Leaders and healthcare organizations, and students aspiring to become one, should be asking themselves one thing in these financially challenging times: how can they maintain a strategic and competitive advantage over other players in their market? Some healthcare organizations have faced extremely poor financial performance in recent years, with data suggesting that up to 10% of hospitals will go bankrupt or face closure within the next 10 years. Yet, little pragmatic evidence exists to offer insights into how to create better strategies to improve performance, build resiliency and align stakeholders. Essentials of Healthcare Strategy and Performance Management explores the most critical components of business strategy and performance management for modern, complex healthcare organizations. Using pragmatic and real-world evidence, this book provides essential briefings on key topics that every current or aspiring leader needs to know in order to better manage strategy and achieve improved performance in their hospital or health system. We will also specifically focus on implementation of strategy, and best practices for some of the most important quality management techniques. We hope this book helps inspire leaders to be creative in formulating more effective competitive strategy.