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To paraphrase the Rolling Stones, you might not always get what you want from this short 'n' sweet little guidebook on strategic thinking and planning, but you just might get what you need. That would include concise and handy visual and verbal tips on gathering and analyzing key information, setting short- and long-term objectives, developing your team leadership skills, predicting future trends, and maintaining a flexible approach throughout. It also covers the essential tools of strategic management, from SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats) analysis and feasibility studies to budgeting forecasts and contingency plans. Granted, if you're looking for specific or in-depth guidance--say, how to do strategic thinking in a particular field, like biotechnology, or a particular division, like human resources--you may find this book too cursory and general in its approach. But if you're looking for a thumbnail guide to the basic steps of strategic planning, both individually and in a group setting, this may do you just fine.
It's worth mentioning that the book is also part of reference publisher Dorling Kindersley's Essential Managers series--20 itty-bitty li'l books on business and career topics ranging from communication, leadership, and decision making to the management of time, budgets, change, meetings, people, projects, and teams. Combining the For Dummies book series's talent for breaking down a lot of information into bite-size bits and sidebars with Dorling Kindersley's signature design style of crisp, classy graphics on a gleaming white backdrop, they don't represent the cutting edge of business thinking and they don't necessarily reflect any unique individual perspective. Instead, it's as though someone collated the best general thinking on these 20 topics and rolled them out into 72 brightly designed and easy-to-read pages, studded along the way with boxed tips, color shots of a multiracial cast of "coworkers" animatedly hashing through the workplace issues of the day, and a self-test of one's skills in the topic at hand on the last few pages of each volume. Again, they're not for anyone looking for more in-depth or focused help on any of the subjects they cover, but they're perfect as a quickie general-interest reference... and let's face it, they're so cute and look so smart in a neat little stack or row that you'll probably want to buy a whole bunch to give to your entire staff or department. --Timothy Murphy
Book Description
Learn about brainstorming, systems, logic, precedents, action plans, and goals.
Learn how to plan, develop, and implement dynamic business and team strategies with Strategic Thinking. This concise and informative guide shows you how to identify the route to success by gathering and analyzing key information, setting short- and long-term objectives, developing your team-leadership skills, predicting future trends, and maintaining a flexible approach. It covers the essential tools of strategic management, from SWOT analysis and feasibility studies to budgeting forecasts and contingency plans, to help give you a competitive edge in today's fast-moving business world. The Essential Manager have sold more than 1.9 million copies worldwide! Experienced and novice managers alike can benefit from these compact guides that slip easily into a briefcase or a portfolio. The topics are relevant to every work environment, from large corporations to small businesses. Concise treatments of dozens of business techniques, skills, methods, and problems are presented with hundreds of photos, charts, and diagrams. It is the most exciting and accessible approach to business and self-improvement available.
Customer Reviews:
Basic, essential, and very well-presented.......2007-06-26
During a recent business trip, I stopped by an airport store and saw a display of several volumes of the "Essential Managers" series. I purchased this one as well as John Seymour and Martin Shervington's Maximizing Performance, read both while en route home and was surprised, frankly, to find each to be remarkably comprehensive within a 69-page narrative. Obviously, the subject of strategic thinking is vast and complicated. No single book could possibly cover everything, nor do Bruce and Langdon make any such claim. What they offer is a focus on fundamentals, as do the volumes that comprise the Harvard Business Essentials series.
First, Bruce and Langdon share their definition of strategy, examine the strategic process, suggest how to balance pursuit of both short- and long-term goals, prepare for strategic success, and anticipate what may lie ahead. Next, they explain how to analyze the given situation in terms of influences, customers, competition, and the given organization's available resources (e.g. the skills and capabilities of its people). Then Bruce and Langdon focus on the strategic planning process itself (definition of purpose, determination of competitive advantage, setting of operational boundaries, selection of points of emphasis, and estimation of probable costs of implementation. They conclude with a series of observations and suggestions concerning strategy implementation.
As I read this book, I was again reminded of Oliver Wendell Holmes' comment, "I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity." To me, that comment suggests the essential value of the "Essential Managers" series, at least of the two volumes I have read thus far. Here's another point. What Bruce and Langdon have to say about the fundamentals of strategic thinking is consistent with what other experts on the subject suggest, notably Peter Drucker, Henry Mintzberg, and Michael Porter. As I read this book, I was also reminded of what Drucker observed in 1963: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all."
