Authors: John Roberts.
Hardcover, 336 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Publication Date: 2004-06-10


Reviews :

    Business firms around the world are experimenting with new organizational designs, changing their formal architectures, their routines and processes, and their corporate cultures as they seek to improve their current performance and their growth prospects. In the process, they are changing the scope of their business operations, redrawing their organization charts, redefining the allocation of decision-making authority and responsibility, revamping the mechanisms for motivating and rewarding people, reconsidering which activities to conduct in-house and which to out-source, redesigning their information systems, and seeking to alter the shared beliefs, values and norms that their people hold. In this book, John Roberts argues that there are predictable, necessary relationships among these changes that will improve performance and growth. The organizations that are successful will establish patterns of fit among the elements of their organizational designs, their competitive strategies and the external environment in which they operate and will go about this in a holistic manner. The Modern Firm develops powerful conceptual frameworks for analyzing the interrelations between organizational design features, competitive strategy and the business environment. Written in a non-technical language, the book is nevertheless based on rigorous modeling and draws on numerous examples from the eighteenth century fur trading companies to such modern firms such as BP and Nokia. Finally, the book explores why these developments are happening now, pointing to the increase in global competition and changes in technology. Written by one of the world's leading economists and experts on business strategy and organization, The Modern Firm provides new insights into the changes going on in business today and will be of interest to academics, students and managers alike....

Authors: Rick A. Morris. Brette McWhorter Sember.
Hardcover, 240 pages
Publisher: AMACOM
Publication Date: 2008-08-18


Reviews :

    Project management is one of the fastest-growing occupations in the world. The Project Management Institute (PMI) has seen membership growth of more than 1000 per cent in the last ten years, with members in 157 countries. But while many of these managers know how to plan a successful project in theory, very few have the practical tools they need to navigate the politics of today's corporate world. Project managers need more than just good technical skills; they need the right communication skills to succeed. "Project Management Strategy" helps readers deal with the reality of unreasonable deadlines and difficult projects and shows them how to accomplish their goals without alienating their executive sponsors or the team working under them. Filled with real-world examples based on the author's ten years of project management experience in Fortune 500 companies, this book gives readers the tools they need to handle even the most challenging situations. The only book to address the real challenges project managers face today, this is an accessible and invaluable tool that will show readers how to accomplish their mission - no matter what the obstacles....

Authors: Suzanne C. Lowe.
Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: Praeger Publishers
Publication Date: 2004-04-30


Reviews :

    In today's knowledge-based economy, service professionals, such as consultants, lawyers, accountants, architects, advertising agencies, IT specialists, and financial advisors, face a dazzling array of opportunities and challenges. In order to compete effectively, they need a disciplined approach for detecting market shifts, harnessing their competitive advantages, and developing service offerings that will attract the most profitable clients. Drawing from a five-year study covering thousands of firms, Suzanne Lowe presents the three building blocks of a market-driven infrastructure--looking out, digging deeper, and embedding innovation--and identifies eleven core skills that any service firm can apply to master the marketplace and achieve lasting competitive success. Integrating insights from the fields of marketing, service management, planning, and entrepreneurship, and showcasing the successful strategies of such firms as Towers Perrin, DDB Worldwide, and Egon Zehnder International, Lowe shows service professionals how to gather intelligence about their clients, competitors, and marketplace; promote a market-driven culture throughout the organization; and engage in continuous research and development to introduce new services. Mastering these skills will enable readers to be better prepared to face changes in the market, and make decisive, informed decisions about opportunities that will prove right in the long term....

