Leading Change

Book Description

In Leading Change, John Kotter examines the efforts of more than 100 companies to remake themselves into better competitors. He identifies the most common mistakes leaders and managers make in attempting to create change and offers an eight-step process to overcome the obstacles and carry out the firm's agenda: establishing a greater sense of urgency, creating the guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating the change vision, empowering others to act, creating short-term wins, consolidating gains and producing even more change, and institutionalizing new approaches in the future. This highly personal book reveals what John Kotter has seen, heard, experienced, and concluded in 25 years of working with companies to create lasting transformation.

Customer Reviews:

Effectively Managing Change.......2007-08-17

In this book, Kotter methodically and carefully explains his eight-step process for creating major change in business organizations. He notes that the rate of organisational change has been increasing in recent years. The rapid and continual innovation in technology is driving changes to organisational systems and processes. There are also increased expectations of employees as they move more freely between organisations.

Kotter highlights the critical importance of leadership in any change programme. Strong, sustained leadership is crucial to changing deeply rooted corporate cultures and successfully implementing the change process.

John Kotter describes a helpful eight step model for understanding and managing change. Each stage acknowledges a key principle identified by Kotter relating to people's response and approach to change, in which people see, feel and then change.

In spite of the importance and permanence of organisational change, most change initiatives fail to deliver the expected organisational benefits. This book should help those involved in the change process to avoid the pitfalls and follow the eight steps that are explained in detail in the book.

Anyone planning or implementing a change programme will find the book useful, helpful and handy. The author presents the subject in a simple, concise, and easy to follow format.

Wow - thoughtful AND useful.......2007-06-28

Kotter's book is a roadmap of how to introduce a culture change effectively into an organization. Similar to "Good to Great" (Jim Collins), the book is much better organized and thorough.

Amazing!!.......2007-06-26

Have no further words to describe how increrable John Kotter brings in a easy way a subject so complex and important now-a-days. Indeed, it is recommend for all leaders who wants to take right decisions during turbulent times.

Still the definitive work on Change.......2007-06-13

I have been working in the change arena for the last 15 years and Kotter's book on Leading Change is still the definitive work. Based on his seminal 1994 HBR article "Leading Change: Why Transformations efforts fail" this is the best down-to-earth guide for both consultants and managers leading change. It has good practical examples and straightforward arguments - no psychological mumbo jumbo.

Envision, introduce, sustain change. or die........2007-05-09

Kotter gives us here a valuable handbook on how to visualize, introduce, and sustain change in an organization. Here are a few quotes:
"Handling new initiatives quickly is not an essential component of success in relatively stable or cartel-like environments. The problem for us today is that stability is no longer the norm. And most experts agree that over the next few decades the business environment will become only more volatile."
"Useful change tends to be associated with a multistep process that creates power and motivation sufficient to overwhelm all the sources of inertia."

Lean Thinking : Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated

Average customer rating:

Interesting book but very dull.
Womack and Jones, very engaging.
Worth Every Penny
My husband loved it
Excellent Book with Detailed Lean Conversion Techniques

Lean Thinking : Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated
James P. Womack , Daniel T. Jones , James Womack , and Daniel Jones
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

The Toyota Way
The Machine That Changed the World : The Story of Lean Production
Lean Solutions: How Companies and Customers Can Create Value and Wealth Together
The Goal
Learning to See Version 1.3

ASIN: 0743249275

Amazon.com

In the revised and updated edition of Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, authors James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones provide a thoughtful expansion upon their value-based business system based on the Toyota model. Along the way they update their action plan in light of new research and the increasing globalization of manufacturing, and they revisit some of their key case studies (most of which still derive, however, from the automotive, aerospace, and other manufacturing industries).

The core of the lean model remains the same in the new edition. All businesses must define the "value" that they produce as the product that best suits customer needs. The leaders must then identify and clarify the "value stream," the nexus of actions to bring the product through problems solving, information management, and physical transformation tasks. Next, "lean enterprise" lines up suppliers with this value stream. "Flow" traces the product across departments. "Pull" then activates the flow as the business re-orients towards the pull of the customer's needs. Finally, with the company reengineered towards its core value in a flow process, the business re-orients towards "perfection," rooting out all the remaining muda (Japanese for "waste") in the system.

Despite the authors' claims to "actionable principles for creating lasting value in any business during any business conditions," the lean model is not demonstrated with broad applications in the service or retail industries. But those manager's whose needs resonate with those described in the Lean Thinking case studies will find a host of practical guidelines for streamlining their processes and achieving manufacturing efficiencies. --Patrick O'Kelley

Book Description

Expanded, updated, and more relevant than ever, this bestselling business classic by two internationally renowned management analysts describes a business system for the twenty-first century that supersedes the mass production system of Ford, the financial control system of Sloan, and the strategic system of Welch and GE. It is based on the Toyota (lean) model, which combines operational excellence with value-based strategies to produce steady growth through a wide range of economic conditions.

