Product Description

Cutting edge thinking and best practice from the best

brains at four of the world's top business schools.

Everyone in business is involved in strategy. Whether it be formulating it or implementing it. Every business from Fortune 500 companies to internet start-ups is reliant on strategy for survival and success.

Mastering Strategy brings you the latest thinking from the world's top international business schools. This rich mix of thought leadership covers all the top strategy issues, from mergers & acquisitions, risk, technology, and alliances, to knowledge, governance, globalization, and leadership.

With contributors from among the world's top strategists, including C.K. Prahalad, Henry Mintzberg, John Kay, Noel Tichy, and W. Chan Kim, this book combines definitive new thinking with examples of leading corporate strategies.

Strategy is everybody's business. Become a master of yours.

SAID

The Said Business School is the business school of the University of Oxford, and the newest department in one of the world's oldest universities. The school was established in 1998 through an initial £20m benefaction from Mr Wafic Said and matching funding from the University. It specializes in high level research into international business topics, including strategy, finance and corporate governance. The school also offers MBA, undergraduate and research degrees to an international student body.

INSEAD

In just 40 years, INSEAD has grown from a modest European educational start-up to one of the world's leading business schools, with more than 650 MBAs, 5,500 executives and 40 PhDs from over 75 countries passing through its programs every year. Participants are taught by an internationally recognized faculty of 124 professors from 26 countries. The institute's extensive alumni network is present in 122 countries and represents more than 20,200 MBA and executive alumni.

CHICAGO

The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business is at the forefront of bringing a discipline-based approach to the study of business. Chicago GSB is known for its world renowned faculty, which includes more Nobel Prize winners than any other business school. Chicago GSB is also known for its strength in a number of areas including strategy, finance, entrepreneurship, international business, general management, economics, accounting, marketing and its innovative MBA program, which has campuses in Barcelona,Singapore and Chicago.

MICHIGAN

In Business Week magazine's bi-annual survey of corporate executives, the University of Michigan Business School (UMBS) was rated the most innovative business schools in the United States. UMBS's MBA and undergraduate programs blend the school's unusual across-the-board academic prowess with intensive development of applied skills and capabilities for results-producing leadership. In addition to degree programs, the Executive Education Center at UMBS offers a wide range of public and customized programs for working executives. More than 5,000 people participate in these programs each year, both on the school's campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and in overseas locations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #246731 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

About the Author
Contributors are from: University of Chicago, University of Michigan, INSEAD, Oxford University

Customer Reviews

Bravo!
Editors at Financial Times (FT) co-authored this volume, with Tim Dickson serving as executive editor . It offers "The Complete MBA Companion in Strategy," the result of FT's strategic alliance with the University of Chicago Business School, INSEAD, the University of Michigan Business School, and the Said Business School at Oxford University. This is the seventh volume in what is identified as "The Financial Times Mastering" series. It contains articles that first appeared in FT in late-1999.

The material is carefully organized within 16 chapters. In the first, there are two essays: "Strategy and the delusion of Grand Designs" authored by John Kay, Director of london Economics; the second -- "Strategy, blind men and the elephant" was co-authored by Henry Mintzberg of McGill University and INSEAD, Bruce Ahlstrand of Trent University (Ontario), and Joseph Lampel of the University of Nottingham Business School.

As for the final chapter, "Fresh Challenges for the Future," it was written by Dan Schendel, founding and current editor the Strategic Management Journal. The reader is advised that "This final module sums up the main themes of the book, addresses some of the current controversies, and offers pointers on how the field may develop in coming years. The core message is that those who fail to keep up with the best in strategic management risk losing their businesses and losing their jobs. The cases of failure cited throughout the book underline the point." My own crystal ball imploded long ago so I now cut Schendel considerable slack, given the fact that his comments on "fresh challenges" were composed five years ago. In fact, I think his analysis holds up remarkably well.

Although exceptionally well-written and skillfully-edited, this volume is by no means an "easy read." My own opinion is that it will be of greatest interest and benefit to the more capable students enrolled in graduate schools of business, and, to senior-level executives. Of course, the immediate value of each chapter will be largely determined by the immediate needs and interests of each reader. I would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge the superb graphics provided by Graham Parish. I also want to commend, again, Tim Dickson and his associates -- notably Ken Pottinger, James Pickford, Laura Scanga, and various school "co-ordinators" -- for pulling together so much excellent material, then getting it all properly presented. Bravo!

Welcome symposium on strategy
Most managers struggle in the area of strategy. I have been in plenty of meetings where someone has said 'What is our strategy?' and somebody else has then asked 'What do we mean by strategy?' The issue is confused because there are at least ten schools of strategy in common circulation today, and adherents of one school often do not recognise the output of other schools as being strategy at all.

This book, beginning with a survey by Henry Mintzburg (_the_ Henry Mintzburg) of the current strategy marketplace, is a structured reader which goes into depth on the current schools of thought as they apply to real world business and business problems.

It can be read on different levels. A one-time read through will equip you with the vocabulary to discuss strategy, giving real content to the often used phrases such as game-theory, the learning organisation and emergent strategy.

Each article, though, goes into very significant depth, and those that interest you repay careful re-reading and application with a pencil and paper to your own business environment.

At the deepest level, working through all of these articles will give a fundamental understanding of some of the slipperiest high-level concepts in business.

I believe this book gives the senior manager a competitive advantage which the more elementary 'how-to' guides cannot provide.

My only reservation is that the 'reader' style adopted by this FT series of 'Mastering' books makes it less easy to put all the pieces together.

Excellent guide for managers on strategic issues for today
The book serves a manager as a profound strategic discussion. Focusing not only on "gurus" but also on different external and internal strategic components this book gives you many ideas combined with best-practice-advices to reach the goal of a strategy-oriented company.