Description:Great business strategies, like great discoveries, are inspired acts of creation, brilliantly synthesizing disparate ideas into something surprising and new. In the history of science, think of John Snow's inspiration to chart London's cholera outbreak on a city map, thus pinpointing the city's water systems as the disease-spreading culprit...and founding the science of epidemiology in the process. In the world of business, look to Fred Smith's hub-and-spoke overnight delivery concept, an unheard of idea that gave birth to FedEx--and an indispensable service the world never knew it needed! STRATEGIC RENAISSANCE adds to the roster of great discoveries by linking the formation of business strategy to such fields as science, philosophy, and history--to supply an original and sophisticated new approach to strategic thinking. The book uncovers the principles and guidelines--along with an abundance of hard-hitting examples--for moving beyond an outdated "sustainable competitive advantage" model and embracing a dynamic "opportunity creation and exploitation" approach. Readers learn how to: * Dissect the four key elements of a great business strategy * Generate, test, and refine strategic hypotheses--the kind that outmaneuver the conventional approaches of competitors * Develop strategic breakthroughs, decide which to pursue, and exploit the winners * Understand how corporate culture can sabotage effective strategy, and ensure that doesn't happen * Plus 81 "do's and don'ts" on the road to a great corporate strategy.