Book Description
These two highly-respected authors have revised this best-selling book to include more current, modern subject matter and events while maintaining those features that have contributed to its great success. It continues to use stories, graphs, and equations and a unified, logical organization to make economic concepts easy-to-understand and relevant to all readers. Users of this book see the connection between growth, trade, comparative advantage, and the production possibilities frontier. When readers understand how a simple competitive market system works, they are ready to focus on problems of real-world markets.
Currency data has been updated through the second quarter of 2003, with coverage of deflation, the effects of the war with Iraq and the war on terrorism, and the wars' impact on the national deficit. A comprehensive overview introducing economics begins the book; subsequent topics include: foundations of microeconomics: consumers and firms; market imperfection and the role of government; concepts and problems in macroeconomics; the goods and money markets; macroeconomic analysis; and the world economy.
An excellent desk reference for economists; this book will serve any business owner, as an understanding of basic economics will prove helpful in all ventures.
Customer Reviews:
Good combo.......2006-02-08
This review is for Principles of Economics (7th Edition). I actually bought this book instead of Principals of Macroeconomics which looks almost the same. After I received it, I realized it was the incorrect book. I went the publisher's website and did some research. This book includes all the information I needed for the Macro class. It also contains the full contents of both the publisher's Macro and Micro books. Turns out this book was a great book to keep for future references.
In addition to this being a great find, this book is very well written and I had no trouble understanding all the points.
Student's opinion of this book.......2005-09-11
From a first-time macroeconomic student's point of view, this book sucked. The glossary was very poor making it troublesome to look up unfamiliar terms. Each chapter makes frequent reference to charts and graphs that are located several pages away, causing you to have to shuffle back and forth between pages, trying to decipher difficult new concepts. This book also assumes some prior knowledge of economic concepts, and moves very quickly through progressively more complex material. Thumbs down from a new student's perspective.
Excellent book for economic students in their first year.......1999-05-04
This book presents and explains both Micro and Macro Theory in a very friendly way. It explains step by step the functions of the micro and macro theory and describes the fuctions of the instituions and organizations involve in the economy as a whole. It gives historical background, which many students look for in order to understand how? why? who? the study of economics. Besides it explains really well the economic terminology introduce as you read the book. Finally the book presents current event cases through the chapters which are related it to the ideas presented in the reading.
Customer Reviews:
Very good intermediate macto text; in-depth and yet easy to read text.......2007-01-10
Explains all the important intermediate macro concepts in an engaging, easy to follow, yet thorough way. Good graphs. I learned much more from it and found it much more useful than the Alan J. Auerbach and Laurence J. Kotlikoff text. Good quick review questions at the end of each chapter.
Best book on the modern approach to macroeconomics.......2005-02-04
Barro had no challenger since his 1st edition came out more than 20 years ago. Someone finally came up with a better proposal. I most say that for me it is the best book on the subject at an intermediate level. Everyone shall have it.
A very good read.......2004-03-24
I agree with the other reviewer, Macroeconomics by Williamson is a very well written text. It incorporates a large variety of topics in the general framework very well. Much of what I could say would only be redundent as the other reviewer pointed out the highs for this text. The book is very appropriate for a intermediate undergraduate course.
SW's Macroeconomics is the best macro book on the market!.......2002-12-19
After reading this book no one will ever complain that macroeconomics lacks micro foundations. This book first explains the microeconomics of intertemporal goods and labor markets and goes on to create an intertemporal general equilibrium economy (with two periods for simple exposition). Then Wiliamson shows how growth theory and business cycle theories are applied in this general equilibrium economy. This is by far the most fun and understandible way to teach undergraduates about growth and business cycles at the intermediate level.
Williamson also lays out "stylized facts" of the business cycle, including comovements, and he critiques different business cycle theories based on whether they can replicate those comovements in the data. This book comes closer than any other intermediate text to replicating how modern macroeconomics is done.
Ch 8 which explains Solow and endogenous growth models is by far the most understandible and educational of any text on the market, since Williamson does the models in discrete time rather than continuous time. If you're a professor that wants to teach undergraduates growth theory and/or growth dynamics SO THAT THEY REALLY UNDERSTAND THEM DEEPLY and ENJOY THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE, this is the book to assign.