In contrast with the crash-and-burn performance of companies trumpeted by business gurus in the 1990s, the firms profiled in Lean Thinking -- from tiny Lantech to midsized Wiremold to niche producer Porsche to gigantic Pratt & Whitney -- have kept on keeping on, largely unnoticed, along a steady upward path through the market turbulence and crushed dreams of the early twenty-first century. Meanwhile, the leader in lean thinking -- Toyota -- has set its sights on leadership of the global motor vehicle industry in this decade.

Instead of constantly reinventing business models, lean thinkers go back to basics by asking what the customer really perceives as value. (It's often not at all what existing organizations and assets would suggest.) The next step is to line up value-creating activities for a specific product along a value stream while eliminating activities (usually the majority) that don't add value. Then the lean thinker creates a flow condition in which the design and the product advance smoothly and rapidly at the pull of the customer (rather than the push of the producer). Finally, as flow and pull are implemented, the lean thinker speeds up the cycle of improvement in pursuit of perfection. The first part of this book describes each of these concepts and makes them come alive with striking examples.

Lean Thinking clearly demonstrates that these simple ideas can breathe new life into any company in any industry in any country. But most managers need guidance on how to make the lean leap in their firm. Part II provides a step-by-step action plan, based on in-depth studies of more than fifty lean companies in a wide range of industries across the world.

Even those readers who believe they have embraced lean thinking will discover in Part III that another dramatic leap is possible by creating an extended lean enterprise for each of their product families that tightly links value-creating activities from raw materials to customer.

In Part IV, an epilogue to the original edition, the story of lean thinking is brought up-to-date with an enhanced action plan based on the experiences of a range of lean firms since the original publication of Lean Thinking.

Lean Thinking does not provide a new management "program" for the one-minute manager. Instead, it offers a new method of thinking, of being, and, above all, of doing for the serious long-term manager -- a method that is changing the world.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting book but very dull........2007-08-27

I found this book to be interesting, but I hard trouble finishing it because the writing was so boring. Despite the dullness the book did get me thinking of product in a different way.

Womack and Jones, very engaging........2007-08-26

Lean Thinking- A very well written account of a long study of the theory of customer driven value thinking. The elimination of waste in accomplishing customer driven trade is the main goal of this theory. The book has been tuned over a series of revisions, so it is well polished. While I am no expert on the topic, I can at least attest to the fact that the volume is well written and referenced. Their views are spread over a period of many years, giving them the benefit of tracking case study performance over the long term. Companies both large and small have been studied and tracked to determine the benefits of these theories.

Worth Every Penny.......2007-07-30

A most readable book on an important subject of productivity. The comment on outsourcing is insightful and the emphasis on human element is so crucial. Productivity is not all about bigger and better machines but about management and employee been willing to take risks to think out of a box. Mr. Womack has made a significant contribution to the on-going dicussion of productivity in a globalized world.

My husband loved it.......2007-04-10

My husband loved this book so much that this was actually purchased as a gift for another man in his office.

Excellent Book with Detailed Lean Conversion Techniques .......2007-02-01

This book provides many case studies of companies outside of the auto industry that converted to lean production. It details the personnel changes they had to make, changes in factory layout, differences in the supply chain and much more. Where "The Machine that Changed the World" was a primer to lean production, "Lean Thinking" is more of a how-to book. Together, they make a great pair and provide a fairly in-depth view of the subject. As in, "The Machine that Changed the World", there is plenty of hard data to back up the claims that these companies improved after switching to lean thinking.

I am a college student majoring in mechanical engineering and read this book and "The Machine that Changed the World" to get a broad understanding of lean production. The two books did just that and even gave me many ideas on how to convert a student organization I am involved with (SAE) to more of a lean organization. As much as possible anyway.

Average customer rating:

Excellent
Effective Strategic Management Tool
The Balanced Scorecard - translating strategy into action
they are the ones
Are you adding or destroying value ? - Find it out with The Balanced Score Card

Balanced Scorecard
Kaplan
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment
Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes
Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results
Alignment: Using the Balanced Scorecard to Create Corporate Synergies
Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business

ASIN: 0875846513

Book Description

Here is the book-by the recognized architects of the Balanced Scorecard--that shows how managers can use this revolutionary tool to mobilize their people to fulfill the company's mission. More than just a measurement system, the Balanced Scorecard is a management system that can channel the energies, abilities, and specific knowledge held by people throughout the organization toward achieving long-term strategic goals.

Kaplan and Norton demonstrate how senior executives in industries such as banking, oil, insurance, and retailing are using the Balanced Scorecard both to guide current performance and to target future performance. They show how to use measures in four categories-financial performance, customer knowledge, internal business processes, and learning and growth-to align individual, organizational, and cross-departmental initiatives and to identify entirely new processes for meeting customer and shareholder objectives.

