Strategy

This is a very good book. In addition, I recommend "Strategic Organizational Change" by Michael Beitler.

Of so many business planning books, which I hold in high regard, this one is the simplest to read and follow, and yet still packed with useful tools and powerful tips. To some extent, I would consider it to be a no-frills, straight-to-the-point, hands-on kind of planning book.

In a nut shell, it provides a step by step approach, with a total of 9 steps, and involves 3 critical stages: gathering information, formulating ideas, and planning actions.

In fact, it has many thought-provoking Prompt Questions and clearly-defined Checklists to help you execute your thinking and planning work - starting from scanning the environment (to find out what's out there), measuring your organisational health, creating more options, right up to implementing an action plan with a monitoring system, using Gantt Charts. These unique features are intended to stimulate and guide all your thinking processes, with each of the nine steps involving a different thinking process.

As a mater of fact, by the time you have gone through all the Prompt Questions and completed all the Checklists, you would have already thought through analytically, numerically, reflectively, predictively, imaginatively, visually, creatively, critically, empathetically, ethically, pragmatically and politically. Also, they have been structured in such a way that you would have developed strategic conversations skills with your people across all levels of the organisation, in the course of the planning exercise.

From a strategic thinking standpoint, this book really scores high marks from me, in spite of its simplicity. When reading this book, it reminds me of two other good business planning books with practical "hands-on" features: 'Breakaway Planning,' by Paul Levesque, whose book I have also reviewed earlier. In comparison, 'Breakaway Planning' gives a more detailed treatment. The other is 'Putting It All Together: A Guide to Strategic Thinking,' by William Rothschild, whose book also gives a more detailed treatment.

This book also comes with a CD-Rom, which provides a business case example, using the 9-step approach.

My only 'adverse' comment about the book - it would have been more complete if the authors have crafted a global flow chart at the end pages, showing all the 9 steps in sequence within the 3 prescribed stages, in concert with all the applicable thinking processes and resulting action possibilities. This would have been a superb feature for more visually-oriented readers, like me.

In summing up, if you do not have much time to read, and want a proven tool to help kick-start your planning, this one is for you.

This book is a compendium of articles published in the Sloan Management Review. For the money - you can't be wrong. The entire gamut covers almost all the topics you can encounter in EBusiness: CRM, innovation, supply-chain, etc. The articles by Christensen and MacCormack alone pays for the book. It's well focused on EBusiness and has considerably more content than similar books (article collections) from the Harvard Business Review.

This book contains one of the most forward-thinking collections of papers on e-business strategies that I've found between two covers. The material is based on work from MIT's Sloan School of Management and differs from most material coming from academia by being practical and reflecting what can be accomplished in the real world.

The book is divided into three topic areas: strategy, implementation and technology. The material in each section appears to have been carefully selected to provide the essentials. For example, each of the six papers under Strategy contain a distinct viewpoint of a distinct element of developing and implementing an e-business strategy. My favorite paper in this section is "Finding Sustainable Profitability in Electronic Commerce" by John M. de Figueiredo because it shows not only what needs to be done, but also what will not work. Each of the other sections follow this pattern - the papers are in touch with the harsh realities and challenges faced by businesses, not stuff cooked up in an ivory tower.

Although not stated as an objective by the authors (and editors), this book does a remarkable job of bridging the gap between business and IT. For the business side, the slant towards strategy and marketing in the e-business environment will provide a solid foundation about what it takes to establish an "e" presence, and how to effectively build trust and a brand image, develop customer loyalty and manage online processes. For the IT side this book provides insights about business challenges within the context of strategic and tactical requirements. This is especially useful information for those who are working as business systems analysts. Those IT professionals need to gain more than a cursory understanding of business requirements and translate them into technical solutions. Moreover, for those few IT departments do anticipate business needs, or are integrated into the business strategic planning process this book will provide many ideas about how technology can support business imperatives.

In addition to the excellent material in this book, you'll find a wealth of information on Erik Brynjolfsson's personal web page, which also has links to even more relevant material on pages at MIT Sloan School of Management and MIT's Center for eBusiness.

