Strategy First

TEDx speaker and financial activist Mel Dorman went from dumpster diving to a multimillion-dollar portfolio—not by winning the lottery or working 80-hour weeks, but by cutting out the banks and partnering directly with sellers. Now, she’s sharing the exact blueprint that helped her do it.

A business's overall strategy may be set at board level, but many people throughout the organisation will be involved in deciding that strategy and implementing it - making decisions that are strategic in nature. On these decisions hangs the future of the business: how successful it is, even whether it is successful. Yet business history is full of strategic decisions, both big and small, that were weak, poorly conceived and consequently disastrous.

In The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire, seasoned defense analyst Edward N. Luttwak reveals how the Romans were able to combine military strength, diplomacy, and fortifications to effectively respond to changing threats. Rome's secret was not ceaseless fighting, but comprehensive strategies that unified force, diplomacy, and an immense infrastructure of roads, forts, walls, and barriers. Finally, as barbarians began to penetrate the empire, Rome filed large armies in a strategy of "defense-in-depth," allowing invaders to pierce Rome's borders.

Limited Time Launch Price: Only $0.99! PREVAIL OR VANISH. In the savage landscape of modern business, there are only two outcomes: conquer or be erased. For over 20 years, forged on business frontlines across 30 countries, I witnessed a stark reality. I worked with—and against—the apex competitors. They operated with a ruthless logic that most people never learn, or choose to ignore. The 9 Warrior Laws are not optional rules. I did not invent them. They are the unforgiving physics of power—the operating system behind the U.S. Army, NATO doctrine, and history’s greatest empires. ...

You open your CRM and find three versions of the same client. Your file system has a folder called "Final FINAL v3." Your spreadsheet has columns that no one on your team can explain — including the person who made them. And somewhere in the back of your mind, a voice is saying: I should probably be using AI by now. Here is what that voice isn't telling you: so should everyone else. And almost no one's business is ready for it. Not because the technology is too advanced.

On July 10, 1943, the largest amphibious invasion ever mounted took place, larger even than the Normandy invasion 11 months later: 160,000 American, British, and Canadian troops came ashore or were parachuted onto Sicily, signaling the start of the campaign to defeat Nazi Germany on European soil. Operation HUSKY, as it was known, was enormously complex, involving dramatic battles on land, in the air, and at sea. Yet, despite its paramount importance to ultimate Allied victory, and its drama, very little has been written about the 38-day Battle for Sicily.

Edited by three of the policymakers who led the government's response to the crisis, with chapters written by the teams tasked with finding policy solutions, this book provides a comprehensive accounting of the internal debates and controversies surrounding the measures that were taken to stabilize the financial system and the economy. Offering previously untold insight into the key choices (including rejected options) and a frank evaluation of successes and failures, this volume is both an important historical document and an indispensable guide for confronting future financial calamities.

Are you ready to take control of your financial future and transform your life? Whether you're struggling with debt, looking to manage your money better, or aiming to build lasting wealth, Financial Success: From Debt Repayment to Wealth Building with the Snowball Method is your ultimate guide to achieving financial freedom. This comprehensive book provides practical, step-by-step strategies designed to help you eliminate debt, optimize your savings, and invest wisely. You’ll discover how the powerful Snowball Method can help you not only conquer debt but also build wealth in a ...

One of the most important reasons to study chess openings is to understand how and where to develop the pieces. Knowledge is power, and chess is no exception. Many beginners do not spend time even on basic opening preparation. That is why the opening is a brand new experience every time. Some chess openings are better than others. Using a time-tested opening can help you improve your game and even boost your chance of winning. Recognizing and understanding the best openings can increase your confidence in the beginning phase of the game. But, how can you chose the best opening among others ...

Artificial Intelligence is transforming every industry, but if you want to win with AI, you have to put it first on your priority list. AI-First companies are the only trillion-dollar companies, and soon they will dominate even more industries, more definitively than ever before. These companies...

What if the reason your projects keep failing, your culture keeps disappointing, and your best people keep leaving has nothing to do with strategy? In People First, organizational leader Melody J. Laughlin makes the case that the most expensive fiction in modern business is the idea that project management, organizational leadership, and human resources are three separate disciplines. They are not. They are three dimensions of a single, unified challenge — and organizations that treat them as silos pay for it every single day. Drawing on decades of experience at the intersection of people...

Rick Howard, the Chief Security Officer, Chief Analyst, and Senior fellow at The Cyberwire, challenges the conventional wisdom of current cybersecurity best practices, strategy, and tactics and makes the case that the profession needs to get back to first principles.

In Strategy: A History, Sir Lawrence Freedman, one of the world's leading authorities on war and international politics, captures the vast history of strategic thinking, in a consistently engaging and insightful account of how strategy came to pervade every aspect of our lives.

As IMD professors Goutam Challagalla and Frédéric Dalsace show in this eye-opening and practical book, it's due to a basic strategic misalignment and a misunderstanding of what actually drives customers' purchase decisions.

In The Win-Win Wealth Strategy: 7 Investments the Government Will Pay You to Make, celebrated entrepreneur, investor, and bestselling author Tom Wheelwright, CPA, transforms the way you think about building wealth and challenges the paradigm that tax incentives are immoral loopholes. Backed by deep research in fifteen countries, he identifies seven investing strategies that are A-OK with governments worldwide and will fatten your wallet while making the world a better place. 

Master the Most Powerful Hour of the Trading Day. Every morning at 9:30 AM, the opening bell rings and the market explodes with volume, volatility, and opportunity. Institutional orders hit the market. Overnight news moves stocks. Momentum traders rush in. For prepared traders, this creates some of the biggest profit opportunities of the entire trading day. But for most traders, the opening bell feels chaotic. They chase momentum. They enter too early. They exit too late. And they get trapped in false breakouts. Professional traders see something different. They see repeatable patterns, ...

Most agencies don’t lose because their creative got worse. They lose because the market changed what it pays for. In-housing expanded. AI compressed output costs. Procurement got sharper. Overcapacity turned “full service” into a commodity. And too many agencies became desk-bound—remote, tab-bound, dashboard-fed—far from the reality that used to make strategists dangerous. The Buyable Agency is a practical model-shift playbook for agency owners who want to grow again—not by “looking modern,” but by becoming: Easier to buy (clear entry doors, named offers, fixed scope, ...

Liddell Hart stressed movement, flexibility, surprise. He saw that in most military campaigns dislocation of the enemy's psychological and physical balance is prelude to victory. This dislocation results from a strategic indirect approach. Reflect for a moment on the results of direct confrontation (trench war in World War I) versus indirect dislocation (Blitzkreig in World II). Liddell Hart is also tonic for business and political planning: Just change the vocabulary and his concepts fit.

"A grand theory that grapples with AI and the forces shaping our world." — KIRKUS REVIEWS, one of America's most respected critics Reached #1 Amazon US Best Seller in Strategy & Competition, Strategic Management and Business Technology Innovation in January and February 2026 A threshold moment has arrived. Most organisations optimise relentlessly — for speed, cost, and output. And in doing so, quietly weaken their capacity to innovate. This book explores the tension at the centre of modern progress: efficiency and innovation are not opposites, but they are in constant, fragile conflict....

Was the outcome of the First World War on a knife edge? In this major new account of German wartime politics and strategy Holger Afflerbach argues that the outcome of the war was actually in the balance until relatively late in the war. Using new evidence from diaries, letters, and memoirs, he fundamentally revises our understanding of German strategy from the decision to go to war and the failure of the western offensive to the radicalization of Germany's war effort under Hindenburg and Ludendorff and the ultimate collapse of the Central Powers.