Playing to win: How strategy really works

by A.G. Lafley

From the where-to-play and how-to-win choices follows the next question: what capabilities are required to deliver on that strategy? To understand and visualize those capabilities, you will find it helpful to prepare an activity system based on the strategy. An activity system captures the most important activities of the organization in a single visual representation. The large nodes of the map are the core capabilities, while the smaller nodes are the activities that support those core capabilities. The activity system should be feasible, distinctive, and defensible if it is to enable you to win. If the system is missing any of these three qualities, you need to return to the where-to-play and how-to-win choices, refining or even entirely changing those choices until they result in a distinctive and winning activity system. By identifying the capabilities required to achieve competitive advantage, the firm can apply resources, attention, and time to the things that matter most. There may well be work to do to bolster and grow those capabilities, including training and development, investing in additional resources, building supporting systems, and even reorganizing the company around the capabilities.