The authors also reveal how to use the Balanced Scorecard as a robust learning system for testing, gaining feedback on, and updating the organization's strategy. Finally, they walk through the steps that managers in any company can use to build their own Balanced Scorecard.

The Balanced Scorecard provides the management system for companies to invest in the long term-in customers, in employees, in new product development, and in systems-rather than managing the bottom line to pump up short-term earnings. It will change the way you measure and manage your business.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2007-10-22

This is a product that help me to alling the objetive of our organization to the lowest levels

Effective Strategic Management Tool.......2007-10-16

The book is a classic that has revolutionalised the way executives view their organizations, be it a for profit or not-for-profit entity. The Balanced Scorecard, an approach to strategic management that was developed by Robert S Kaplan and David P Norton, is a concept for measuring a company's activities in terms of its vision and strategies, to provide managers with a comprehensive view of the performance of a business. The key new factor is focusing not only on financial results but also on the human issues that drive those outcomes, so that organizations focus on the future and act in their long-term best interest.

The traditional means of measuring success through financial performance focuses on achievement to date. It is backward looking and can be counter productive in terms of securing a successful financial future. According to Kaplan and Norton financial measures are inadequate for guiding and evaluating the drive that information age firms must make to create future value through investment in customers, suppliers, employees, processes, technology and innovation.

The Balanced Scorecard balances financial success with processes that will generate success in the future. The scorecard retains a financial perspective and achieves balance by introducing a customer perspective, an internal perspective and a learning and growth perspective. In addition, it introduces objectives and measures, identifying both critical success factors and critical measurements.

The Balanced Scorecard is a management system (not only a measurement system) that allows organizations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. It provides feedback around both the internal business processes and external outcomes in order to continuously improve strategic performance and results. When fully deployed, the Balanced Scorecard transforms strategic management from an academic exercise into the nerve centre of an enterprise.

The Balanced Scorecard methodology builds on some key concepts of previous management ideas such as Total Quality Management (TQM), including customer-defined quality, continuous improvement, employee empowerment, and measurement-based management and feedback.
The Balanced Scorecard suggests that we view the organisation from four perspectives, namely the financial perspective, customer perspective, internal business processes and learning and growth perspective. The approach requires managers to develop metrics, collect data and analyze it relative to each of these perspectives.

This outstanding book is recommended to managers at all levels of an organisation, as well as business management students and strategy consultants.

The Balanced Scorecard - translating strategy into action.......2007-10-06

The order process was quick and easy,the information updates on status of delivery were accurate, the book arrived before ETA, and it was in excellent condition.

Thank you for a great transaction.

Now I just have to read it!!!
Regards

Breed Lewis

they are the ones.......2007-04-09

They invented it and there's no way to plan a BSC without knowing where it came from.

You don't notice that it's been 10 years since it was written.

Are you adding or destroying value ? - Find it out with The Balanced Score Card.......2006-07-13

The financial performance of an organization is essential for its success. Even non-profit organizations must deal in a sensible way with funds they receive.

In 1992, an article by Robert Kaplan and David Norton entitled "The Balanced Scorecard - Measures that Drive Performance" in the Harvard Business Review caused a lot of attention for their method, and led to their business bestseller, "The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action", published in 1996.

In this book Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton develop and describe the Balanced Score Card, a multidimensional approach to measuring corporate performance that incorporates both financial and non-financial factors.

The Balanced Score Card method of Kaplan and Norton is a strategic approach and performance management system that enables organizations to translate a company's vision and strategy into implementation, working from 4 perspectives:
1. financial perspective,
2. customer perspective,
3. business process perspective,
4. learning and growth perspective.

- Financial perspective: Kaplan and Norton do not disregard the traditional need for financial data. Timely and accurate funding data will always be a priority, and managers will do whatever necessary to provide it. In fact, often there is more than enough handling and processing of financial data. With the implementation of a corporate database, it is hoped that more of the processing can be centralized and automated. But the point is that the current emphasis on financials leads to the "unbalanced" situation with regard to other perspectives. There is perhaps a need to include additional financial-related data, such as risk assessment and cost-benefit data, in this category.

- Customer perspective: recent management philosophy has shown an increasing realization of the importance of customer focus and customer satisfaction in any business. These are leading indicators: if customers are not satisfied, they will eventually find other suppliers that will meet their needs. Poor performance from this perspective is thus a leading indicator of future decline, even though the current financial picture may look good. In developing metrics for satisfaction, customers should be analyzed in terms of kinds of customers and the kinds of processes for which we are providing a product or service to those customer groups.

