Strategy

I have used this book as a ready reference since the first edition was published in 1997. This second edition reflects a major update to the original book in that the proposal management tools in the first edition were woefully out of date and the focus was not on some of the Government opportunities for small business, such as Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR)that require a tailored proposal strategy. The second edition also addresses new Government initiatives for e-business and a plethora of other topics that were not present in the first edition.

If you are competing for Government business this is the most complete, accurate book I know of that covers the RFP-Proposal-Negotiation-Award process. Short of memorizing the FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulations), amassing years of proposal writing experience, and gaining the wisdom of knowing what works and what doesn't you will not find a more concise guide to the process. Also, you will benefit greatly from the wealth of tips and pointers that the author provides from his own extensive experience. If you are in the DoD contracting business, regardless of business size, I cannot overemphasize this book's value when it comes to cutting through the maze and providing a clear roadmap. If you are a proposal or capture manager I strongly recommend that you get a copy for every member of your team.

For the book's readers who are in the commercial sector the approach outlined in this book will add process and structure to your proposal writing efforts. The rigorous requirements imposed by the Government are too often lacking in the commercial process, which results in sloppy proposals that meander around issues and miss important client requirements. Also, because the proposal development process can be as large a task in the commercial sector, managing it can be a nightmare without a well thought out strategy for ensuring that all of the "t"s are crossed and "i"s dotted. The approach in this book practically hands you a ready-made process that you can apply to proposal development. This process will not only improve your ability to respond quickly and accurately to RFPs, but do so in an efficient manner. The result will be a significant competitive advantage.

For both sets of readers I think some of the advice, such as using the proposal as a marketing tool as well as a due-diligence instrument for responding to RFPs is excellent. For example, the author emphasizes backing up responses with examples to demonstrate claims. This is a powerful technique that I have used repeatedly to good advantage. It goes a long way towards assuaging client concerns about capabilities versus empty claims, and will turn a proposal that is merely responsive into one that is compelling.

Other things that make this book extremely valuable include the CD ROM of checklists and templates, and the numerous examples from the author's past proposals.

In my opinion this is the best book available for proposal development, and the only one that fully addresses every aspect of managing the proposal process for Government business. It should be on the shelf of anyone who responds to RFPs, and in the library of every company that does Government or commercial contracting.

Each author has done their best to give their hottest tips for internet promotion and success. You cannot learn these tips unless you've walked the road and fell in a few holes along the way. Save yourself the tumble. Buy this book!

Let's face it - rarely.

This is a 'must have' book for anyone seriously wanting to cut through the Internet clutter and market their service or product on line.

The wealth of ideas and tips from experts around the world make it essential reading from the novice through to the marketing professional.

I'm proud to have been a contributer to the book and highly recommend it to my clients and audiences I speak to around Australia and overseas.

The honeymoon period is over for the net and this book will show you practical, down to earth tips to make the most of this new medium.

I really like the way the book captures the best ideas and latest edge thinking from around the world. There are not many publications that can provide this perspective.

Debbie has done a great job pulling it all together and this will be a great addition to any business library.

Over the years, I had bought a number of books - e.g a classic by John Nunn, one about openings, a couple on strategy and theory, another "compilation" of grand master games). I had spent many an hour reading, thinking, and playing through the games in these books.

Somehow I was stuck essentially at being just a "beginner". I knew the "rhetoric" of the game, but somehow I didn't understand things - I couldn't "see" the board!

Whatever is published as "beginner" material is limited to the hopelessly trivial stuff. And, then all of a sudden there is a myriad of overwhelming material on openings, end-games, strategy, etc. It's like trying to read about advanced physics with your high school knowledge!

Finally one fine day last summer I decided to face my frustration! So I embarked on a mission to find a "teacher"! It took some time before I came across Siegbert Tarrasch's book, but I knew I had found the book I was looking for!

He uses an absolutely inspired and uniquely brilliant (and common sense, when you come right down to it!) approach. He starts by what he calls the "elements" of the game - only a few pieces at a time - i.e. the end game!

Next, he teaches the building blocks of the middle game. This is where he carries you over the chasm that lies between a beginner and an intermediate player! Even some intermediate players are likely to learn something. The last part of the book, as he himself points out, is really just to send you off towards the more advanced material on openings and strategy.

Finally, most remarkable of all, his passion for the game of chess and his knack for "teaching" it comes across each and every page!

It is good to describe principles and theories and to relate why it is essential to be honest and have great character, but this book brings these important elements to life with real storIes and examples and practical advice and ideas.

The "notice" versus "imagine" concept is so simple (now that I've read it), but it is so overlooked in everyday communication and relationships.

Loved the story about Mike Tyson. Steven got himself into a real pickle with his encounter with Tyson. We can all learn from this example of what not to do.