Book Description
The Economic Way of Thinking develops the basic principles of micro- and macroeconomic analysis, and rigorously employs them as tools rather than ends unto themselves. This book introduces readers to a method of reasoning; to think like an economist—teaching through example and application. It even teaches by showing learners how not to think, by exposing them to the errors implicit in much popular reasoning about economic events. Chapter topics include opportunity cost and the supply of goods, supply and demand, profit and loss, competition and monopoly, price searching, competition and government policy, the distribution of income, markets and government, the overall performance of economic systems, the supply of money, monetary and fiscal policies, national policies and international exchange, employment and unemployment, promoting economic growth, and the limitations of economics. For individuals seeking a deeper understanding of the effects of world events on the economy and vice versa.
Customer Reviews:
Nice effort, but falls way short........2006-04-27
I was reading the reviews for this book, both 11th edition and 10th edition, and was surprised to be the only reviewer that disagrees with the quality of this book. The authors tried to teach Economics in a totally different way, no graphs, no tables, no data, etc. and failed miserably.
The fact that there aren't any graphs, pie charts, etc. makes it hard to follow especially if you're more a visual person. It has a hokey "down home" feel to it that doesn't connect, except in a geeky-dork way. And the book is disorganized in terms of the material covered.
In short, the book is written like a novel or a story, NOT as a textbook. If you enjoyed "The Worldly Philosophers" by Robert Heilbronner, you'll like reading this book. But to use it as an Economics textbook, BIG MISTAKE. THIS IS ONE OF THE WORST TEXTBOOKS I HAVE EVER SEEN IN ANY COLLEGE SUBJECT OUT THERE.
I give it an F or 1 out of 5.
Enjoyable........2006-01-09
I used this book as an essential study material for my MacroEconomics course at UCBerkeley. I enjoyed it immensely.
The book is organized into 22 chapters and takes you through what could be termed as a more of libertarian, laissez faire form of markets.
It begins with the assertion that it is very difficult to approach the process of economic exchange with an open mind. And that there is a need for a framework. And I agree. Then it gives you a typical example of rush-hour traffic to illustrate and then explain the importance of "agreement on certain rules" in order to ensure co-operation which facilitates transaction.
And then it takes you through the supply and demand PROCESS (rather than STRUCTURE), Elasticity, Price-searchers/takers, MR/MC, importance of price discrimination, price-controls (and perils thereof) etc and then back to the macroeconomic issues (role of Fed, Government, Treasury, inflation, externalities, regulation).
This book (as its title indicates) tends to blur the boundries between Macro and Micro.
Some of the salient features -
1) Uses more enonomics and less mathematics (Paul Krugman's approach).
2) A lot of emphasis on Marginalism.
3) Claims to be simple (e.g. The preface opens up with an important question - Why are so many introductory economics courses taught as if every student is going on to acquire a PhD in the subject?) And the book tends to live by the expectation.
4) The tone is a lot more prescriptive that you could imagine.
5) Maintains that the term Monopoly is very hard to define.
6) Goes close to Austrian school.
7) All in all approaches the economic theory as a process rather than structure.
I will certainly recommend this one to a beginner. And if you are more of left-of-center then this one is for you if you want to understand the other side of the argument.
One of the best Economic textbooks I've read.......2004-07-14
Heyne begins w/ the first principles of economics: how human beings interact on a mass scale, and the positive consequences of those actions, and the negative consequences of interferring w/ voluntary human interaction. He then carries the reader through the traditional economic concepts of Supply and Demand, Specialized Labor, Externalities...all focused through the lens of the "Economic Way of Thinking".
Make no mistake--this book is a substantive, philosophical refutation of "Statism". Heyne hits Comparative Advantage, Price Theory, Rule of Law, and Private Property hard (in the affirmative), and if you're for tariffs, regulated prices, arbitrary Gov't intervention, and public property, your views won't be validated. All the more reason for you to read this book, and understand why so many stamp their foot down against politicized economic policies that superficially sound and feel so good. Heyne's lesson is to think on a macro-scale, think about the unintended consequences of mass social change, for that is the Economic Way of Thinking.
