Financial Times, Best Business Books of 2022 Forbes, Best Business Books of 2022 The Next Big Idea Club, Best Leadership Books of 2022 The Globe & Mail, Best Management Books of 2022 The paradigm-busting theory for doing strategy. What passes for strategy in too many businesses, government agencies, and military operations is a toxic mix of wishful thinking and a jumble of incoherent policies. Richard P. Rumelt’s breakthrough concept is that leaders become effective strategists when they focus on challenges rather than goals, pinpointing the crux of their pivotal challenge—the aspect that is both surmountable and promises the greatest progress—and taking decisive, coherent action to overcome it. Rumelt defines the essence of the strategist’s skill with vivid storytelling, from how Elon Musk found the crux that propelled the success of SpaceX to how the American military came to grips with the weaknesses of its battle strategy. Musk’s core challenge, for example, was rocket reusability. His intense focus on the soft landing of SpaceX’s rockets enabled them to be used again—radically reducing the cost of putting a pound in orbit. Musk’s strategy was not based on how value is created or how to position SpaceX in its industry. It was a design foraction, the mental maneuver that focuses energy on what really made a difference through understanding the crux and creating an effective response that led to breakthrough.
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world. Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” In Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” He introduces nine sources of power—ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth—that are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can easily be put to work on Monday morning, and uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007–08 financial crisis. Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world. Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” In Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” He introduces nine sources of power—ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth—that are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can easily be put to work on Monday morning, and uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007–08 financial crisis. Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.
This volume includes a translation of the major prose works, several of the ascribed lyrics and a selection of the commentaries written in English by this fourteenth-century (c. 1300-1349) English mystical writer and hermit.
The fast-track MBA in strategy Imagine having instant access to the world's smartest thinking on strategy - and being shown exactly what to do to guarantee that you get your own strategy right, every time. Strategy Genius makes it easy to apply what researchers know about strategic thinking to the real world. 40 chapters based on hundreds of cutting-edge business and psychology research projects reveal what works and what doesn't work in strategy. Each of the 40 chapters is a mini-masterclass in strategic thinking, explaining the research and showing you how to apply it for yourself. In business, conventional wisdom often says one thing while research says another. Strategy Genius cuts through the noise to bring you proven research and techniques for applying it that will simply make you a better strategist. Quick to read and intensely practical, this book will bring a little strategy genius into your day. 'Strategy is one of those topics that many people talk about without having much idea what they mean. Richard Jones is one of the exceptions. A very good book; I recommend it strongly' Peter Hiscocks, CEO Judge Business School Executive Education, University of Cambridge 'Genius conflated into something you can understand. A bit like Richard, really' Michael Wilson, Director of Business and Economics Editor, Arise Global Networks
Twenty-two of the most important & influential strategy thinkers identify the fundamental questions & issues in the field today. Addressing four critical questions (How do firms behave? Why are firms different? What are the functions of the headquarters unit in a multibusiness firm? What determines success or failure in an international company?), the contributors set a research agenda for the coming decade, asserting that researchers must refocus their efforts now. This major project was cosponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation & the Strategic Management Society.
The evolving strategies and structure of large European firms are examined in a comparative and historical context, and in the context of a range of hypotheses associated with Alfred Chandler.
Technology and Strategy is a comprehensive guide to creating a strategic plan that incorporates technological growth. Using real-life examples from industries from electronics to bio-technology, the authors present the tools planners need to integrate a firm's technological capabilities with its strategic plan. Importantly, the book also addresses broader questions about the role of technology, clarifying when it aids innovation, when it is evolutionary, and when it is revolutionary. These questions are tested against trends such as Total Quality Management, the resource-based view of strategy, and the increase in external acquisition of technology. Offering clear guidance through an increasingly complex area, Technology and Strategy will be a valuable reference for practising executives, general managers, strategic planners, R&D executives, and manufacturers.
This book is intended to serve as a road map for strategy creation and execution for leaders and decision makers who, by choice or by necessity, are looking to use strategy to optimize the development of their institutions. It is the first book of its kind to focus exclusively on strategy as it applies to postsecondary education. As the authors explain, strategy is a systematic way of positioning an institution within a context of community stakeholders. In today's competitive environment, higher education leaders must become adept at differentiating their institutions from competitors to obtain the resources necessary for growth and sustainable advantage. The book begins by explaining the concept of strategy and its application. The authors describe the evolution of modern strategy and how it is has been applied and developed by strategy theorists and practitioners. The book also explores how strategy is shaped by critical factors related to the mission, control and culture of the institution. For example, strategy that is appropriate in a liberal arts college may be completely inappropriate for community college or a teaching university. Real-world cases are employed to illustrate the applications of strategy in three different settings: a private liberal arts college, a comprehensive public institution, and a special purpose institution. The last section moves to the hands-on world of strategy formulation and implementation inside the institution. The authors end with an outline of key concepts for building a plan for implementing strategy and provide a framework for evaluating its impact.