- Business Process perspective refers to internal business processes. Metrics based on this perspective allow the managers to know how well their business is running, and whether its products and services conform to customer requirements (the mission). These metrics have to be carefully designed by those who know these processes most intimately. In addition to the strategic management process, two kinds of business processes may be identified: a) mission-oriented processes, and b) support processes. Mission-oriented processes are the special functions of government offices, and many unique problems are encountered in these processes. The support processes are more repetitive in nature, and hence easier to measure and benchmark using generic metrics.

- Learning and Growth perspective includes employee training and corporate cultural attitudes related to both individual and corporate self-improvement. In a knowledge-worker organization, people are the main resource. In the current climate of rapid technological change, it is becoming necessary for knowledge workers to be in a continuous learning mode. Government agencies often find themselves unable to hire new technical workers and at the same time is showing a decline in training of existing employees. Kaplan and Norton emphasize that 'learning' is more than 'training'; it also includes things like mentors and tutors within the organization, as well as that ease of communication among workers that allows them to readily get help on a problem when it is needed. It also includes technological tools such as an Intranet.

The integration of these four perspectives into a graphical appealing picture have made the Balanced Scorecard method a very successful methodology within the Value Based Management philosophy.

In addition to this book you may want to consider the following books on the subject:
- Robert S. Kaplan. Alignment: Using the Balanced Scorecard to Create Corporate Synergies.
- Paul R. Niven. Balanced ScoreCard Step-by-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results.
- Paul R. Niven. Balanced ScoreCard Step-by-Step for Government and Nonprofit Agencies.
- Nils-Göran Olve. Performance Drivers: A Practical Guide to Using the Balanced Scorecard.
- Robert S. Kaplan. The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment.
- Robert S. Kaplan. Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes.
- Robert S. Kaplan. Putting the Balanced Scorecard to Work.
- Robert S. Kaplan. The Balanced Scorecard: Measures That Drive Performance.

Strategic Human Resource Management (with InfoTrac )

Average customer rating:

Strategic Human Resource Management

Strategic Human Resource Management (with InfoTrac )
Jeffrey A. Mello
Manufacturer: South-Western College Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Business Ethics
Human Resource Development
Applications in Human Resource Management: Cases, Exercises, and Skill Builders
The New Managerial Economics
Legal Environment

ASIN: 0324290438

Book Description

Make Human Resources work for you. STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT shows you how through its unique system of concept integration. Most Human Resources textbooks give you the theories without showing you the connections to real life. This textbook lets you see both sides of Human Resources: the theory and the application. That way, you'll not only get a great grade in class, you'll be on your way to success after college as well.

Customer Reviews:

Strategic Human Resource Management.......2006-11-04

The book covered a lot of ground. I believe it offered a lot of insight into the world of human resources, primarily, the challenges faced by HR today. Some highlights were the concept of valuing human assets, the implications of globalization, federal regulations, the importance of well-designed and applicable feedback systems, employee separation and compensation. Overall, it was a fairly easy read. I would recommend this book to professors, students, and entrepreneurs.

New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century with Online Learning Center access card

Average customer rating:

Textbook Use

New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century with Online Learning Center access card
Jeffry A Timmons , and Stephen Spinelli
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Business Plans that Work
The Entrepreneurial Imperative: How America's Economic Miracle Will Reshape the World (and Change Your Life)
The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living
The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship
Managing Organizational Change: A Multiple Perspectives Approach

ASIN: 0073285919

Book Description

This new 7th Edition of New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century, is the most heavily revised edition since its existence, yet it still maintains the market defining "Timmons Model of the Entrepreneurial Process." As always, Timmons & Spinelli cover the process of getting a new venture started, growing the venture, and successfully harvesting it. Through text, case studies, and hands-on exercises, this how-to text guides students in discovering the concepts of entrepreneurship and the competencies, skills, tools, and experience to equip students to successfully launch a new venture and recognize entrepreneurial opportunities. The authors recognize that there is no substitute for actually starting a company, but believe that it is possible to expose students to many of the vital issues and immerse them in key learning experiences.

Customer Reviews:

Textbook Use.......2007-07-08

The UTSI New Venture Formation course uses this as the main text. The book is chock full of information.

The idea of the Online Learning center is a great one, but there could be a lot more resources added. Currently, you are allowed to read the chapter summary & see typical questions for each chapter online. There are also several links to articles relating to the topic. The links are fairly old, however.

Designing Organizations: An Executive Guide to Strategy, Structure, and Process Revised

Average customer rating:

applied the knowladge
excellent resource
Guide to the factors that shape organizational design

Designing Organizations: An Executive Guide to Strategy, Structure, and Process Revised
Jay R. Galbraith
Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Designing Dynamic Organizations: A Hands-On Guide for Leaders at All Levels
Designing the Customer-Centric Organization: A Guide to Strategy, Structure, and Process (Jossey Bass Business and Management Series)
Competing by Design: The Power of Organizational Architecture
Designing Organizations to Create Value: From Strategy to Structure
From The Ground Up (Jossey-Bass Business & Management)

ASIN: 0787957453

Book Description

A thoroughly revised second edition of the leader's concise guide to the process of creating and managing an organisation, no matter how complex, that will achieve unique competitive advantages and be poised to respond effectively and rapidly to customer demands.

