinking, Fast and Slow
Book cover of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,340

readers submitted
so far, will you?

📚 If you like Playing to Win, you might also like...

Book cover of Foxfire in the Snow

Foxfire in the Snow by J.S. Fields,

It's a time of change, between magic and alchemy.

Born the heir of a master woodcutter in a queendom defined by guilds and matrilineal inheritance, nonbinary Sorin can’t quite seem to find their place. At seventeen, an opportunity to attend an alchemical guild fair and secure an apprenticeship with the…

Book cover of The Main Gate

The Main Gate by Yvonne Kjorlien,

Dr. Elise Marquette has spent years burying the past—until the past refuses to stay buried.

Hired to join Earth’s first interstellar contact team, she hopes the vastness of space will finally offer distance from the ghosts of war and the wounds left by a mother who never let her be…

5 book lists we think you will like!