Exploring Strategy, 12th Edition, by Whittington, Angwin, Regner, Johnson and Scholes has long been the essential introduction to strategy for the managers of today and tomorrow and has sold over one million copies worldwide. From entrepreneurial start-ups to multinationals, charities to government agencies, this book raises the big questions ab.
YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO STRATEGY. PLAIN AND SIMPLE. The Financial Times Guide to Strategy is your unbeatable reference on strategy. It offers an incisive overview of both corporate level and business unit level strategy, an A to Z of the world’s leading strategic thinkers and introduces the key strategic tools and techniques you need to develop your own strategy. Based on long experience and on conversations with leading strategists around the world, Richard Koch helps you discover each critical step in creating, delivering and understanding successful strategy. The fifth edition of this bestselling book is your easy-to-read, jargon-free guide to the strategic models and thinkers you really need to know about. Updated with new tools and examples, The Financial Times Guide to Strategy shows you which questions to ask, how to go about answering them, and then what action to take. This is the smartest and most readable strategy guide available anywhere.
This broad, balanced introduction to organizational studies enables the reader to compare and contrast different approaches to the study of organizations. This book is a valuable tool for the reader, as we are all intertwined with organizations in one form or another. Numerous other disciplines besides sociology are addressed in this book, including economics, political science, strategy and management theory. Topic areas discussed in this book are the importance of organizations; defining organizations; organizations as rational, natural, and open systems; environments, strategies, and structures of organizations; and organizations and society. For those employed in fields where knowledge of organizational theory is necessary, including sociology, anthropology, cognitive psychology, industrial engineering, managers in corporations and international business, and business strategists.
Regularly considered to be the cap-stone course on any business or management degree, strategy has developed into a wide-ranging and sometimes overwhelming field of study. However, in recent years the theory of strategy has come under increasing scrutiny for its perceived failures and detachment from real world practice. With an engaging and conversational tone, this new concise textbook offers an accessible and timely review of the theory and practice of strategic management, explored from a more critical perspective. In a refreshing change from much of the literature, Richard Godfrey takes a wider view of strategy, incorporating insights from the worlds of sociology, psychology and history to highlight the complexity and plurality at the heart of the discipline. The book also incorporates a number of extensive case studies on contemporary business strategy from the likes of Apple, Nike, Zara and IKEA. Written for both an undergraduate and postgraduate audience, the book challenges a number of underlying assumption and beliefs about strategy and seeks to add clarity and context to the field.
A report from the front lines of higher education and technology that chronicles efforts to transform teaching, learning, and opportunity. Colleges and universities have become increasingly costly, and, except for a handful of highly selective, elite institutions, unresponsive to twenty-first-century needs. But for the past few years, technology-fueled innovation has begun to transform higher education, introducing new ways to disseminate knowledge and better ways to learn—all at lower cost. In this impassioned account, Richard DeMillo tells the behind-the-scenes story of these pioneering efforts and offers a roadmap for transforming higher education. Building on his earlier book, Abelard to Apple, DeMillo argues that the current system of higher education is clearly unsustainable. Colleges and universities are in financial crisis. Tuition rises inexorably. Graduates of reputable schools often fail to learn basic skills, and many cannot find suitable jobs. Meanwhile, student-loan default rates have soared while the elite Ivy and near-Ivy schools seem remote and irrelevant. Where are the revolutionaries who can save higher education? DeMillo's heroes are a small band of innovators who are bringing the revolution in technology to colleges and universities. DeMillo chronicles, among other things, the invention of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) by professors at Stanford and MIT; Salman Khan's Khan Academy; the use of technology by struggling historically black colleges and universities to make learning more accessible; and the latest research on learning and the brain. He describes the revolution's goals and the entrenched hierarchical system it aims to overthrow; and he reframes the nature of the contract between society and its universities. The new institutions of a transformed higher education promise to demonstrate not only that education has value but also that it has values—virtues for the common good.
For the past forty years, Richard Koch has worked to uncover simple and elegant principles which govern business success. To qualify, a principle must be so overwhelmingly powerful that anyone can reliably apply it to generate extraordinary results. Working with venture capitalist Greg Lockwood and supported by specially commissioned research from OC&C Strategy Consultants, Koch has now found one elemental principle that unites extraordinarily valuable companies: simplifying. Some firms simplify on price - consider budget flights stripped of all extras that still take you from A to B - creating new, huge mass markets for their wares. Others, such as Apple, simplify their proposition, bringing a beautifully easy-to-use product or service to a large premium market. How can your business become a simplifier? With case studies of some of the most famous firms of the last hundred years, from finance to fast food, this enlightening book shows how to analyse any company's potential to simplify, and enrich the world.