Comparative Advantage in Price Theory.......2004-04-24
Heyne's text explains what it explains well. It is a good Freshman level price theory text. Its strengths are in explaining informational and coordination issues in markets. It does more to explain how the price system works as a communications network than any other text I have seen. It also explains the issues of property rights and transactions costs clearly.
When it comes to the public sector, it is vastly better than many other texts. There are other texts, like Gwartney and Stroup, and Ekelund and Tollinson, which are arguably better at explaining the public sector.
The biggest weaknesses of this book are in macro and international economics. Its chapters on money are ok, but it explains far too little about trade cycles. It has some good material on growth, but could explain more and in more detail. The chapter on international economics could go further as well. The shortcomings of this book likely reduce its sales. So, it seems that the marginal benefits of such revisions exceed their marginal costs.
Heyne is no longer around to revise this book, but the co-authors who took over for him could improve this book greatly for the next edition.
Outstanding.......2002-08-07
Dr. Heyne was an outstanding professor. In fact, the most memorable and influential of my college "career." You will understand from reading his books how brilliant he was.
Book Description
Principles of Microeconomics has been thoroughly revised, simplified, and updated for the Fourth Edition. Co-written by Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize for his research on imperfect markets, and Carl E. Walsh, one of the leading monetary economists in the field, Principles of Microeconomics is the most modern and accurate text available.
Book Description
Presented in this updated manual are two full-length practice tests—including one all-new macroeconomics test—with all questions answered and explained. Students will also find an extensive review of all AP test topics, which include economic systems, demand and supply, theory of consumer choice, economics in the public sector, costs, product markets, perfect and imperfect competition, monopolies, labor resources, the national income and gross domestic product, inflation and unemployment, fiscal policy, money and banking, monetary policy, determinants of economic growth, and international trade and exchange. Added new sections in this edition include game theory, Giffen goods, money demand, interest rate determination, and potential GDP.
Customer Reviews:
Poorly written and poorly thought out.......2007-04-16
I used both this book and the Priceton Review, and I have to say the Princeton Review one is much better.
The Barron's one appears to have lots of practice questions, but really, towards the middle of the book they leave out free-response questions. Instead, they tell you to solve the question that was provided in the middle of that chapter.
It was as if they wrote this on a deadline and rushed through the entire thing. The content seemed inadequate and explanations were poor. Their attempts to make funny remarks to appeal to the teenage audience were often inappropriate or left the reader confused.
Barron's is usually my first choice for AP prep, but the AP economics book is one exception.
However, you might want to buy this anyway since it comes with 2 practice tests that you could use.
Practice tests are lacking.......2006-07-17
When compared to the Princtons review book, I found that the tests in the Barrons book were too easy. The rest of the book is well laid ou though and explanations are clear and concise. I took the micro and macro tests in may 06 and got 5s on both. But this was mostly because of the princeton book & going online to the ap website.
macro: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/members/article/1,3046,152-171-0-2083,00.html
micro: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/members/article/1,3046,152-171-0-2084,00.html
Book Description
For the more than one million students taking the AP exams each year
Features include:
- Boxed quotes offering advice from students who have aced the exams and from AP teachers and college professors
- Sample tests that closely simulate real exams
- Review material based on the contents of the most recent tests
- Icons highlighting important facts, vocabulary, and frequently asked questions
- Websites and links to valuable online test resources, along with author e-mail addresses for students with follow-up questions
- Authors who are either AP course instructors or exam developers
Download Description
For the more than one million students taking the AP exams each year
Features include:
- Boxed quotes offering advice from students who have aced the exams and from AP teachers and college professors
- Sample tests that closely simulate real exams
- Review material based on the contents of the most recent tests
- Icons highlighting important facts, vocabulary, and frequently asked questions
- Websites and links to valuable online test resources, along with author e-mail addresses for students with follow-up questions
- Authors who are either AP course instructors or exam developers
Customer Reviews:
AP Economics teacher highly recommends.......2005-09-04
As an AP Economics teacher, I recommended 5 Steps to a 5 to my students this past year. The students gave it high marks for its thorough review of both micro and macro economics. The author provides strong pointers for each concept and plenty of practice questions. The students' results were outstanding: a 100 percent pass rate on micro and 98 percent on macro, with mostly 4s and 5s on the two exams. My students worked hard throughout the year, but this review guide helped a lot with test preparation. Having used the Princeton "Cracking the AP" book in previous years, I found 5 steps to a 5 to be the superior review book.