In this book executives, managers, and consultants will find the concrete tools they need to select and implement an efficient design that creates superior and more competitive performance. In addition to analysing the four key forces shaping today's organisations -- buyer power, variety, change, and speed -- this new edition addresses the concerns of new economy by expanding on the section on the Flexible Organization and includes a new section on organising around the customer. The book:

Describes what leaders can do to effect the change process
Addresses the concerns of new economy companies
Contains rich examples from successful companies

Customer Reviews:

applied the knowladge.......2006-02-23

i have read this book with a great deal of intrest. it was a great help in implementing change and designing a organization structure that is able to deliver on the new strategy.

excellent resource.......2003-09-06

Really good intro to ideas and concepts needed to redesign an organization in terms of its structure. Best if you already have some degree of experience in do it so you can really apply the concepts.

Guide to the factors that shape organizational design.......2002-12-28

Jay R. Galbraith is an internationally recognized expert on organization design. He is a Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California and Professor Emeritus at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland. This book is a updated/revised edition of 'Designing Organizations' which was originally published in 1995. It is split up into 10 chapters.

Chapter 1 - Introduction - really sets the stage for the rest of the book. It discusses the six main organization shapers: the increase buyer power; increase in the number of products and services; the Internet; multiple dimensions (functions, products, and geography, but also customer segments, solutions or offerings, and channels and processes); the requirement for a capacity to change; and speed (in bringing products and services to the market).

The following two chapters discuss how companies have to shape their organizational design, strategy, and structure in order how to deal with these organization shapers. Galbraith introduces his copyrighted Star Model (Strategy, structure, people, rewards, and processes), which looks AND sounds very similar to McKinsey's 7-S framework. Chapters 4 and 5 build on these chapter and discuss how organizations have to link their processes to coordination needs and integrate group processes. Then, in Chapter 6 discusses the easily changeable or reconfigurable organization based on the Star Model, which, according to Galbraith, results from the skilled use of three capabilities: (1) forming teams and networks across organizational departments; (2) the use of internal prices, markets, and marketlike devices to coordinate the complexity of multiple teams; and (3) the forming of partnerships to secure capabilities that it does not have. Each of these capabilities are discussed in detail.

The Chapters 7 to 10 are all very current and fashionable. They discuss the organizing around the customer, customer-focused structures, the design of the virtual corporation, and organizing the continuous design process. Although the subjects discussed are important, some of the examples are too long and take up most of the chapters. Some of the examples also do not really apply to every company/organization but are too specific. Still, these are issues that should not be forgotten about, especially organizing around the customer remains important.

I must admit that I am somewhat disappointed with this book, which is written by a leading authority in the field of organizational design. I believe it is especially the title that lets the book down. It is not so much a guide into strategies and structures; it more discusses the organization shapers and the possibilities that companies/organizations have to tackle the organization shapers. I believe that the book is especially weak in discussing organizational design and structures. Galbraith discusses his own Star-model (which reminds me of McKinsey's 7-S framework) and his reconfigurable organization (the learning organization?), but leaves all other models/designs/structures untouched. I have not been generous, the book really deserves a 3.5-star rating. The author uses simple business US-English.

Average customer rating:

The Strategy Concept and Process

Learn To Develop a Strategic Plan and Capture the Essence

very usefull in the field

A clear and compehensive methodology to make a strategy

The Strategy Concept and Process: A Pragmatic Approach (2nd Edition)
Arnoldo C. Hax , and Nicolas S. Majluf
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Delta Project: Discovering New Sources of Profitability in a Networked Economy

Unpopular Culture: The Ritual of Complaint in a British Bank

Career Anchors: Participant Workbook (Pfeiffer Essential Resources for Training and HR Professionals)

International Economics and International Economics Policy: A Reader

Career Anchors: Self Assessment

ASIN: 0134588940

Book Description

Hax and Mailuf offer a pragmatic approach to strategic management, offering practicing managers and business readers a disciplined process that facilitates the formulation and implementation of strategy. Most comprehensive, integrated, explicit approach to strategy formulation; Proctor & Gamble used as a running case throughout the text. Other real world examples include NKK and Merck; global perspective, companies are drawn from all over the world.

Customer Reviews:

The Strategy Concept and Process.......2002-04-02

Need to know about the fundamental concept and process in Strategy? read this book, you will find a comprehensive description in "easy to understand" language, even that you're a beginner in Strategic Management. This book is a usefull guide for anyone, no matter you're a undergraduate, Graduate or Doctoral student. A state of the art of Strategic Management.