An easy read with solid content.

This book impress me the most is that Jack Trout illustrated all mistakes clearly by showing how the big brands, like Levis, Burger King, AT&T and Marks and Spencer made in the past. Then you may discover that some of the existing well-known brands are actually making mistakes for their marketing strategies. Moreover, you may get surprise that some of the popular marketing strategies, like line extension, benchmarking cannot promote your product, conversely, they will hurt your company seriously. So you must read this book if you want to surpass your competitors by using appropriate marketing strategies for your company.

Overall speaking, this book is easy to read and understand because Jack Trout delivered a concise and important message in the book ¡V ¡§Marketing is a battle of perception, not product¡¨

This book impress me the most is that Jack Trout illustrated all mistakes clearly by showing how the big brands, like Levis, Burger King, AT&T and Marks and Spencer made in the past. Then you may discover that some of the existing well-known brands are actually making mistakes for their marketing strategies. Moreover, you may get surprise that some of the popular marketing strategies, like line extension, benchmarking cannot promote your product, conversely, they will hurt your company seriously. So you must read this book if you want to surpass your competitors by using appropriate marketing strategies for your company.

Overall speaking, this book is easy to read and understand because Jack Trout delivered a concise and important message in the book ¡V ¡§Marketing is a battle of perception, not product¡¨

A wonderful parallel is drawn between the organic nature of the corporation and the darwinian theory of survival. The author demonstrates that while thinking might be organic or hollistic, the IT organization lacks woefully behind due to its structure and the lack of generative planning that accompanies regular business chaos.

The book makes a conscious effort to stop at theory and frameworks, hopefully to be continued with a plan to action and tools for the implementation in subsequent publications.

However, if you are serious about book collecting, "Among the Gently Mad" is a tremendous resource. Reading between the lines of other book collectors' stories, you will find out which web sites, bookstores, dealers, book fairs, organizations and other sources can help you fill out your collection. By the way, this is not just a book for those who collect rare books. An antiquarian book is simply described as any book that is worth more now than when first published. Basbanes's first rule of collecting books is to focus on subjects that hold your interest and, in fact, your collection should contain books you actually want to read. If you are gently mad, that is "taking delight in the pleasant touching of books long coveted," this book is an indispensable tool to fulfilling your own madness.

Is time spent strategically a bad thing? Is strategy dead? Was time spent on strategy wasted? Does strategic planning have no place in our time-crazed, execution-obsessed New Economy? In 1983, the uber-executive of our age- General Electric Chairman Jack Welch dismantled the company's once heralded planning department. We have empirical evidence that those spending the most on traditional forms of resource-centric 'strategy consulting' [the cerebrally challenged SWOT - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats dance] performed the poorest in the market place. The biggest strategic planner of them all, the Soviet Union appears to have just about finished its pre-Millennial journey from totalitarianism to disintegration. Strategy is not dead, but it had certainly fallen out of favor. Few companies don't have strategic plans. Yet few devote the resources to them they used to. Most disturbing, is that efforts to fix the problem, often had the effect of making things worse - or at least making them bad in a different way. Crusades and reforms intended to reinvent, relaunch and reposition the practice strategy have failed.

Lewis Mumford divided history into epochs characterized by their power sources. Traditional strategy tended to emphasize a focused single line of attack, executed by a single economic enterprise- a clear statement of where, how, and when to compete. Noticeably lacking was the question of 'with whom?' The new power source in the New Economy is the ability to assemble the most resource-rich, market-savvy, technology-gifted, fleet-of-foot, known-and-trusted-by-the-consumer armada of partners. The way you do that is the subject of Digital Deals.

No book can promise infallibility. No book can guarantee that good decisions will be made. This book will help you spend the time you can allocate to strategic thinking more efficaciously. As such, this is not a coffee-table book. This is not a Great-Title-No-Content book. This is not a Good-article-unbelievable-they-stretched-it-into-a-book-book. This most definitely is not a I'll-buy-it-but-I-won't-read-it book. Digital Deals is the new, new thing in strategic thinking. Using the framework in Digital Deals to analyze the ur-protangonists of our evolving New Economy [Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, AOL, AT&T, Amazon] I experienced something akin to the joy that must have accompanied Galileo's use of the telescope to study the heavens or Robert Hooke's (1635-1703) use of the microscope to study bacteria. The tools contained in these pages will let you see new things. It will simplify what heretofore has been an incoherent jumble of pieces parts. This book has helped me understand the players, the deals and the deal rationales of the market I work in - digital security and privacy. As I read the book, I continued to ask myself whether the two Georges were adding words to the existing vocabulary of strategic planning or creating a new grammar into which the old words might be conjugated. There is no doubt that the process of market modeling described within these pages fundamentally changes the types of conversations we will be having as we try to plan our respective futures.