Authors: Peter Burrows.
Hardcover, 304 pages
Publisher: Wiley
Publication Date: 2003-02-15
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    An insider's look at the internal turmoil at one of the world's premier high-tech companies
This is the inside story of Hewlett-Packard Company's struggle to regain its former glory, and of the high-stakes battle between CEO Carly Fiorina and family scion Walter Hewlett over how best to achieve that goal. For decades, HP was admired not only for its innovative products and soaring stock price, but for its egalitarian corporate culture and father-knows-best integrity. Backfire explains how the company fell on hard times, recounts the historic decision that made Fiorina the world's top-ranking female executive, and brings to life the backlash that resulted when she tried to impose her charismatic salesmanship on the aging icon. Top BusinessWeek journalist Peter Burrows gives the dramatic blow-by-blow of Hewlett's effort to kill Fiorina's most controversial move of all, her $19 billion purchase of rival Compaq Computer. Fiorina won by a whisker, after the most expensive proxy fight in history and a dramatic lawsuit that accused the company of illegally fixing the vote. This gripping, ongoing story includes fascinating personalities and dramatic boardroom and courtroom drama.
Peter Burrows (Alameda, CA) has been a technology reporter for BusinessWeek for nine years and has covered the HP saga from the start. The department editor for BusinessWeek's computer coverage, he has been the principal chronicler of Fiorina's tenure at HP, and has written three cover stories on the subject. He has also written numerous other cover stories, including looks at Steve Jobs's Apple Computer and Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy....

Authors: James Post. Lee Preston. Sybille Sachs.
Paperback, 376 pages
Publisher: Stanford Business Books
Publication Date: 2002-05-13
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    ...

Authors: Hugh Courtney.
Hardcover, 209 pages
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Publication Date: 2001-09


Reviews :

    In the midst of a changing economy, most executives continue to use a strategy toolkit designed for yesterday's more stable marketplace. As a result, strategies emerge that neither manage the risks nor take advantage of the opportunities that arise in highly uncertain times. Now, McKinsey & Company consultant Hugh Courtney argues that managers must move beyond the outdated "all-or-nothing" view of strategy in which future events are either certain or uncertain. Instead, he suggests a simple-yet powerful-alternative: Understand the level of uncertainty you are facing in a given situation, and you will make better, more informed strategic choices.Based on an international review of the key strategy problems faced by over one hundred leading companies, Courtney reveals how executives can develop 20/20 foresight - a view of the future that separates what can be known from what can't. While executives with 20/20 foresight can rarely develop perfect forecasts of the future, says Courtney, they can isolate the "residual uncertainty" they face and use this insight to create competitive advantage in today's turbulent markets. Unveiling a revolutionary framework for diagnosing to which of the four levels of residual uncertainty a specific strategy choice corresponds, "20/20 Foresight" shows how readers can leverage this knowledge to answer three key strategic questions: Shape or adapt to uncertainty? Make strategic commitments now or later? and Follow a focused or diversified strategy?"20/20 Foresight" also shows strategists how to tailor every aspect of the decision-making process - from formulation to implementation - to the level of uncertainty faced, describes the strategic-planning processes readers can use to monitor, update, and revise strategies as necessary in volatile markets, and includes a toolkit for identifying, developing, and testing new strategy options - complete with guidelines for applying the right tool to the right situation at the right time. A comprehensive approach to strategy development under all possible levels of uncertainty and across all kinds of industries, this is the essential guide for making tough strategic choices in a changing world. Hugh Courtney is an Associate Principal with the Global Strategy Practice at McKinsey & Company in Washington D.C....

Authors: Michael Dell. Catherine Fredman.
Hardcover, 256 pages
Publisher: Collins
Publication Date: 1999-03-04


Reviews :

    In 1983, Michael S. Dell, then an incoming freshman at the University of Texas at Austin, drove away from his parents' Houston home in a white BMW he'd bought selling subscriptions to his hometown newspaper. In the backseat were three personal computers.

Today, he is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dell Computer Corporation, an $18 billion company, the second-largest manufacturer and marketer of computers in the world. Founded on a deceptively simple premise--to deliver high-performance computer systems directly to the end user--Dell Computer is the envy of its competition, constantly growing at five times the industry rate, and a perennial darling of Wall Street: its stock is up more than 36,000 percent this decade, and more than 200 percent in the last year.

In Direct From Dell, Michael Dell himself tells the incredible story of Dell Computer's successful rise, beginning in his college dorm room with $1,000 in capital.