Evolutionary economics sees the economy as always in motion with change being driven largely by continuing innovation. This approach to economics, heavily influenced by the work of Joseph Schumpeter, saw a revival as an alternative way of thinking about economic advancement as a result of Richard Nelson and Sidney Winter's seminal book, An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, first published in 1982. In this long-awaited follow-up, Nelson is joined by leading figures in the field of evolutionary economics, reviewing in detail how this perspective has been manifest in various areas of economic inquiry where evolutionary economists have been active. Providing the perfect overview for interested economists and social scientists, readers will learn how in each of the diverse fields featured, evolutionary economics has enabled an improved understanding of how and why economic progress occurs.
A completely revised and updated version of this book was published in 2015 under the title "The Strategy Planning Process". A company's strategies define its future direction, specifying not only target market positions for many years to come, but also the key competitive advantages both at the level of market offers and of resources. Developing future strategies is an important and complex task, which is the core issue in this book. After a short introduction to strategic planning, a heuristic process for determining future strategies is presented. This process is divided into eight steps, and for each of these steps, detailed recommendations for problem-solving are provided and illustrated through many concrete examples. The new edition is improved.
This title was first published in 2000. This text focuses on one geographical and economical area - the Asia-Pacific region, on one type of decision makers - commercial shipowners, and on one type of business strategy - corporate level strategy, to show economic change and how organizations manage that change. This book discusses the challenges that shipowners face to take advantage of that growth. It also looks at the lack of information on strategic decision making that could assist the shipowners in taking advantage of the economic situation. The chapters cover the types of business strategies available and how to select the criteria for selecting one of those strategies.
The 9th edition of this comprehensive core textbook builds on its global perspective and approachable written style, as it explores the key concepts within a clear and logical structure. Lynch guides you through 19 chapters, with updated case studies and pedagogy that support the modern business and management student from start to finish. Continuous contrast between prescriptive and emergent views of strategy highlights key debates within the discipline, whilst an emphasis on the practical throughout the book helps you turn theory into practice
The key to success lies in getting to the top, right? Wrong. Not everyone can be in charge but, more importantly, not everyone should want to be. Richard Hytner, Deputy Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi, thinks it's time to celebrate the second-in-commands, the consiglieri: from Merlin, to Al Gore, Rasputin to Machiavelli. These are the deputies, the Vice Presidents, the C-suite, the department heads - lieutenants, advisers, and counselors - whose influence determines the fate of boardrooms, corporations, and nations. While supremacy comes with drawbacks and influence, authority and power can be found in much more interesting places than the CEO's chair. Consiglieri: Leading from The Shadows brings together historical examples from Harry Hopkins to William Seward, conversations with contemporary second-in-commands like Tony Blair and Sir Alex Ferguson, and unique insights into Stalin, JFK, and Winnie the Pooh. A mirror for contemporary 'No. 2's' and a theoretical map for future consiglieri, the book traverses an array of powerful advisers from the White House to the Vatican, across international business, sports, and entertainment, as well as citing provocative research from psychology and academia.
General Motors and IBM have been battered to their cores. Jack Welch, the chairman of General Electric, called the frenzied competition of the 1980's "a white knuckle decade" and said the 1990s would be worse. In this pathbreaking book that will define this new age of "hypercompetition," Richard D'Aveni reveals how competitive moves and countermoves escalate with such ferocity today that the traditional sources of competitive advantage can no longer be sustained. To compete in this dynamic environment, D'Aveni argues that a company must fundamentally shift its strategic focus. He constructs a brilliant operational model that shows how firms move up "escalation ladders" as advantage is continually created, eroded, destroyed, and recreated through strategic maneuvering in four arenas of competition. Using this "Four Arena" analysis, D'Aveni explains how competitors engage in a struggle for control by seeking leadership in the arenas of "price and quality," "timing and know-how," "stronghold creation/invasion," and "deep pockets." Winners set the pace in each of these four competitive battlegrounds. Using hundreds of detailed examples from hypercompetitive industries such as computers, software, automobiles, airlines, pharmaceuticals, toys and soft drinks, D'Avenie demonstrates how hypercompetitive firms succeed in dynamic markets by disrupting the status quo and creating a continuous series of temporary advantages. They seize the initiative, D'Aveni explains, by employing a set of strategies he calls the "New 7-S's" Superior Stakeholder Satisfaction, Strategic Soothsaying, Speed, Surprise, Shifting the Rules of Competition, Signaling Strategic Intent, and Simultaneous and Sequential Thrusts. Paradoxically, firms must destroy their competitive advantages to gain advantage, D'Aveni shows. Long-term success depends not on sustaining an advantage through a static, long-term strategy, but instead on formulating a dynamic strategy for the creating, destruction, and recreation of short-term advantages. America must embrace the new reality of hypercompetition, D'Aveni concludes in a compelling analysis of the potential chilling effect of American antitrust laws on competitiveness. This masterful book, essentially an operating manual of strategy and tactics for a new era, will be required reading for managers, planners, consultants, academics, and students of hypercompetitive industries.
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