Book Description
Recursive methods offer a powerful approach for characterizing and solving complicated problems in dynamic macroeconomics. Recursive Macroeconomic Theory provides both an introduction to recursive methods and advanced material, mixing tools and sample applications. The second edition contains substantial revisions to about half the original material, and extensive additional coverage appears in seven chapters new to this edition. The updated and added material covers exciting new topics that further illustrate the power and pervasiveness of recursive methods.
Significant improvements to original chapters include a better treatment of the existence of recursive equilibria, an enhanced account of the supermartingale convergence theorem, and an extended treatment of an optimal taxation problem in an economy in which there are incomplete markets. Completely new coverage in the second edition includes an introductory chapter, which gives an overview of the themes uniting the diverse topics treated throughout the book. Two new chapters offer a self-contained account of the optimal growth model and some of its basic applications in macroeconomics and public finance. Other new chapters cover such topics as how to formulate and compute Stackelberg or Ramsey plans in linear economies, sustainable risk-sharing equilibria without commitment, and the application of recursive contracts to topics in international trade. Most chapters conclude with exercises and the book includes two technical appendixes covering functional analysis and control and filtering.
Customer Reviews:
A book for Econometricians rather than Macroeconomists.......2004-10-30
The book is certainly written by distinguished people, but it seems to me that their focus in writting this book was more to exhibit mathematical methods to solve problems rather than discuss the problems themselves. Apparently the book is meant for training mathematical skills in dynamic programming, and prepare you for computer simulations of macroeconomic problems. But don't use it for understanding macroeconomics.
In general, the authors get into mathematical discussions that divert attention from the problem itself, and at the same time they don't explain why they are doing all these. Reading the book needs a lot of background knowledge and self-intuition. Apart from that some chapters are educational and fit for class work.
The first chapters cover mathematical basics about random process and Markov chains and estimation. They are the good chapters. The chapters on partial equilibrium, complete markets ad incomplete markets are also the ones that are noramlly used in class lectures. The book's coverage of consumption theory and economic growth is weak and insufficient. I would recommend Romer or Blanchard&Fisher book for that. The chapter on search and job matching is also simplistic and again not enough. In most of the chapters, technicality dominates concepts, so having a complementary textbook can be great help.
For one thing, the book has a lot of misprints and mistakes too, which seem to be fixed in the newer edition.
get it free.......2004-05-17
This is a great book. But you can download the second addition free on Sargent's website, so I wouldn't recommend buying it.
Perfect book.......2003-09-12
This is a perfect book for three reasons; i) it is perfect for those who wish to learn modern macroeconomics. The book develops necessary knowledge and tools to be applied to dynamic economics, ii) Sargent is one of most prominent and leading macroeconomists of the world, and he should be Nobel prize winner in Economics, iii) the book is published by MIT.
Not for beginners.......2003-04-01
When I recently left my job as cryer in a grim, north-eastern town, I was made the head of recursive macroeconomic theory at a major international bank. I could have done with a simpler introduction than this, to be honest, as my knowledge of RMT was limited. But now I hold my own in meetings simply by spouting a few long words from this book (mainly "macroeconomic" and "recursive" - theory doesn't seem to impress as much) and delegating to underlings.
Not the first book in Dynamic Macro, but excellent afterward.......2002-12-02
The first time i read the book, i'm sure this should not be the first text book for Dynamic Macroeconomics everyone should read. It's better to read somewhere else as an introduction to the idea of dynamic macroeconomics. Romer 'Advanced Macroeconomics' and Stokey, Lucas, Prescott 'Recursive Methods' are more appropriate to start. After gainning some similarity with Dynamic Methods, it would be much better to study models about macroeconomics presented in the book.