However different they may be in every other respect, all under-performing organizations fail to formulate an appropriate strategy and/or do not implement it effectively. One key word is "appropriate" because a strategy that was appropriate only a few years ago (or yesterday) may no longer be appropriate now. Another other key word is "effectively." With all due respect to the importance of knowing what to do and how to do it, former Texas football coach Darrell Royal is right: "potential" means "you ain't done it yet." Credit Andy Bruce and Ken Langdon with providing a remarkably comprehensive discussion of what to do and how to do it. It remains for those who read their book to apply what they have learned.
I wish I had this book when I was a young corporate rat........2001-03-13
I bought this book actually out of curiosity. It was pocket-size, and also visually very appealing. After perusing it, I have this feeling that this book is more intended for very young executives and/or new supervisors.
In terms of basic steps, the book is just fine. In a nutshell, there are some two dozen of "strategic thinking" topics, which have been artfully rolled into the 72 brightly designed and easy-to-read pages, studded along the way with colurful boxed tips, 101 of them to be exact. It is designed for easy reading. There is even a simple but fun test at the end pages.
Highly recommended for all beginners into the management field, as well as for older kids, who wants to learn how to think strategically. I wish I had this book when I was a young corporate rat.
For a deeper treatment on the subject, I would suggest a quick browse of books in my Strategic Thinking Bookshelf (listmania).
Book Description
Entrepreneur's Notebook propels you on a whirlwind tour of the start-up process. It is an invaluable reference for new and experienced entrepreneurs that includes chapters on a wide range of topics, from entrepreneurial team building to business plans to financing. This excellent book provides an incredible amount of practical information that will help you make smarter decisions and avoid costly mistakes. The author, Steven K. Gold, is an accomplished entrepreneur who has co-founded and led five early-stage ventures. As an investor and mentor, he also advises many entrepreneurs and young companies. He earned his B.S.E. in Entrepreneurial Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and his M.D. from Brown University Medical School.
Customer Reviews:
Nice Guide for Beginners.......2007-06-16
The author writes a nice overview of the entrepreneurial process. It's basically for novices but it does a good job for this audience. The only problem I have with this book is that it is too basic and is therefore non-unique because it is so low-level. Regardless, I must say that for the right audience, it does a fine job over giving the big picture.
If you are advanced or aspire to become advanced, I would recommend "The Startup Company Bible for Entrepreneurs" but only for high-tech entrepreneurs. Even this author has recommended it.
A Must-Have for Entrepreneurs.......2007-05-14
Steven gives great illustrations to drive home his insightful advice for entrepreneurs. As he's "been there, done that," we can take his advice to heart in the hopes of becoming a success like him!
Exellent Book.......2007-05-11
Great book for getting ready to open a new business. Would refer to anyone thinking about opening a business.
Brief and to the point.......2007-04-27
This is a delightful little book that contains a wealth of useful and helpful information and ideas on starting a small business and ensuring that it is viable and succesful. The book is well written and easy to follow and interesting to read.
This is a must read for entrepreneurs, particularly budding ones as the information the book provides is very practical and can help you avoid making costly errors. The book covers a wide range of topics including the start-up process, marketing the business on a small budget, cash-flow forecasting, among other things.
The book is an excellent companion for the entrepreneur that is well worth having.
Invaluable advice for the budding entrepreneur.......2007-03-04
This book does a terrific job of presenting some of the most important issues entrepreneurs face when embarking on new ventures, touching on topics such as the business plan, funding, team building, and cash flows. Using simple, yet stunningly accurate models of the entrepreneurial process, Steven Gold distills complex subjects into simple, practical, take-away messages. The classification of entrepreneurial personalities (professionals, pragmatists, and inventors) is something I think we can all relate to. I find the metaphor which compares building a new company to making "stone soup" equally compelling. There are countless books out there for budding entrepreneurs, but this one is no fluff. It gets right down to the nuts and bolts so you can concentrate on your business.
Book Description
This brief book offers a short, concise explanation of the most important concepts and techniques in Strategic Management. While based on rigorous research studies, the citations and footnotes are minimal. Essentials of Strategic Management is suitable for use in corporate and executive training programs.
Offers a sound introduction to strategic management, focusing on the basic concepts and their applications to the management field. Topics include environmental scanning and industry analysis, strategy formulation: corporate strategy, strategy implementation: organizing for action, among others.