This LeadWell special report on Strategy takes an incisive look at both the components and results of effective business strategies, helping readers both understand and apply its lessons.

Though it is comprised of just 14 pages, the Strategy report is filled with distinctions, examples, techniques, and nuggets of wisdom. It is also well- designed, colorful, and easy to navigate.

I found this special report to be a solid action guide and not a whiffy theoretical article. Novices looking for a primer will find this document to be a quick read and a good way to accelerate your learning curve. The customer who will get the most out of this Strategy report is the executive or manager who has been charged with developing or updating some strategic aspect of the company's operations, products, or services. The LeadWell Special Report on Strategy will lead you to ask important questions and provide you with a framework that you can adapt to your specific challenges.

When executives first begin to formulate strategies, the potential benefits are appealing. Soon after beginning the work, the executives often find themselves confused and frustrated. What is really needed?

A lot of this confusion and frustration can be avoided if the strategy thinking is kept simple and focused. One of the strengths of this paper is to do just that. The whole process is boiled down into five parts (Purpose, Choices, Decisions, Priorities, and Action). I particularly liked the emphasis on purpose and priorities. In my experience, my people beginning to develop strategies miss those points. Purpose is defined as your way to get an edge in providing for customers. For example, Southwest Airlines gets and keeps passengers coming back by providing pleasant discount travel. Priorities are what has to be done first in order to create and sustain the advantage. For Southwest, hiring and developing employees who make the travel pleasant are top priorities.

Most people who begin developing strategies could benefit from reading a lot of books on the subject. As busy executives, they will never get around to doing this. Mr. Blohowiak's paper obviates much of that need for further reading. By putting the key ideas into a short paper, anyone can have time to learn and apply what they need to know.

When I began the paper, I was a little concerned about how readers would get a sense of what the key strategy issues are. I was delighted to find excellent questions that provide that perspective. Answer these questions and you will have made great strides in understanding what you business needs to do.

The paper is also helped by a series of excellent diagrams that simplify and explain what the prose has covered.

Although experienced strategists won't find much new here, anyone who is developing their first strategy would be well advised to start with this paper.

Donald Mitchell, co-author of The 2,000 Percent Solution, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage.

As frightening as the volume of the book might see, it is written very well and it is very contemporary with the topics discussed in.
The book is divided in several sections with general theory and implications disussed first and with some real cases presented afterwards. Each case is usually backed with some questions to think about and to extract the essence of it. The complete book feels like being a student in the class with authors performing as teachers (as they also do sometimes).
Concepts of strategy are extremely tricky. It can hardly been negotiated if there is a strategy or if you just got to have the feeling or if there simply are people who earn 1 million US$+ a year that turn into gold everything they touch and you can't run a serious business without them. This book will help you understand that strategy exists, will teach you how to define it and set it through and how to predict the future and react on it. But as real life is, many things can happen. You get the driver's licence after you learn the basics of driving. But no one can tell after you get the licence if you will get involved into the crash and when.
Many people expect from such books that they will get a broad pavement covered with roses to walk through their careers on simply by paying some 70 US$. How naive they sound sometimes. The pen alone doesn't write a book, it is just an instrument to success, behind which stands an enormous human effort. This wonderful book is only an instrument to avoid some crashes of company in your career. If it can therefore win you a job or a mere 100 US$ raise, it has paid back heavily, don't you think?

This is an important and recent strategy book. I recommend it for MBA students and managers.

This work provides a beautiful illustration of the structure underlying the forms manifested in nature. From the simple to complex, Pearce reveals the beauty of the geometry we enjoy in the world around us. I found this book to be an inspiration to emulate the genius of nature's design and never tire of staring at the magical shapes contained page after page.

I am now showing it daily to my four and two year old who are delighted by these exciting patterns and shapes; now if I were only better at pronouncing the names contained therein!

This book concerns about geometry drived from nature. This book is easy to read and offers many plausible and original geometric idea. It's best book of this kind of books. Fully illustrated and arraged.

