Authors: Paul J. H. Schoemaker. Robert E. Gunther.
Hardcover, 288 pages
Publisher: Free Press
Publication Date: 2002-07-02


Reviews :

    What manager is not anxious about the future? We live in a white-knuckled age of rapid technological change and global instability. But uncertainty is not the enemy, says management expert Paul J. H. Schoemaker. It is where the greatest opportunities are. To unlock these opportunities, however, requires a very different approach to strategy and implementation. In this pioneering book, Dr. Schoemaker presents a systematic approach that combines concepts such as scenario planning, options thinking, and dynamic monitoring to create novel strategies for profiting from ambiguity.

Building on his experience with more than one hundred consulting projects in fields ranging from health care to manufacturing, from utilities to financial services, Schoemaker shows how major corporations throughout the world have used his pathbreaking methodology to prepare for an un-certain future and profit from it. In this first comprehensive approach to the subject, Schoemaker shows the reader (1) how to develop and analyze multiple industry scenarios, (2) craft nimble strategies with just the right amount of flexibility, (3) implement them using an options approach, and (4) make real-time adjustments through dynamic monitoring. As a leading academic thinker and practitioner, the author draws on the frontiers of decision science, organization theory, strategy, and cognitive psychology to integrate the most practical contributions these various fields have made to navigating uncertainty.

One need only follow the news to see the risks of being unprepared for change. And yet the rewards for actively pursuing new opportunities are greater than ever. More than any other capability, skill in seizing initiatives in shifting, unpredictable circumstances is the key to success. Profiting from Uncertainty provides a road map to do just that.

...

Authors: Jean-Noel Kapferer.
Paperback, 576 pages
Publisher: Kogan Page
Publication Date: 2008-03-01
Edition: 4th

Reviews :

    ...

Authors: John Pepper.
Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication Date: 2007-05-16
Edition: 1st Yale University Press Ed

Reviews :

    (20061227)...

Authors: Charles Fishman.
Hardcover, 304 pages
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Publication Date: 2006-01-19


Reviews :

    An award-winning journalist breaks through the wall of secrecy to reveal the many astonishing ways Wal-Mart's power affects our lives and reaches all around the world.

The Wal-Mart Effect: The overwhelming impact of the world's largest company--due to its relentless pursuit of low prices--on retailers and manufacturers, wages and jobs, the culture of shopping, the shape of our communities, and the environment; a global force of unprecedented nature. Wal-Mart is not only the world's largest company; it is also the largest company in the history of the world. Americans spend $26 million every hour at Wal-Mart, twenty-four hours of every day, every day of the year. Is the company a good thing or a bad thing? On the one hand, market guru Warren Buffett estimates that the company's low prices save American consumers $10 billion a year. On the other, the behemoth is the #1 employer in thirty-seven of the fifty states yet has never let a union in the door.

Though 70 percent of Americans now live within a fifteen-minute drive of a Wal-Mart store, we have not even begun to understand the true power of the company and the many ways it is shaping American life. We know about the lawsuits and the labor protests, but what we don't know is how profoundly the "Wal-Mart effect" is shaping our lives.

Fast Company senior editor Fishman, whose revelatory cover story on Wal-Mart generated the strongest reader response in the history of the magazine, takes us on an unprecedented behind-the-scenes investigative expedition deep inside the many worlds of Wal-Mart. He reveals the radical ways in which the company is transforming America's economy, our workforce, our communities, and our environment. Fishman penetrated the secrecy of Wal-Mart headquarters, interviewing twenty-five high-level ex-executives; he journeyed into the world of a host of Wal-Mart's suppliers to uncover how the company strong-arms even the most established brands; and journeyed to the ports and factories, the fields and forests where Wal-Mart's power is warping the very structure of the world's market for goods. Wal-Mart is not just a retailer anymore, Fishman argues. It has become a kind of economic ecosystem, and anyone who wants to understand the forces shaping our world today must understand the company's hidden reach....

Authors:
Paperback, 527 pages
Publisher: Earthscan Publications Ltd.
Publication Date: 2006-07


Reviews :

    This book is more than just a "palliative care" guide for the planet–it is about innovation, solutions, competitiveness and profitability. At work, at home and as members of society, our generation has an obligation–and an exciting opportunity–to be part of the solution in restoring the balance. The authors present a bold vision for the future and demonstrate how we can get there, drawing on lessons of competitive advantage theory and the latest in sustainability, economics, innovation, business and governance theory and practice. The result is nothing less than the most authoritative and comprehensive guide to date, to building the new ecologically sustainable economy.

For further information about The Natural Edge Project and to view the book’s online companion, visit www.naturaledgeproject.net.
...

Authors: Harvard Business Review.
Paperback, 208 pages
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Publication Date: 2001-10-15
Edition: 1st

Reviews :

    This book features the latest theories on change management and real-world stories of successful turnaround efforts....