For professionals in fields of strategic planning and competitive strategy.
Customer Reviews:
Brief and to the Point.......2007-10-01
Business executives, like many professionals, are wary of all the garbage that poses as valid information. They need to cut through the noise to get the real meat, and they don't have a lot of time to wade through extraneous space-filling material that does not contribute to what they need to know.
The authors get right into content. They concisely but comprehensively, step-by-step, explain the strategic management process and techniques. No wasted time here. While based on rigorous research, the writing is succinct and thus making it a useful book for the busy executive who needs a comprehensive, useful and practical textbook to guide him/her in strategic decision making. It's a good business approach.
Great Book.......2007-09-22
My professor recommended this book, for our Strategic Management class, and although is not a huge book it has just the right info you need.
Truly an essentials book.......2007-09-19
Obviously this was written with the consumer in mind. Such a tiny book, but still packs the punch for stategy in management planning on all levels. Industry examples well written
Excellent Book for All Leaders.......1999-03-08
Having this be a required book in a recent doctoral course on leadership, I was plesantly surprised by the content. This book should be required reading for all who are interested in strategic management, organizational change, and the future of business and industry. The examples are right-on, useful, and very meaningful. Anyone interested in environmental and internal scanning for an organization can use the simple model provided in the book. I would say this is one of the best books I have ever read on this subject.
Book Description
Effective marketing can mean the difference between runaway successes and costly flops. Covering everything from customer programs to ad campaigns to sales promotions, this is every marketer’s hands-on guide to turning opportunities into profits.
Customer Reviews:
Simple and Effective Marketing Strategies.......2007-03-25
There are many books in my library devoted to more specific areas of marketing, but this is hands-down my favorite for covering the basics. It provides the information in a simple and easy-to-use format, and also includes plenty of references for additional reading.
Chapter 1 covers the basics of business strategy, alignment of marketing strategy with business strategy, and explains the changes in the phases of the product or service life cycle.
Chapter 2 discusses marketing plan creation, elements of marketing mix, applying the mix to a target market, paths to customer, placement and promotion.
Chapter 3, my favorite due to its research focus, discusses formal and informal methods of market research, the research process, and methods for analyzing customer preferences. This chapter also stresses the importance of utilizing those individuals who work closely with clients for informal research. It also includes tips on making a marketing-oriented company's workforce more outward-looking, such as sending technical people to key conferences, having them continually scan the literature and industry news, and sending them on customer calls with sales reps.
Chapter 4 focuses on market segmentation, as well as the basics of multifactor, relevant and effective segmentation, targeting the right segments, and positioning the product or service in the minds of customers.
Chapter 5, Competitor Analysis, explains how to identify and size up competitors according to strengths and weaknesses, as well as how to understand the five forces that make markets attractive or unattractive.
Chapter 6 discusses brand differentiation, and explains how commodity products and services are differentiated, approaches to differentiation, and differentiation through branding.
Chapter 7 discusses "The Right Customers", and includes information on understanding how customers differ in economic value, how to focus customer acquisition and retention resources, identifying sources and causes of defection, and gaining a greater share of the wallet.
Chapter 8 is devoted to new product development. It discusses horizontal and vertical product line extensions, NPD process, the stage-gate system for go-no go decisions, and the important role of marketing in the development process.
Chapter 9 is devoted entirely to pricing, and includes helpful information on cost-plus pricing, pricing and the experience curve, pricing for "snob appeal", stealth price increases, price promotions, pricing and customer-perceived value, and pricing throughout the product life cycle.
Chapter 10 talks about integrated marketing communications, including the six steps of the purchase decision, key communication vehicles, the six "M"'s of marketing communications, and guidelines for coordination.
Chapter 11 delves into interactive marketing, and discusses online commerce, e-mail campaigns, and best practices for web-based merchandising.
Of special interest to companies doing business in multiple countries and cultures, Chapter 12 goes into "Marketing Across Borders". It covers standardized versus customized products, successes and failure among "world" products, and control of global marketing decisions.
Chapter 13 discusses the future of marketing. It goes into the importance of delivering on marketing promises, growing fragmentation of U.S. markets, accountability for results, and ethical marketing behavior.
My only (minor) criticism of this book is that, in spite of the prominence of the word "toolkit" in the title, the appendices include only 3 actual tools. In my opinion, the information provided in the above-described chapters is far more valuable than the tools.
