Cracked it!: How to solve big problems and sell solutions like top strategy consultants | Bernard Garrette - Corey Phelps - Olivier Sibony

Solving complex problems and selling their solutions is critical for personal and organizational success. For most of us, however, it doesn't come naturally and we haven't been taught how to do it well. Research shows a host of pitfalls trips us up when we try: We're quick to believe we understand a situation and jump to a flawed solution. We seek to confirm our hypotheses and ignore conflicting evidence. We view challenges incompletely through the frameworks we know instead of with a fresh pair of eyes. And when we communicate our recommendations, we forget our reasoning isn't obvious to our audience.
How can we do it better? 
In Cracked It!, seasoned strategy professors and consultants Bernard Garrette, Corey Phelps and Olivier Sibony present a rigorous and practical four-step approach to overcome these pitfalls. Building on tried-and-tested (but rarely revealed) methods of top strategy consultants, research in cognitive psychology, and the latest advances in design thinking, they provide a step-by-step process and toolkit that will help readers tackle any challenging business problem. Using compelling stories and detailed case examples, the authors guide readers through each step in the process: from how to state, structure and then solve problems to how to sell the solutions. 
Written in an engaging style by a trio of experts with decades of experience researching, teaching and consulting on complex business problems, this book will be an indispensable manual for anyone interested in creating value by helping their organizations crack the problems that matter most.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you want to master problem solving, buy this book. I used it the day after I started reading it." - Neil Janin, Chairman Bank of Georgia and Senior Partner Emeritus, McKinsey & Co.
"Too many companies fail because of bad strategic problem solving. This book is full of frameworks and tips to help you avoid that fate." - Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take, Originals, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg
"Strategy is problem solving - an important, subtle and pervasive skill for which business practitioners receive little formal training. Cracked It! provides a valuable and practical guide to the art, from framing the problem through to communicating and selling the solution, which should be invaluable to practitioners and consultants" - Martin Reeves, Senior Partner & Managing Director, Boston Consulting Group
"Written by a trio of leading experts on strategy who draw on decades of rigorous academic research and consulting experience, Cracked It! offers a crystal-clear approach to frame and solve challenging strategic issues. A must-read for executives, consultants, and business school students." - Laurence Capron, co-author of Build, Borrow or Buy and Professor of Strategy and Dean of Faculty, INSEAD
"When dealing with a major business issue, every decision maker faces his own cognitive biases that can trip him up. Cracked it! provides practical, value-creating and proven insight to develop and sell sound solutions by overcoming these biases." - Stéphane Richard, Chairman and CEO, Orange
"The ABSOLUTE reference handbook on problem solving! It is clearly unique and it smartly introduces an amazing richness of methods, through cases and easy-to-understand frameworks. I have to say... I love it!" - Jean-Baptiste Voisin, Chief Strategy Officer, LVMH

From the Back Cover

Solving complex problems and selling their solutions is critical for personal and organizational success. For most of us, however, it doesn’t come naturally and we haven’t been taught how to do it well. Research shows a host of pitfalls trips us up when we try: We’re quick to believe we understand a situation and jump to a flawed solution. We seek to confirm our hypotheses and ignore conflicting evidence. We view challenges incompletely through the frameworks we know instead of with a fresh pair of eyes. And when we communicate our recommendations, we forget our reasoning isn’t obvious to our audience.
How can we do it better? 
In Cracked It!, seasoned strategy professors and consultants Bernard Garrette, Corey Phelps and Olivier Sibony present a rigorous and practical four-step approach to overcome these pitfalls. Building on tried-and-tested (but rarely revealed) methods of top strategy consultants, research in cognitive psychology, and the latest advances in design thinking, they provide a step-by-step process and toolkit that will help readers tackle any challenging business problem. Using compelling stories and detailed case examples, the authors guide readers through each step in the process: from how to state, structure and then solve problems to how to sell the solutions.
Written in an engaging style by a trio of experts with decades of experience researching, teaching and consulting on complex business problems, this book will be an indispensable manual for anyone interested in creating value by helping their organizations crack the problems that matter most.

About the Author

Bernard Garrette is Professor of Strategy at HEC Paris. His teaching and research focus on corporate strategy, business simulations and problem solving. He served as MBA Associate Dean at HEC Paris, Corporate Strategy Expert with McKinsey & Company, and consultant or management educator for blue chip companies and start-ups.

Corey Phelps is Associate Professor of Strategy, Marcel Desautels Faculty Fellow and Associate Dean of Executive Education at the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University. He is a frequent keynote speaker, corporate trainer and consultant on topics of strategy and innovation.

Olivier Sibony is Affiliate Professor of Strategy at HEC Paris, where he teaches problem solving and strategic decision making. Previously, he was a Senior Partner of McKinsey & Company, where he spent 25 years advising the leaders of global corporations, and held a number of firm leadership roles.