Authors: David B. Yoffie. Mary Kwak.
Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Publication Date: 2003-02-18


Reviews :

    This book shows readers how to turn competitors' strength to their advantage. Yoffie-Kwak provide insightful analysis of leading companies' judo strategies through in-depth case studies of Palm Computing, RealNetworks, and CNET Networks, among others. The "Users' Guide to Judo Strategy" - a section at the end of the book - offers a summary of the principles of judo strategy that readers can apply to their own business situations. Packed with the insights of world-class managers and strategists, "Judo Strategy" describes how companies can become giant-killers, while also teaching readers how to protect their hard-fought position from challengers in the wings....

    Judo, often translated as "the way of gentleness," is a century-old martial art that employs quickness and agility to help devotees overcome adversaries who seem--at least on the surface--to be more powerful. In Judo Strategy, David B. Yoffie, a professor of International Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and Mary Kwak, a Harvard research associate, turn these principles around for a corporate audience, showing how they can also be used to help companies battle bigger and stronger competitors. The metaphor has been used before in business and economic examples, the authors concede, "yet no one, to our knowledge, had tried to use judo as the basis for a systematic way of thinking about strategy." In the pages that follow, they begin by delving into the three primary tenets of the discipline (movement, balance, and leverage), and show specifically how each could be applied in business. They then explore the way three prominent New Economy companies (Palm Computing, RealNetworks, and CNET Networks) have successfully put the strategy into practice. Finally, they offer insight into fending off others who employ the judo strategy. In all, an original and practical management approach. --Howard Rothman...

Authors: Larry Downes. Chunka Mui.
Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Publication Date: 2000-03
Edition: Rev Sub

Reviews :

    Now in paperback, this is a "Business Week" bestseller! Over 100,000 hardcover copies sold! When technologies, products, and services converge in radical, creative new ways, a killer app can emerge - a new application so powerful that it transforms industries, redefines markets, and annihilates the competition. Companies large and are swiftly attempting to remake themselves into organizations that nurture killer apps and successfully translate their digital strategy into market dominance.With "Unleashing the Killer App", Downes and Mui offer a progressive guide to transforming your company into a place where killer apps are born. Drawing from their experience and research with leading global businesses, the authors: identify the twelve fundamental design principles for building killer apps; illustrate these principles with classic stories from history and examples from a wide range of industries that have successfully developed killer apps; examine the economic consequences of the diminishing transaction costs in cyberspace; and, describe how to integrate digital strategy into an organization's planning process to create new markets, form new customer relationships, and change the product line. "Unleashing the Killer App" provides the tools, the techniques, and the proof that you need to incubate - perhaps even release - the killer app within your organization....

    You don't have to look far to see that technology is driving today's economy. Turn on CNBC, open The Economist, scan the Wall Street Journal--you'll find that technology is the prime force creating growth in almost every industry. In Unleashing the Killer App, authors Larry Downes and Chunka Mui look at the dynamics of technological change and its potential to create "killer apps." The authors describe a killer app as a product or service that "wind up displacing unrelated older offerings, destroying and re-creating industries far from their immediate use, and throwing into disarray the complex relationships between business partners, competitors, customers, and regulators of markets." Examples of killer apps throughout history include the Welsh longbow, the pulley, the compass, moveable type, and the Apple Macintosh. And today, with our increasingly networked economy (for example, the World Wide Web), killer apps are appearing all around us.

Downes and Mui argue that the dominant trend behind the proliferation of killer apps is a combination of Moore's Law, which states that the processing power of the CPU doubles every 18 months, and Metcalfe's Law, which observes that the value of a network increases dramatically with each node that's added to it. These two laws are fundamentally changing how businesses interact with each other and with their customers. To exploit these changes, the authors outline 12 points for designing a digital strategy to help you identify and create killer apps in your own organization. The book includes dozens of examples of how killer apps were discovered and implemented.

Unleashing the Killer App provides an excellent framework for rethinking the nature of business in today's wired economy. No matter the size of your company or what it does--health care, publishing, or fast food--there's probably a killer app lurking somewhere. This book will help you find it. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards...

Authors: David A. Nadler. Marc S. Gerstein. Robert B. Shaw.
Hardcover, 304 pages
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Publication Date: 1992-05-26
Edition: 1st

Reviews :

    Reveals emerging techniques for answering the challenges senior managers face today: improving organizational quality, inspiring team performance, and creating powerful long-range strategy. Presents a proven model for understanding organizations and demonstrates how it can be used to effect positive change in organizational systems....

Authors: Philippe Rosinski.
Paperback, 296 pages
Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing
Publication Date: 2003-04-25


Reviews :

    Combining two of the hottest topics in business today, this expert executive and team coach breaks new ground with the first book to bridge the gap between coaching and interculturalism....