This book is the presentations of various models using Dynamic / Recursive Macroeconomics. It makes them easier and time-saving to study many kinds of model in a semester. It's GOOD & HELPFUL IN THIS SENSE. However, it might not be a good book for study in depth. You are better to study from the original papers for the same topics.
I think, this book is similar to Tirole 'Theory of Industrial Organization' in spirit, but different in content. They both show the simplified version of various models in the fields.
If you think you like this style, you would like to have it. But if you don't, it might be better just to skim (from the library) and read the original papers.
Hope this comment would be helpful for you to make a decision :)
Book Description
Over the next decade, two out of every three companies will face the challenge of their corporate lives: redefining their core business. Buffeted by global competition and facing an uncertain future, more and more executives will realize that they must make fundamental changes in their core even as they continue delivering the goods and services that keep them in business today.
Unstoppable shows these managers how to look deep within their organizations to find undervalued, unrecognized, or underutilized assets that can serve as new platforms for sustainable growth. Drawing on more than thirty interviews with CEOs from companies such as De Beers, American Express, and Samsung, it shows readers how to recognize when the core needs reinvention and how to deploy the "hidden assets" that can be the basis for tomorrow's growth.
Building on the author's previous books, Profit from the Core and Beyond the Core, this book shows how any company in crisis can transform itself to become truly unstoppable.
Customer Reviews:
A good book that stands on its own.......2007-10-10
Normally the third book in a series either rehashes the prior two books, or requires that you read all three to understand the authors points. Unstoppable is unique in this regard as the book stands on its own and does not require you to read the other books.
Zook talks in depth about how enterprises can find source of growth from the core of their company either by finding hidden assets, customers or capabilities. The strength of this book is its detailed discussion of each of these sources of growth from the core and extending the core. Zook also provides detailed tools to help the reader apply these ideas to their company. This is particularly unique in a book that addresses issues of growth and growth strategy.
In some ways, Zook's book should be used as a companion to the book "BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY" which talks about identifying opportunities where there are no competitors. Used in combination, Blue Ocean will open up new possibilities, while Unstoppable will provide a way to execute on these opportunities and build off of your core to achieve them.
The book is clearly written with detailed case studies and verbatims form actual companies going through their growth processes. This is unique for any business book and Zook's use of extensive interview comments makes the book seem real and actionable rather than academic.
While Zook's book is well researched, there is a subtle and important bias in the research. Zook's results and statistics are largely based on analyzing projects that he and his company have conducted, rather than looking at the general marketplace. This is strength in that the book can talk about implementation details because they did the work. However, it is a subtle weakness in that the cases suffer from selection bias that has a tendency to color the results and conclusions. Zook's attention to detail, pragmatism, and exposing tools do compensate for this research weakness and for most it will not matter, but recognize that it is there.
Overall, I would recommend this book for any executive who is looking to change their enterprise or recognize the need to do more in order to grow. This is one of the top 10 business books I have read so far this year so highly recommended.
How to use the power of hidden assets to redefine your core business.......2007-09-28
Chris Zook has written two previous books about paying attention to the core of your business and how to mine it for every dollar it will yield. This book talks about what to do when your core is beginning to falter. Rather than letting the rapid changing marketplace stop your company he suggests redefining your core. However, rather than leaping onto some popular bandwagon that has nothing to do with your present core, he advocates finding hidden assets within your company. He offers a process for understanding where you are in your strategic cycle, the Focus-Expand-Redefine (FER) growth cycle. Using this structure, he shows you how to know when it is time to redefine your core and the dangers of getting it wrong.
Zook shows you what to look for in the way of platforms that you could promote from secondary status to become primary areas for your business. These might be technologies you acquired along with the purchase of a company, but it wasn't why you bought the company. It could be adjacent geographic areas, or markets that you could expand into without having to completely recast your company. Or it might be orphan products that you can use to exploit changing market conditions and the new opportunities they often create.