Learn To Develop a Strategic Plan and Capture the Essence.......2000-10-05

Basically, this book aims at making strategy concepts and techniques very clear to readers. In this book, strategy concepts were translated into well-considered formulations.

While reading book, you will see this property many times and it will help you better understand the abstract concepts. When you finished the book, you will be able to place your strategy theory on a strong base. No longer you will think that "Strategy Is a Staff Work." This book will give you the framework in which strategic plans are developed.

And lastly, you will find a lot of cases related to the theory in this invaluable book. I higly recommend..

very usefull in the field.......1999-04-06

Very exciting knowledge from the expert

A clear and compehensive methodology to make a strategy.......1998-08-03

The book present a clear and comprehensive methodology to make a strategy at three levels: corporate, business and functional. Include the Porter and BCG analysis. The method explain each step to make a complete analysis of the business before the formulation of the strategy. Each step is practical and adaptive to any kind of business.

Strategic and Competitive Analysis: Methods and Techniques for Analyzing Business Competition

Average customer rating:

Extremely good reference guide
a must have for all business students
Selected as "the" text for government all-source analysts
Excellent coverage of management analysis tools
Outstanding one stop source for techniques and "how to"

Strategic and Competitive Analysis: Methods and Techniques for Analyzing Business Competition
Craig S. Fleisher , and Babette Bensoussan
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Early Warning: Using Competitive Intelligence to Anticipate Market Shifts, Control Risk, and Create Powerful Strategies
Business and Competitive Analysis: Effective Application of New and Classic Methods
Competitive Intelligence : How to Gather, Analyze, and Use Information to Move Your Business to the Top
The Secret Language of Competitive Intelligence: How to See Through and Stay Ahead of Business Disruptions, Distortions, Rumors, and Smoke Screens
Proven Strategies in Competitive Intelligence: Lessons from the Trenches

ASIN: 0130888524

Customer Reviews:

Extremely good reference guide.......2005-08-04

I first came across this book whilst doing my MBA at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. The subject was Competitive Analysis and Babette Bensoussan was a guest lecturer. Working in Strategic Projects in a large Australian company, I found this book extremely useful in selecting strategic models to use for my analysis. The explanations of the models and how they work are accurate and precise and enables the reader to apply the model efficiently and effectively.

a must have for all business students.......2005-07-18

I just had the pleassure of having one of the authors (babette bensoussan) as a lecturer at bond university.
This book is THE reference for startegic analytical tools.
it is not one of the usual useless academic books - it is a practical usefull resource for most if not all strategy areas.

Selected as "the" text for government all-source analysts.......2004-01-14

Rather than outline the wonderful aspects of this book, which other reviewers have done so ably, I will just say that I rank the authors up there with Ben Gilad (Israel), Mats Bjore (Sweden), and Jan Herring, Dick Klavens/Brad Ashton, and Leonard Fuld (USA), and we have made this book "the" text for the annual government all-source analysis training that centers on Open Source Intelligence (OSINT).

This book, in combination with Ben Gilad's "Early Warning", the Leonard Fuld's "New Competitor Intelligence", Dick Klavens and Brad Ashton's "Keeping Abreast of Science & Technology", and Mats Bjore forthcoming book, are the essential five books for any business intelligence professional or anyone seeking to understand best in class business intelligence.

Excellent coverage of management analysis tools.......2003-07-23

This book fills a niche that should have been done by somebody a long time ago. It includes most of the popular analysis techniques that a management consultant would normally use, and provides a common process description for employing the method. It makes an excellent complement to Porter's series of books and can be nicely combined with more conceptual treatments in the strategy field. I have already bought several copies for my office colleagues as it will be useful for them in their consulting work as well. I can see why it has gotten many good reviews and I'd concur with these. It is worth having this one on your book shelf although, like me, you may find yourself pulling it off the shelf to refer to on a frequent basis.

Outstanding one stop source for techniques and "how to".......2003-03-25

It is rare to find a text that pulls together the many quite different techniques that can be used to analyze a business and the competitive environment in which it operates. This book does that, and more!

The authors have addressed their personal needs as much as the needs of those who will use the benefits of their labours. Now, when asked about a technique or asked for a recommendation as to how to attack an issue, one can turn to this one text and extract the most appropriate tool(s) and make sensible assessments of which of the various analytical tools is most appropriate.

The authors have gone one better - and I suspect that more than one MBA student will appreciate their efforts - they have included a very useful and quite comprehensive outline of financial analytical tools that add to the more "marketing" oriented techniques detailed in the core of the text. The various financial ratios are now at your fingertips. The financial analysis can be woven into the market and environmental competitive analysis.

Oh to have had access to this at an earlier stage of my career.

One of those indispensable tools. A "must have" in the office.

Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators: From Idea to Execution
Average customer rating:

Working from the Inside

Just what I needed to help my job

Inside look at managing an innovative offshoot

A "must-understand" for leaders concerned with long-term prosperity

Some Excellent New Ideas for Pursuing Organic Growth

Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators: From Idea to Execution
Vijay Govindarajan , and Chris Trimble
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Making Innovation Work: How to Manage It, Measure It, and Profit from It

The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization

Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant

Harvard Business Review on Innovation

Seeing What's Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change

ASIN: 1591397588

Book Description

Even world-class companies, with powerful and proven business models, eventually discover limits to growth. That’s what makes emerging high-growth industries so attractive. With no proven formula for making a profit, these industries represent huge opportunities for the companies that are fast enough and smart enough to capture them first.

But building tomorrow’s businesses while simultaneously sustaining excellence in today’s demands a delicate balance. It is a mandatory quest, but one that is fraught with contradiction and paradox. Until now, there has been little practical guidance.

Based on an in-depth, multiyear research study of innovative initiatives at ten large corporations, Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble identify three central challenges: forgetting yesterday’s successful processes and practices; borrowing selected resources from the core business; and learning how the new business can succeed. The authors make recommendations regarding staffing, leadership roles, reporting relationships, process design, planning, performance assessment, incentives, cultural norms, and much more.

Breakthrough growth opportunities can make or break companies and careers. Forget, Borrow, Learn is every leader’s guide to execution in unexplored territory.

Customer Reviews:

Working from the Inside.......2007-08-20

We always hear about the innovators who go out to their garage and come out millionaires. But those slogging it out to innovate in old companies don't get any kudos. In fact, it is a pretty thankless process.

This book provides some key wisdom and models that will help internal innovators to design systems to get the most out of a large corporation without killing the new idea.

Just what I needed to help my job.......2007-07-15

I work deeply involved in innovation and its unusual needs for creating successful business, sometimes very far from the regular processes and methodologies. However, it was sometimes difficult to justify to my bosses why I took some decisions that seemed to go in opposite direction of the expected result and it is exactly what this book brought to me. Recommended.

Inside look at managing an innovative offshoot.......2007-04-19

As opposed to offering a simple guide to innovation, Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble do something less common, and they do it well: They analyze the institutional structures which allow, nurture and support innovation. They explain how to open new innovation-focused divisions in your organization, how to think about learning and how to evaluate such new projects (and, perhaps more importantly, how not to evaluate them). They share case studies of established companies' successful and failed attempts to sprout innovative offshoots. The results are very level-headed. The authors are quite clear about the obstacles to institutional innovation, planning and learning in uncharted waters. We expect that this book could help you sail through.

A "must-understand" for leaders concerned with long-term prosperity.......2006-07-14

Many thanks to Vijay Govindarajan (VG) and Chris Trimble for this grand exposition of ideas first shared in the Spring 2005 California Management Review and the May 2005 Harvard Business Review. VG and Trimble's "Forget, Borrow, Learn" framework is the most powerful recipe for corporate reinvention that I have encountered.

As other Amazon reviewers have skillfully described the contents of this excellent book, I would like to add just two things.

First, as a graduate of the Tuck School of Business, I had the good fortune of encountering VG in the classroom. VG is a dynamic presence who commands attention. If you get a chance to experience VG in person, take it. To get a (very) small taste of what I am talking about, check out VG's video link at Tuck's website.

Second, to learn further from VG, I highly recommend VG's blog. Several of VG's posts are pure gold. For example, in VG's March 10, 2006 post, he puts forth his "three box thinking model," with box 1 being "Manage the present," box 2 being "Selectively abandon the past," and box 3 being "Create the future." The leaders of most companies spend most of their time in box 1, believing that they are working on strategy. As VG contends, though, strategy is really about boxes 2 and (especially) 3, that is, figuring out how to allocate scarce resources today to assure market leadership in 2010, 2020, and beyond. Yes, indeed.

In sum, I not only recommend this book wholeheartedly, but also urge those concerned with the long-term health of their firms to continue reckoning with the thoughts and writings of both VG and Chris Trimble.

Some Excellent New Ideas for Pursuing Organic Growth.......2006-06-27

This is an excellent book that provides some excellent new ideas for pursuing organic growth. These ideas are built around three challenges: forgetting, borrowing and learning. The ideas are developed as 10 rules which are supported by numerous examples. To read this book, I would focus on the introduction and chapter one and then go to the conclusions in chapter 10. Chapter one provides the context for the rules and chapter 10 summarizes them. From there, you can focus on the rules that are most interesting to you and your organization. The chapter that I found to be most interesting was chapter 9, Theory Focused Planning an approach to understanding the business, how it will work and to discover the business model that the organization needs to focus on to be successful. I found this to be the best chapter in the book, because the traditional concepts of annual budgeting really don't work well in the world of innovation. And, this appears to me to be fundamentally better approach.

