Global success for Wellington book on winning strategies

A new book on creating and communicating effective strategies, co-authored by Victoria University of Wellington’s Stephen Cummings, is capturing widespread attention around the globe.

Stephen Cummings

Strategy Builder: How to create and communicate more effective strategies promotes a visual approach to building strategies, and is based on research by the Strategic Management professor at Victoria, and fellow author Professor Duncan Angwin from the University of Lancaster, and their combined teaching experiences across 10 countries.

Professor Cummings is thrilled by the book’s offshore success, especially as it represents a team effort largely based in Wellington.

“The book’s art collaborators and app developers are based in Wellington, so it has a real Wellington feel to it. I don’t think Strategy Builder could have come from anywhere else. It’s exciting, for example, to think that this book from Wellington is being translated into Farsi and being used by management consultants in Iran,” he says.

The book’s unique combination of traditional and new strategy frameworks has also captured attention in North America. In August, Professor Cummings delivered workshops in Ottawa to help Canadian entrepreneurs apply the Strategy Builder approach, and gave a keynote lecture to 170 business and government leaders.

Strategy Builder has also received positive reviews in the United Kingdom and prompted an invitation to speak at a conference in the United States for the worldwide organisation, the Strategic Management Society.

Professor Cummings says the book’s success is partly due to the development of complementary app StrategyBlocks Builder, which “helps people see the impact of their strategic thinking”.

“It allows people to test basic strategic concepts in a very interactive and graphic way. They can quickly see how choices in one aspect of a strategy link to others, and can help them articulate clearer strategic objectives.

“This is a publication Duncan and I have wanted to produce for a long time. It’s early days yet, but it’s great to have so much initial interest in what is a very unique book,” he says.