I also agree with and enjoyed the author's emphasis on paying attention to the things your customers can teach you. If long term customers are leaving you they are being served by new competitors, new technologies, or are going out of business. You need to find out exactly what is happening. This also includes learning to segment your customer base as finely as possible. If you can learn to serve micro-segments of your customer base rather than having to treat them as if they were all the same kind of person, you will be able to develop those markets more fully. Your customers will also offer suggestions for improvements to your existing products and services, so pay attention. If you don't meet their needs, your competitors will. When they suggest new products to you, listen even more closely.
The other place to find hidden assets are in your capacities. That is the ability your company has to execute and repeat value creating tasks at a high level of quality. You should inventory the dozens to hundreds of capacities your company has and then figure out which are the most critical. Those are your core capabilities. Are there other things you could use them for? Are there capacities that are important in supporting the core that could be recast to become core capabilities in their own right?
I think this book offers some important food for thought. When you can work the FER cycle of growth you can become unstoppable, not because the old core doesn't burn out, but because you kindle and ignite a new fire to run your company's engine before it does.
reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
'Unstoppable' - A contemporary approach to business strategy.......2007-07-18
In an age of ever-shortening corporate life-cycles, Chris Zook examines the way in which some companies have successfully adapted to a harsher and more investor and public conscious corporate environment by expanding, redefining and reinventing their core businesses. As the future of large successful corporate conglomerates becomes increasingly uncertain in the wake of market forces, such as private equity buyouts, hostile or activist shareholder activity and other evolving market forces, which threaten to undermine long-standing successful market strategies, some companies somehow emerge from the shark-infested waters with little resemblance of their former selves and do so with greater vitality, profitability and vigor than ever before. Never before has one author caused a reader to re-examine the strategies that have shaped the global corporate atmosphere for so many years. Companies can no longer simply search for traditional market synergies among affordable competitors, or simply aim to lower production costs or hope to engineer a new product or discover a new market. Instead, these companies will be forced to seek out lesser known `hidden assets' in order to shift their core profit structure. They will also be forced to focus and refine that core and defend it vehemently against emerging low-cost competitors who seek to steal or infringe upon their core. Companies today will be forced to take actions such as these in their aim to become unstoppable, or they will inevitably suffer the consequences which more and more companies find themselves succumbing to.
Pogo was right........2007-06-18
In two previously published books, Profit from the Core (2001) and then Beyond the Core (2004), Chris Zook shares what several years of extensive and intensive research revealed about "how companies fail to recognize the potential of their core business and, as a result, prematurely abandon it in pursuit of hot markets or sexy new ideas, only to realize their error - often, when it is too late." He suggests a systematic way for organizations to assess their full potential and to make certain, also, that they do not fall into "this common, and typically human, trap."
In this volume, Zook draws upon an even wider and deeper wealth of research sources that include about fifty interviews, mostly of CEOs. The title is explained by the fact that he and his associates chose to study most closely those companies "that beat the odds. We also analyzed patterns of failure and estimated the odds of success offered by various paths in various situations." He goes on to observe that all of the success stories built their renewal on their "hidden assets" that had been previously been undervalued, unrecognized, and/or underutilized. "These assets were not central to the strategy of the past, but they held the key to the future. Furthermore, the older and more complex the company, the greater was the likelihood of finding promising hidden assets." In other words, many companies already "hold most of the cards for "a winning hand" but do not realize it.
I highly recommend all three of Zook's books because, together, they answer three separate but related, and critically important questions:
1. How to define and grow an organization's core assets? (Profit from the Core)
2. How to expand its boundaries into new territory? (Beyond the Core)
3. How to redefine and renew its core? (Unstoppable)
No company is forever "unstoppable" but most (if not all) companies can take full advantage of the information and counsel Zook provides in this book to find correct answers to all three of these questions achieve core renewal without "leaps to distant and hot new markets, ...being the first adopter of a pioneering new strategy,...[or making] as `big bang' acquisition." In fact, unless a given organization has "beaten the odds" by sustaining profitable growth, it should first define or redefine its core assets and then grow or renew them, before committing any resources to organizational and/or territorial expansion.
