The Three Tensions:Winning the Struggle to Perform Without Compromise

Inevitably, executives find themselves making hard choices involving trade-offs in three areas:

1. Should they pursue profitability, or growth?
2. Should they focus on getting better results today, or better results tomorrow? And
3. Should they try to achieve more synergy, or better stand-alone performance?

If you ask them which they want in each area, most will tell you both. But, they will also tell you that more progress on one front usually comes with less progress on the other. Therefore, their strategies end up being compromises as they try to get as much as possible of both.

In The Three Tensions: Winning the Struggle to Perform Without Compromise, Dominic Dodd and Ken Favaro reveal what can be done to resolve those tensions so that managers can excel at seemingly contradictory objectives. 

Dodd is a senior advisor of Marakon Associates, while Favaro is co-chairman of the firm. Together, they draw on groundbreaking research into the performance of more than 1,000 companies between 1983 and 2003. They also conducted in-depth discussions with 20 chairmen and CEOs of corporations such as Barclays, BP, Cadbury Schwepps, Cardinal Health, Dow Jones, Gillette, Reuters, and Xerox.

According to James Kilts, the former president, chairman, and CEO of Gillette, “To win, leaders have to push their companies beyond trade-offs. They must find strong growth at premium returns, not one or the other. They must deliver great results todayand build for the future at the same time, not push for earnings that can't be sustained. The Three Tensions is about having both at the same time, more of the time.”

This summary will provide the insights you need to formulate a more effective strategy for your business, whether it’s a Fortune 500 company or a “one-man show.”