Book Description
Strategic Executive Development--written by three leaders in the field of executive development, James F. Bolt, Michael McGrath and Michael Dulworth--shows how world-class companies use executive development to drive business strategy and affect growth. This important resource presents five strategic uses of executive development that produce demonstrable business impact. Based on empirical data gathered from their extensive research and consulting, and a comprehensive survey of executive development in leading organizations, this book answers the key question: What are the investments in executive development that have the biggest impact? Using illustrative case studies, the authors clearly demonstrate how executive development is being successfully implemented at some of the world's most recognizable and enduring companies, including Texas Instruments. These cases describe what is working and why, offer insights into the key process steps, and show how companies have measured and validated the effects of executive development. Strategic Executive Development offers the framework needed to create an executive development strategy and program that will help your organization achieve measurable business results and develop the executive capabilities needed to win in the marketplace.
Customer Reviews:
Captures all the flavors of leadership development.......2005-08-09
A great companion to Jim Bolt's other recent book, The Future of Executive Development, this latest book provides a detailed look at all the essential pieces of leadership development that is high impact and strategic to an organization's business. Whatever the specific focus of your leadership effort is--whether the driver for you is high potential development or transformation, this book offers detailed, practical help and examples which will guide your efforts. Clearly written and documented, this is an invaluable guide for leadership development practitioners within organizations as well as consultants like myself.
A MAJOR CONTRIBUTION TO THE SUBJECT OF EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT........2005-08-08
Through case studies from major organizations, the book provides: a framework for developing executive develop strategies, systems and programs; highlights of the state-of-the-art in terms of what approaches are proving most effective and promising for the future; insights on maximizing the yield on investment in development; and evidence of the business impact of executive development and examples of ways companies have measured and validated impact.
The book's nine chapters cover:
trends and forecasts; aligning development strategies and programs with business objectives;
the 5 high-impact uses of executive development;
creating strategic unity and alignment;
successful transition of new executives;
accelerating executive development of emerging leaders;
transforming organizations;
addressing business challenges; and
the business impact of executive development.
Information is provided from a 2004 survey of executive development practices.
Other value-added features include:
design of typical action-oriented learning activities; web-based survey: typical question themes; and
different ways to measure executive development.
Preparing Executives for the Future.......2005-06-17
This book seeks to investigate and explain the"investments in executive development that have the biggest impact." The authors are all executives with Executive Development Associates (edanetworks.com), a leading consulting firm specializing in the strategic use of executive development.
In 2004 EDA cunducted an in depth survey with senior management of nine major companies. This book is largely the result of what these executives had to say combined with the years of experience that EDA has had in preparing specialized training classes for executives.
As people have worked their way up the organization, they have had to develop leadership and numerous other skills. At the executive level they are now faced with new challenges. These particularly involve strategic decisions for which they have not been previously responsible.
Without going into the details of the book, the problems these new executives face include directing the corporation into new organizational forms, bringing new leaders up the chain, and preparing to meet the big changes that are coming in their corporate world. For change is always coming, and to ignore it is to effectively kill the company. What will happen to your company with dramatic jumps in the price of energy? What effect will the Kyoto protocol have? These are the known challenges. You can be sure that the future has a bunch of surprises that executives will have to meet if their companies are to survive.
This book contains not the answers to these problems, but how to prepare executives to effectively face them.
Book Description
A landmark system for business leaders and marketers, campaigners and bloggers, political junkies and fans of popular culture, The Elements of Influence takes the mystery out of strategy and how it shapes and shifts niche and global marketplaces alike.
It's about Playmaking. In business, it's what Pepsi does to thwart Coke, and vice versa. In politics, it's what White House strategists do to propel an agenda and win elections. In pop culture, it's what Oprah Winfrey does to build her personal brand and seduce her audience. Playmaking is the essential skill for advancing ideas, controlling marketplace discussions, positioning products, de-positioning competitors, embracing allies, and moving your program forward.
Chemists have the periodic table of elements. Economists have game theory. Those whose work centers on strategy, positioning, and influence have had no framework. That is, until now.