In these pages, you'll see the formation of a great visionary--and a great company. You'll meet the young Dell who, at the tender age of eight, had already begun looking "to eliminate unnecessary steps" and who, as a numbers-loving adolescent, was inspired by a newfound fascination with computers to save his money to buy a coveted Apple II--only to promptly take it apart. You'll encounter a young visionary who, upon witnessing the inefficiencies of an exploding industry, challenged conventional wisdom and set out to do nothing less than beat IBM at its own game. In so doing, Dell forever changed the way things "had always been done" in the computer industry.

You'll also see the birth of a Dell hallmark--the direct model--which, in its ability to reach the customer directly, eliminated not only a substantial middleman markup but also the possibility of costly excess inventory, setting the stage for other extraordinary achievements. In an industry notorious for its unreliable service, Dell utilized its direct customer relationships to pioneer the concept of customer "support"--and didn't rest until the caliber of its service was rivaled only by the quality of its products and its speed of delivery.

But the story of Dell Computer is no fairy tale. Marked by uncharacteristically rapid growth, the company was faced with challenges that could have threatened its very existence. From forays into retail to under- (and over-) developed product lines, Dell learned some hard lessons along the way--and emerged stronger as a result.

The strategies born of those times--unrivaled speed to market; superior customer service; a fierce commitment to producing constantly high-quality custom-made systems--heralded what has perhaps been the company's crowning achievement: an early exploitation of the Internet.

Not just for CEOs or those in high tech, the strategies revealed in Direct From Dell are invaluable to managers in a broad cross section of industries. From starting a successful business to pioneering computer sales and service over the Internet, Dell shares his perspectives on:

Why it's infinitely better for any business starting out to have too little capital, rather than too much

How studying your customers--not your competition--will give you a greater competitive edge

Why it can be life-threatening to your company to pursue too many good ideas--or to grow too fast

Why it's essential to run a P&L on every area of your business

Why your people prose a greater threat to the health of your business than your competition does

How you can exploit your competition's weakness by exposing its greatest strength

How integrating your business virtually can make the difference between being quick--and being dead

Revealing nothing less than a new model for doing business in the information age, Direct From Dell is both an extraordinary business success story and a manifesto for revolutionizing any industry. ...

    The PC business is full of rags-to-riches stories. But perhaps none is as dramatic as the rise of Dell Computer. In Direct from Dell, founder and CEO Michael Dell tells how he started his company from a dorm room at the University of Texas with less than $1,000 and built it into an industry powerhouse with a market capitalization of well over $100 billion. What makes Dell Computer unique is not what it sells, but rather how it sells it. Dell was first in the PC industry to pioneer the direct-selling model, a method that competitors such as Compaq and Apple Computer are only now starting to embrace. By cutting out the intermediary and creating a direct link between manufacturer and customer, Dell was able to provide customers with computers that cost less and that were more apt to meet customer needs.

Direct from Dell is organized into two parts. The first recounts the history and the enormous growth of Dell Computer. The second part focuses on Dell's management approach, from developing customer focus to creating alliances with suppliers. The book manages to avoid most of the promotional and self-congratulatory air that seem to plague so many first-person CEO tomes. Anyone who has followed the PC industry or would like insight into Dell Computer's success should enjoy reading this book. Well written and easy to read. Recommended. --Harry C. Edwards...

Authors: Marc Hanlan.
Hardcover, 328 pages
Publisher: Praeger Publishers
Publication Date: 2004-10-30


Reviews :

    A popular maxim states that the only constant in business today is change. Whether the result of growth opportunities, new competition, technological advances or other internal and external factors, every business enterprise must manage change. Since the 1980s companies have experimented with a method for driving change--High Performance Teams (HPTs), work teams that achieve a quantum leap in results in less than a year. Drawing from over 25 years of experience with HPTs, Marc Hanlan traces their history in a wide variety of industries, analyzes the key factors that contribute to success--or failure--and offers a comprehensive guide to building and managing them successfully. Featuring dozens of case examples and a detailed template for translating plans into action, High Performance Teams shows you how to: prepare the organization, select team leaders and members, set goals, accelerate development times, overcome obstacles, and measure results. Including an extensive bibliography and glossary of key terms and concepts, High Performance Teams will become an indispensable resource for business executives and owners, team leaders and members, and facilitators, trainers, consultants, and coaches. For shareholders, customers, and students of organizational behavior, High Performance Teams offers unique insight into the dynamics of breakthrough business performance....