This wonderful book is about changing people's lives through the educational process. It is a book in the tradition of Friere. Professor Zuss has clearly read and thought deeply about the nature of autobiography (life-writing, as he calls it). He makes frequent reference to his experiences as an active teacher in the New York City area; he teaches both graduate students studying to teach literacy and undergraduate students. "Subject Present" is a bridge between the too often rarified atmosphere of theoretical speculation and the classroom as a place where people's lives can be changed. In Chapter 9, Prof. Zuss gives before and after examples showing how student's life-writings were changed by exposure to the life-writings of Cixous, Andaluza, Lorde, and the post-modern theorists.

Throughout the book, Professor Zuss brings the insights of Derrida, Foucault, Lejune, & Co. (and John Dewey) to bear on how life-writing can be used by educators to empower marginalized students in a diverse, urban environment. Zuss persuasively argues that, by studying the theory and practice of life-writing, teachers and students can become aware of how their own life-writings reflect the way that they see themselves. While recognizing that changing people's written self-representations will not in and of itself change their material conditions, Zuss explores how experimenting with alternative modes can give people the tools to change the nature of their self-conception and their relationship to the prevailing order, perhaps ultimately leading them to take actions that impact their material conditions as well.

If we had more educators like Professor Zuss, the world would be a better place. It was heart-warming to find one. It gave me hope for the future.

And there are a couple of extra added bonuses to "Subject Present":

Bonus 1: Professor Zuss must have been a poet in a past life. An example: "From heron tracks in the Chinese sand, to the grain in bark and in hands, the reading of the night sky or the glare of pixel images on a hypertext screen, we have always been pattern makers."

Bonus 2: For those interested in the study of autobiography and memoir a la James Olney (Memory and Narrative) and Herbert Leibowitz (Fabricating Lives), Zuss offers a valuable extension and alternative viewpoint based on more contemporary life-writings.

This book gives insights into the components which impact society's standards and illusions about literacy. The author, socially aware and concerned about the "politics" of education and the devasting impact it can have on shaping our definition of literacy, gives a clear understanding of how powerful these forces really are. Great reading for all who are concerned about the issues which concern the present and future state of literacy in this country. Bravo!

This book is a great resource to have in order to improve excellence in teaching, especially in our days, days of frequent changes,days of a growing technology which put at risk the future role of the educator and days of frequent evaluation about the effectiveness of teaching. The authors do a great job bringing the opinion of the 30 award winning professors and some of their tips toward excellence in teaching, a real good quality we need badly in our educational system at all levels.I hope this book will be translate in spanish very soon, as you all now this population is growing very fast in the states and spanish speakers teachers will benefits fron this book valuable content.

This book combines practicality with theory, giving ideas for improving college teaching to the rank and file--college teachers themselves--and the department chairs and administrators who support them.

What is striking is the readability of this book--no scholarly tome guaranteed to cure insomnia, this one! Baiocco and DeWaters write in a flowing style that invites the reader into the conversation about teaching and makes this reader stand back and admire the way they use words. The descriptions of the classrooms of the award-winning teachers--"Studies in Excellence"--are thought-provoking; they show how excellent teachers differ from one another but have some beliefs about teaching in common.

Altogether the best book about college teaching I've seen. I'd recommend it to beginners and seasoned teachers alike.

Super Searchers On Mergers & Acquisitions reveals the online search services and tools used by leading researchers, who regularly use the Internet to uncover critical details on companies and industries. The focus on mergers and acquisitions and how to acquire the details about growth-oriented companies will please any business owner, broker, appraiser or business buyer.

Jan Tudor is simply the best guide avaliable for climbing the summit of M&A research on-line or off. A professional researcher's professional her stellar reputation in the industry has insured a host of illustrative interviews, techniques, and fine honed observations from across the M&A landscape.

I normaly figure a game out without a stradegy guide, but since you need to hit certain buttons to dodge an action, like when the giant rock falls in the forest, I needed a stadegy guide for it. I was blown away by the direct information and how it warned me ahead of time for the action buttons. I would recomend this to my other friends, if they had it.

I only have a few words to say about this hot title. GO AND GET IT! awesome game you'll ever play.

The best book I have ever read to learn tactics. Each piece is studied with a great care and a great number of typical position. After reading it you will find computers stupid!

The best book I have ever read to learn about tactics