The first definitive system for out-smarting an opponent, managing a brand, protecting a reputation, and orchestrating word-of-mouth, The Elements of Influence unveils this critical and sprawling discipline and introduces The Playmaker's Standard, a new essential language of 25 irreducible plays. It breaks down into precise pieces the moves and counter-moves by which competitive advantage is won and lost, buzz is built, spin is spun, and arms are twisted, and it shows how masters of the game call, run, decode, and counteract the ploys and plans of their marketplaces. Plays are everywhere and everyone is a playmaker, and those who know this - the black belts of business, politics, and pop culture - will always have the edge over those who don't. The Elements of Influence will help you join their ranks. BACKCOVER:
Advanced praise for The Elements of Influence
"Alan Kelly is the Bill Walsh of marketing and positioning strategy and tactics. His playbook reads like an insider's field guide to the ins and outs of positioning warfare. Master it, and you can play with pros anytime."
—Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm and Dealing with Darwin
"Ever wonder how marketing campaigns get built? How messages are spun? How public opinion is managed? Here are the answers - in a clear, enjoyable, and eye-opening system that even the black belts of influence will find surprising!"
—Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the Guerrilla Marketing series
Book Description
The Numbers Guide is very useful for everyone who wants to be competent and able to communicate effectively with numbers and is particularly invaluable for managers who have budgetary, planning, or forecasting responsibilities. There are chapters on key concepts including finance and investment, measures for interpretation and analysis, forecasting techniques, sampling and hypothesis testing, incorporating judgments into decision making, linear programming and networking.
Customer Reviews:
OK, who ordered the numbers?.......2007-01-11
Appreciative readers (they tend to be long-term readers as well) of the ECONOMIST sometimes wonder why misspellings and non sequiturs are virtually absent from that superb weekly magazine.
The answer?: an obsessive dedication to editorial rigor, nowhere better exemplified than in this 'style guide' for the numbers set. It doubles as a methodological guide, for it sets out near canonical equations and means for solving economic problems.
Nine chapters cover:
Key concepts
Finance and investment
Descriptive measures for interpretation and analysis
Tables and charts
Forecasting techniques
Sampling and hypothesis testing
Incorporating judgments into decisions
Decision-making in action
Linear programming and networking
This guide should be required reading for everyone who manages from a numbers-intensive platform.
From Great to Good.......2004-03-18
I have read cover-to-cover a previous edition of this book (when it was published by Wiley in 1998) and recently had an opportunity to carefully peruse this current edition (5th ed. by Bloomberg Press???). What I found is that this is a strange case of how a great book (the 1998 edition) turned into merely a good book (this 5th edition). Because of this regression toward the average, I deducted one star from my review (but still feel that it is good enough for 4 stars).
As you may have noticed, I really loved the older edition of The Economist Numbers Guide that I thankfully own. It is a great overview and introduction of mathematics as it relates to business. There are a lot of great things about that edition of this book. One of the things I admired about it was the range of topics covered, from interest rates and basic probability/statistics all the way up to Markov Chains, linear programming, and marginal analysis. It is hard to find the breadth of topics covered in that book elsewhere - whether all in one book or in any combination of books.
So I found it perplexing that this 5th edition dedacted some materials and topics covered in older editions. Gone are the interesting discussion of descriptive statistics for sets of data that do not easily conform to any of the standard probability distributions (e.g., where median is the best measure of the 'average' and substitutes must be used for the more common parameters such as standard deviation). I have a hard time finding anything coherent much less accessible on those topics elsewhere so it is a shame that they were left off of the 5th edition.
The only new material (not previously present) is a short blurb on public-key cryptography. While that topic is interesting to me and the limited discussion was illuminating and mathematically sound, it seemed a rather quixotic choice to put in when some interesting materials in previous editions were left off and new material that would have been more useful to the targeted audience have yet to be added.
What I mean by useful material that have yet to be added is that both the 1998 edition and this edition don't have some materials that I would think naturally ought to be added. E.g., the section on finance & investment mathematics is mostly devoted to various discussions on interest rate/time value of money & basic probability. I think adding material on CAPM (although CAPM Beta is defined in the book's very helpful glossary section), option/derivative pricing, financial portfolio optimization, and other topics in financial mathematics/engineering would make a great and natural addition to this book.
Some problems common to both the prior and current edition of this book are the occassional (relatively rare) typos. They are usually minor (although they are most annoyingly frequent in the section on time value of money / interest rates).