Team-Based Strategic Planning: A Complete Guide to Structuring, Facilitating and Implementing the Process

Average customer rating:

Useful guide
Read it, Use it. Love it!
Team based strategic planning book is excellent.
Strategic Planning: Easy to Work With
One of those dense, impenetrable tomes

Team-Based Strategic Planning: A Complete Guide to Structuring, Facilitating and Implementing the Process
C. Davis Fogg
Manufacturer: American Management Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

High Impact Tools and Activities for Strategic Planning: Creative Techniques for Facilitating Your Organization's Planning Process
Applied Strategic Planning: How to Develop a Plan That Really Works
Simplified Strategic Planning: A No-Nonsense Guide for Busy People Who Want Results Fast!
Strategic Thinking: A Step-By-Step Approach to Strategy, Second Edition
Creating and Implementing Your Strategic Plan: A Workbook for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, 2nd Edition

ASIN: 0814451276

Book Description

How to structure, facilitate, and implement the process.

Strategic planning is a critical part of running a business, but when you get a team of people together to plan, it can often become a confused exercise in grand visions without a clear process for establishing workable goals. This book is unique in providing both guidance for the actual content of strategic plans and techniques for how to plan in a team context. Readers will discover how to:

• structure the process so it custom fits their company needs

• effectively facilitate the process (keep meetings on track, train others in planning skills, document decisions made at meetings, present and communicate the plan)

• use teams and teamwork smoothly and productively to create a far-reaching plan—and then to implement it

Features detailed guidelines for each step, dozens of flowcharts, and three self-contained "facilitator's guides" to follow.

Customer Reviews:

Useful guide.......2007-05-17

I have several years of experience in participating and leading strategic planning, and I have found this to be a very good reference guide. One that I still refer to with some frequency. It has high-level comprehensive concepts as well as detailed, practical steps. Not for everyone, especially if you are put off by "business speak", but if you live in that world and are comfortable with it, this can be a very good reference guide.

Read it, Use it. Love it!.......2005-08-29

I've recommended this book to a number of my clients who were struggling with strategic planning. Unlike other books, it does not deal in vague generalities or unsupported principles. It gives all of the steps and instructions to choose from that companies need to create an excellent plan. The steps are explained simply and a strategy on how to make "it happen".

It is really useful because it gives a variety of examples from many different organizations and industries. It is the kind of book that you can use, sitting around with your staff, to agree on the process that you will take for your particular organization.

I highly recommend it to an organization that wants to make their strategic approach stick. My expertise is in leadership and management systems and training, and it fits well with my experience and philosophy-you can't do anything with an organization unless they have a view of the future and a plan to implement it.

Team based strategic planning book is excellent........2005-08-20

This is an excellent guide that allows a leader to structure a strategic planning process to fit a specific organization. It gives step by step instructions and real examples that make the process come alive. It also gives guides for facilitating collection of information and the meetings that must be held to get concensus on the organization's direction. In 30 years of federal government management, I have not seen any book as clear and as useful in directing development of a strategic plan. This book has been on the market since 1999, so I must not be alone in this opinion.

Strategic Planning: Easy to Work With.......2005-08-02

This text was incredibly simple to understand. It was set up in a way that it had very easy guidelines to follow, and the applications were just as easy to work with. I completely recommend this text to all that are in the field of leadership. This is one text that is assured continual usage by all that purchase it.

One of those dense, impenetrable tomes.......2005-01-25

"Team-Based Strategic Planning: A Complete Guide to Structuring, Facilitating and Implementing the Process" is one of those dense, impenetrable tomes blessed with having the American Management Association for its publisher. Hence, it smacks of authority.

Yet the book is written in a nearly unreadable language: the language of management-speak, uttered to obfuscate rather than enlighten, to deflect rather than engage.

One does not have to go far before running into verbal blockades such as this: "Organizations with an existing plan, however good or poor, should preface a plan update or total ground up revision with an upfront step: a review of the existing mission, plan, and accomplishments." Other similar all-star collections of jargon appear on nearly every page.

Shall we spend a moment considering this thought? First, people not organizations are the doers. Does "however good or poor" modify the existing plan or the organizations? Can there exist a nonexistent plan? Can a "ground up revision" be used for mulching the perennial garden? Can you actually preface and update, plus be upfront, in the same sentence? Finally, it's clear that organizations without existing plans will not be able to review their existing plans.

Language is not the only barrier. Some charts are full of type faces, sometimes six or more, calling to mind ransom notes assembled from letters clipped from magazines. Others are collections of thick symbols and unfriendly bold type and all caps that scream out MOCK IMPORTANCE.

My advice is to look for management advice that is dispensed in clear English with understandable graphics. [...]

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