Authors: Marty Neumeier.
Paperback, 192 pages
Publisher: New Riders Press
Publication Date: 2003-01-24
Edition: 1st

Reviews :

   

THE BRAND GAP is the first book to present a unified theory of brand. Whereas most books on branding are weighted toward either a strategic or creative approach, this book shows how both ways of thinking can unite to produce a “charismatic brand”—a brand that customers feel is essential to their lives. In an entertaining two-hour read you’ll learn:
• a new definition of brand

• the five essential disciplines of brand-building
• how branding is changing the dynamics of competition
• the three most powerful questions to ask about any brand
• why collaboration is the key to brand-building
• how design determines a customer’s experience
• how to test brand concepts quickly and cheaply
• the importance of managing brands from the inside

Also see: THE BRAND GAP second edition, which includes a 220-term brand glossary and premium softcover binding.

FROM THE BACK COVER

Not since McLuhan's THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE has a book compressed so many ideas into so few pages. Using the visual language of the boardroom, Neumeier presents the first unified theory of branding -- a set of five disciplines to help companies bridge the gap between brand strategy and brand execution. Those with a grasp of branding will be inspired by what they find here, and those who would like to understand it better will suddenly "get it." This deceptively simple book offers everyone in the company access to "the most powerful business tool since the spreadsheet."

"Finally, a book that cuts to the heart of what brand is all about -- connecting the rational and the emotional, the theoretical and the practical, the logical and the magical to create a sustainable competitive advantage. Everyone in the company should read this book, not just the three people with 'brand' in their titles." --Susan Rockrise, Worldwide Creative Director, Intel

"A pleasure to read. THE BRAND GAP consistently provides deep, practical insights in a light, visual way. Discover the power of imagery and the role of research in building a heavy-duty brand -- without the heavy-duty reading." --David Aaker, Author of "Brand Leadership" and "Building Strong Brands"

"Neumeier stands out among brand-savvy professionals. His experience as a designer, writer, and strategist lends realism to his five disciplines of brand-building. Anyone who needs a deeper understanding of the creation, management, and evolution of brands should grab this book with both hands and start reading." --Patrick Fricke, Manager of Print and New Media Design, Kodak

"This is not just another book on brand. This is the only book you'll need to read in business, engineering, and design school." --Clement Mok, Design enterprenuer/President of AIGA

"THE BRAND GAP is an original. It describes the full range of creative interdependencies that need to be managed in concert, but in a language so plain, crisp, and simple that you suddenly 'see' the concept of brand--and can act boldly on it." --Peter Van Naarden, Director of Global Brand for Hewlett-Packard Co.

"THE BRAND GAP couldn't be more timely. Just when we're at our most skeptical about corporate motives, along comes a book that shows how to evaluate and develop a brand in a straightforward and honest manner." --David Stuart, Brand Designer and Co-Founder of The Partners, London

"This is an important work, with just the right level of accessibility. Despite our overexposure to brand theory these days, THE BRAND GAP is the first book that seems fresh and relevant." --Richard Grefe, Executive Director, The American Institute of Graphic Arts

"A well-managed brand is the lifeblood of any successful company--and Neumeier shows us exactly how to do it. Read this book before your competitors do!" --Tom Kelley, General Manager of Ideo/Author of "The Art of Innovation"

...

Authors: Michael Michalko.
Hardcover, 308 pages
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Publication Date: 1998-07


Reviews :

    In this trailblazing book, internationally renowned business creativity expert Michael Michalko analyzes over 100 of history's greatest thinkers to show how creative people think and how to put their secrets to use. It's no wonder that Entrepreneur magazine lauded "Cracking Creativity" as "required reading for anyone in business." Packed with exercises and strategies for stimulating creativity, this book will revolutionize the way you think and open up a world of solutions to everyday challenges....