Another flaw in both the older and newer editions is that there are gaps in the expository material that don't make much sense. To be fair, this book is designed to be a brief intro/overview into a wide swathe of topics so it wouldn't be reasonable to expect that the author go into great detail on every topic. However, there are instances - e.g., the example on mixed strategies in game theory - where one or two additional sentences would help novices to understand (e.g., how did you get the the mixed strategy probabilities? author should have added a couple of more lines about how the system of equations are interrelated with one another when determining mixed strategies).
Having said all of that, let me reiterate that BOTH the old and the new edition of The Economist Numbers Guide is a wonderful resource for people interested in business mathematics. The sections on decision-making and forecasting are especially of value since they are so wonderfully explained here and a comparable set of explanations are hard to find elsewhere.
In future editions, I just hope that the author heeds my advice about bringing back some topics in older editions, correcting a few errors & lapses, and adding some material that would fit in with what has otherwise been an excellent series of books.
Excellent index of business math.......2000-12-11
This book provides concise and clear definitions of business analytics with practical applications. Excellent for the neophyte in business math. Helpful index and glossary to get started. Good guide to use if learning stats or marketing research.
A good start.......2000-06-11
For a novice in economics, not an easy field to be a novice in, this was a helpful book. It got me started, by which I mean I wasn't completely lost when I read it.
Book Description
Balanced scorecard is a widely recognised and accepted performance measurement tool that is currently used in thousands of organisations around the world. This book will help to implement the organisations' balanced scorecard strategies into action by defining performance objectives, measures, and targets in four linked and balanced perspectives: Financial, Customer, Internal Process, and Employee Learning and Growth.
* Explains what balanced scorecard is and addresses the challenges and solutions for its implementation.
* Addresses the concerns of the mid to small corporation as well as the emerging business
* Each chapter provides tips and techniques as well as real world examples
Download Description
Balanced scorecard is a widely recognised and accepted performance measurement tool that is currently used in thousands of organisations around the world. This book will help to implement the organisations' balanced scorecard strategies into action by defining performance objectives, measures, and targets in four linked and balanced perspectives: Financial, Customer, Internal Process, and Employee Learning and Growth.
* Explains what balanced scorecard is and addresses the challenges and solutions for its implementation.
* Addresses the concerns of the mid to small corporation as well as the emerging business
* Each chapter provides tips and techniques as well as real world examples
Customer Reviews:
For all who want to approach this in a practical manner.......2007-08-08
I found this book to be one of the best step by step guide for application to focus organization.
It takes technical approach and merges it with organizational thoughts to guide actionable results.
For anyone doing Balanced Scorecard, this is one of the best step by step guide that addresses strategy from the holistic and bottoms up approach.
A must read for senior management.
Not so good for novice.......2006-03-21
Probably the book is good for the experienced, but not so good for beginners like me. Although it addresses the questions like "what BSC is", I failed to get a clear picture of the art, and I'm waiting for some other books on the topic from Amazon.
Anyway, "essentials" are not introduction. To the title of this book, it's especially true.
Cuts to the chase - practical approach.......2004-06-23
I've read a number of BSC books, from Kaplan & Norton's original classic, to later works, and this is one of the very few that goes into practical implementation and management of a balanced scorecard.
What makes this book better than the others I've read is the way the author points out the pitfalls as well as the advantages of implementing and using this tool. He is objective and, more importantly, experienced, which is evidenced by how he places the BSC in context. This context is shown in the gap he uncovers between strategic themes, mission/vision/values, competencies, and purpose, and initiatives, objectives, measures and targets. The BSC fills that gap - if properly done and all of the key factors are understood.
I liked the way this book uncovers subtle key factors, such as the differences between strategy and operational effectiveness (often mistakenly viewed as the same thing), and what you should and should not be measuring. I also liked the way strategic themes were defined as a concept, as well as the use of tool called a paradox map to verify the alignment of tasks to strategy.
The bulk (and value) of this book is the implementation plan, which is governed by six critical success factors necessary to implement a BSC. It is here that the book shines because the implementation is laid out as a project (in fact, one of the six CSFs is to treat the implementation as a project), and is achievable with no non-value added steps.
If you want to gain an objective view of balanced scorecards and their value, and a pragmatic approach to implementing one, this book is the one I recommend.