Zook is to be commended on the care with which he defines various terms. For example, undervalued business platforms "that might have once been secondary in importance but now have the potential to be the foundation for a new major core business"(e.g. IBM's Global Services Group). Also unexploited customer assets that tend to exist in three primary forms: "knowledge gathered as part of serving the customer but that, over time, accumulates an inherently greater value of its own...a unique position of trust of relationship with a set of customers [that gives] much more access and influence than has been recognized (e.g. American Express and Harman International). And finally, underutilized capabilities ("the most difficult hidden asset to discern but no less powerful") that result in losses of position to competitors in terms of cost, speed, logistics, design, and quality of customer service (e.g. the United States Postal Service's inability to invest as much as FedEx and UPS in system upgrades). "At the root of such competitive reversals we often find a yawning capability gap that was undetected, dismissed, or ignored."
I especially appreciate Zook's skillful use of various reader-friendly devices such as check-lists that focus on key points covered within a chapter: "Seven Steps to Redefining Your Core" (pages 24-25), a "State of the Core Diagnostic" (Figure 2-3 on Page 44), "Detecting Undervalued Business Platforms" (Pages 82 and 83), "Identifying Hidden Customer Assets" (Page 115), "Defining Your Core Capabilities" (Page 140), and "Ten Principles of Core Growth and Redefinition" (Page158). These and other check-lists facilitate, indeed expedite frequent review of key points later.
Although hidden assets are the "real key" to redefinition and capabilities are "the building blocks of renewal," and I agree with Zook that they are, it is important to keep in mind that transformation and renewal initiatives should never end. Zook asserts that "the real focus of business should be external - on competitors, shifts in technology, and customer dynamics." However, ironically, for many companies now searching for profitable growth, some "of their most challenging demons are internal" and their "most difficult foes" are often themselves. Unless they identify and then leverage the hidden assets they already have or to which they have easy access, they will either be out-of-business or acquired by another company within the next ten years.
A BIG help!.......2007-06-17
I have read and enjoyed all three of Chris Zook's strategy books, Profit from the Core, Beyond the Core, and his latest, Unstoppable. They are filled with compelling analysis, which Zook uses to offer practical insights on how companies can grow profitably and create value for shareholders.
Zook's description of the focus, expand, redefine cycle of growth is insightful. As the business world becomes less certain, more and more companies will need to move through this cycle. The stories that Zook describes of companies that have successfully navigated around this growth cycle offer guidance to other companies wishing to survive and grow.
All of Zook's books are focused on implementation. In Unstoppable, he clearly outlines the questions that need to be answered in order to understand how your business is doing and where to look for hidden assets that can help redefine a company. Any corporate executive should think through Zooks's ten principles of core growth and redefinition and take to heart his message about the need to focus. It is not often that you find action-oriented advice written in such an easy-to-read style.
I highly recommend reading Unstoppable.
Books:
- Principles of Macroeconomics
- Principles of Macroeconomics
- Principles of Microeconomics
- Pullman Porters and the Rise of Protest Politics in Black America, 1925-1945 (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture)
- Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market
- Retirement Income Redesigned: Master Plans for Distribution: An Adviser's Guide for Funding Boomers' Best Years
- Run With the Bulls Without Getting Trampled: The Qualities You Need to Stay Out of Harm's Way and Thrive at Work
- Salt of the Earth: The Church at the End of the Millennium: An Interview With Peter Seewald
- Steel and Steelworkers: Race and Class Struggle in Twentieth-Century Pittsburgh (Suny Series in American Labor History)
- Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- History: Fiction or Science
- Watchdogs of Democracy
- Number Our Days
- Off the Wall: Wonderful Wall Coverings of the Twentieth Century
- Student Study Guide for Biology
- Value-at-Risk: Theory and Practice
- The Pilgrim of Hate: The Tenth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael
- Japan Modern: New Ideas for Contemporary Living
- Old Florida: Florida's Magnificent Homes, Gardens and Vintage Attractions
- Purshia: The Wild and Bitter Roses
General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Principles of Finance
Principles of Macroeconomics (7th Edition) (Case/Fair Economics 7e Series)
Principles of Economics (8th Edition) (MyEconLab Series)
Principles of Microeconomics (8th Edition) (MyEconLab Series)
Accounting: Information for Decisions
