Summary

Strategy requires an ability to conceive the future, see and create possibilities, and focus to choose a direction. Successful strategy is a mental discipline consisting of broad ranging, flexible, and creative thinking. Choosing the Future will help you achieve this success by studying fundamentals such as effective group thinking, knowing when to delay a decision for more information, balancing contrasting modes of thought, and transforming thought into action. Using a cycle to show the relationship among different strategic thinking tools, Choosing the Future gives you guidance to respond to these basic questions: What seems to be happening? What possibilities do we face? What are we going to do about it? Choosing the Future will help you advance your thinking skills. Rather than telling you what to do, it teaches you to use your business knowledge to discover your own ideas and strategic direction. Stuart Wells is Professor of Organization and Management at San Jose State University, where he serves as Director of the Center for Global Competitiveness and as Director of the Small Business Institute. As founder of the Leading Edge Consulting Group and co-founder of Corporate Wisdom, he has worked on leadership development and strategy issues with such major corporations as Clorox, Dupont, PepsiCo, and Proctor and Gamble. He is the author of several books, including From Sage to Artisan: The Nine Roles of the Value-Driven Leader.