Average customer rating:
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Essential Challenges of Strategic Management
William B. Rouse
Manufacturer: Wiley-Interscience
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Book Description
Praise for Essential Challenges of Strategic Management
"Bill Rouse provides helpful insight to make any business, and in particular any high- tech business, perform better."-Dennis A. Roberson, Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer Motorola
"A well-organized, easy-to-understand bible for all strategic managers and leaders."-Dr. Stanley G. Rosen, Director of Strategic Planning Boeing Satellite Systems
"A must-read for managers seeking clarity and focus as they lead organizations through chaotic times."-William C. Kessler, Vice President for Enterprise Productivity Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company
From TQM to business process reengineering to knowledge management, the last several decades have witnessed the rise and fall of many a management panacea. As a consequence, a general feeling is now brewing among disillusioned managers worldwide that perhaps the time has come to abandon the impractical quest for an all-encompassing solution to management problems and get back to basics. Essential Challenges of Strategic Management takes a major step towards realizing that goal.
Drawing upon the experiences of literally thousands of executives and senior managers working in all industry sectors, as well as government and nonprofit organizations, this book zeros in on the fundamental challenges faced by every senior manager, regardless of the business he or she is in, and describes a range of approaches to those challenges developed by women and men working at many of today's leading organizations.
Designed as a ready source of inspiration and ideas for busy executives and senior managers, Essential Challenges of Strategic Management consists of concise, independent chapters, each dedicated to a different strategic challenge. Throughout, celebrated entrepreneur, Fortune 500 consultant, author and educator, William Rouse uses fascinating and instructive case studies and vignettes to illustrate the best practices in strategic management and vividly describes various approaches, tools, and techniques. Additionally, he provides clear-cut guidelines for selecting and implementing the solutions most likely to succeed in a given situation.
Book Description
Get a high-level overview of project management with this strategically focused book. You'll find practical guidance, useful advice, and valuable tools and techniques for navigating project management. The authors demystiy project management by defining many terms that project managers use that may not be familiar to you as an executive. They also equip you with the critical knowledge and background to implement sound project management methods, as well as gain a better understanding of project management and increase the success of existing projects.
Order your copy today.
Download Description
A high-level overview of project management
With Essentials of Strategic Project Management, executives get practical guidance, useful advice, tools, and techniques to navigate project management. This strategically focused book demystifies project management by defining many terms that project managers use that may not be familiar to executives. It also equips executives with the critical knowledge and background to implement sound project management methods, as well as gain a better understanding of project management and increase the success of existing projects.
Kevin R. Callahan, PMP (St. Charles, IL), is the founder and President of PMCi, a registered education provider for the Project Management Institute (PMI). Lynne M. Brooks, PMP (St. Charles, IL), is Vice President of PMCi and President of Lynne Brooks Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in performance and project management, and training and development.
Customer Reviews:
Comments.......2005-03-15
I teach graduate courses in Project Management and therefore have seen many textbooks which are interesting, useful and informative. However, the one area where Mr. Callahan's book excels is exactly the one where most textbooks are lacking: a bird's eye view of the key issues in project management providing a better understanding of why one should not only be concerned about it but also how to understand it better. I would heartily recommend this book not only as a secondary book in Project Management classes, but also -- and particularly -- for those people in organizations who find themselves in need of getting a quick grasp of important issues in project management and how to sell such need to higher management. The examples provided are compelling and really do make a point.
Comments on "Essentials...".......2005-01-01
As an executive in a company that was struggling to get the right projects identified and the to manage them effectively, this is one of the first books I turned to as a resource. I am pleased that I did.
Mr. Callahan's book is clearly written, easy to understand and provides a good blend of high level overview along with down to earth practical guidance. He does an excellent job showing why projects fail to meet expectations and provides a roadmap of what an organization needs to do, at every level and in all functions, to improve their success in Project Management.
After reading this book, I distributed copies to others in the organization from the CEO down to the engineers working on individual project activities. I believe Mr. Callahan's book provided an excellent means of communicating to the organization an understanding of what we as a company needed to do differently and why.
Strategic Project Management explained.......2004-12-22
This book is filled with helpful information on making sure all the facets of project management are understood and considered. Particularly useful are the "tips and techniques" sections in the book, which offer extremely useful questions for consideration. Further, the STO model the book is based on is solid. The authors also have some interesting and fresh points to make about risk. Finally, one of my favorite parts of the book, was the reference to how 'Fractals' are like companies and vice versa - very innovative and adept point to include. To find out more, read the book!
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