In the midst of today's call for greater board activism, directors should consider ways to implement a strategic review process that lets them discharge their responsibilities without micro managing the company. Because a board must compare the company's value as an investment with other investments that are available to shareholders, it brings a unique perspective to thinking about its role in the company's strategy.

Recent approaches to strategy have focused the attention of managers inward on their companies' core competcncies and capabilities. In "Competing on Resources: Strategy in the 1990s", David J. Collis and Cynthia A. Montgomery lay out a set of pragmatic tests to help managers build and sustain profitable resource-base estrategics.

Manager's Tool Kit. Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian C. MacMillan note that even smart companies incur huge losses when they enter unknown territory new alliances, new markets, new products, or new technologies. In HBR's first Manager's Tool Kit, the authors take readers step-by-step through "Discovery-Driven Planning," a practical tool that acknowledges the difference between planning for a new venture and planning for a more conventional line of business.