Strategic Management

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding strategy book for general managers
Review: As a practicing general manager, I found this book to be one of the most useful I have read on the subject of strategic management. The text is clearly written and illustrated with numerous current examples. Unlike many other books on strategy, this one does an excellent job of integrating internal organizational issues with considerations of market competition. Most importantly for me, perhaps, is that the treatment of how strategy is actually carried out in large organizations rings true, giving me a high level of comfort with the relevance of the material. The book gave me numerous strategic insights and left me with a much improved integrated framework of strategy. I highly recommend it to any general manager wishing to improve his strategic thinking.

Rating:
Summary: Wow! Great MBA text!
Review: I read this while in my MBA program and loved it. It gives a great overview of strategy, but also integrates a lot of what I had learned in economics, OB, competitive strategy, entrepreneurship, and international management! Great chapters on organization, industry analysis, demand-side increasing returns, and strategy process. I found the new frameworks for industry analysis and analyzing organizations very useful.

Rating:
Summary: Pompous disappointment...
Review: I really wanted to give this text a fair shake...I really did (and believe I am). However, the whole problem I had with it began in the first chapter, and five later, I'm simply disgusted. I'm an MBA student and along with classes in Import/Export and International Business Law, this is my last prior to graduation. In other words, this is the last of a multitude of texts I've read over the last six years of business study so I do have a clue. I also am graduate level in three languages other than English (and they are not my native tongue), so I'm well read overall...
Anyway, I immediately noticed as did another reviewer here, that this material is comprised of basic business concepts, but the twist lies in the fact that every simple concept was made into something extraordinary through use of flowery language. I've felt that every simple aspect of business design, structure and operation is developed into some enormously complex "concept" and the more I read, the more I am insulted. The text takes very simple examples of what an overall operation within the world of business might be comprised, and makes them difficult to understand and boring. I read a chapter, awake, read it again and mumble "so tell me something new...tell me something I don't know..." If you cannot improve upon the wheel, why try to reinvent it? I'm really sorry guys, but this is a miserable work. Don't take it too personally. I'm sure that people who want to sit around smoking fat cigars and talking about business "concepts" will surely be impressed, but I am a student who wants real-world advice about running real businesses. This is fluff pure and simple and presents nothing new in management strategy aside from other ways to word simple ideas. Perhaps my education has been so progressive that this is all old hat and so, my problem...I think not. Better luck with the second edition. Hope I haven't bruised any egos, but for the price of texts today, I want to learn something. If a professor falls short, this text is all a student has to fall back on for his time, effort and money.

Rating:
Summary: Pompous disappointment...
Review: I really wanted to give this text a fair shake...I really did (and believe I am). However, the whole problem I had with it began in the first chapter, and five later, I'm simply disgusted. I'm an MBA student and along with classes in Import/Export and International Business Law, this is my last prior to graduation. In other words, this is the last of a multitude of texts I've read over the last six years of business study so I do have a clue. I also am graduate level in three languages other than English (and they are not my native tongue), so I'm well read overall...
Anyway, I immediately noticed as did another reviewer here, that this material is comprised of basic business concepts, but the twist lies in the fact that every simple concept was made into something extraordinary through use of flowery language. I've felt that every simple aspect of business design, structure and operation is developed into some enormously complex "concept" and the more I read, the more I am insulted. The text takes very simple examples of what an overall operation within the world of business might be comprised, and makes them difficult to understand and boring. I read a chapter, awake, read it again and mumble "so tell me something new...tell me something I don't know..." If you cannot improve upon the wheel, why try to reinvent it? I'm really sorry guys, but this is a miserable work. Don't take it too personally. I'm sure that people who want to sit around smoking fat cigars and talking about business "concepts" will surely be impressed, but I am a student who wants real-world advice about running real businesses. This is fluff pure and simple and presents nothing new in management strategy aside from other ways to word simple ideas. Perhaps my education has been so progressive that this is all old hat and so, my problem...I think not. Better luck with the second edition. Hope I haven't bruised any egos, but for the price of texts today, I want to learn something. If a professor falls short, this text is all a student has to fall back on for his time, effort and money.

Rating:
Summary: Not the best book for self-learnig
Review: In my case, I was looking for a good book on the subject in order to learn by myself, so I found this book. The result was totally disappointing, if you aren't taking a course based on this textbook I'd recommend to look anywhere else. The book and the software included are designed as a student's material for a formal class.

The content of the book is really wordy and boring however, the cases are interesting and the learning center is an excellent resource for practicing. I think that the results you'll get from this book will depend completely on your teacher's skills to translate the concepts in a more simple way.

I'd recommend "Gaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage" by Jay B. Barney if you want to learn out from the classroom.

Rating:
Summary: Strategic Management
by Garth Saloner
Review: Strategic Management by Garth Saloner is written for current and future general managers who have or will have overall responsibility for a business. The writing is jargon free and easy to comprehend. 5/5.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Textbook in Strategy
Review: The book is crystal clear. The structures of the book was developed in a brilliant manner. It describes all relevant issues simply but with enough depth. It covers strategy from all relevant viewpoints as OT, IO. It even adds a final chapter on process. This last chapter is a fine summary of the advances in strategy-making process developed in recent years. I would recommend this book as must in any strategy course at undergraduate and MBA levels.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Strategic Management Book I Have Read
Review: This is a book on strategic management written by three leading scholars at the Stanford Business School. I was therefore not surprised that the book has the latest academic concepts, nor that there are many current examples drawn from high-tech and electronic commerce. What did surprise me is how relevant the concepts are to my own company and industry which is a manufacturing firm in a fairly old-fashioned industry, and how balanced the examples are between the "old economy" and "new economy".

This is definitely a thinking person's book. You can get a lot out of it by going through it once fairly superficially. But what I like is that I keep get more out of it when I go back to any chapter and read it more carefully. The authors have simplified but clearly a lot of thought has gone into each paragraph so that if you read it with care you pick up the nuances.

The book balances consideration of factors internal to the firm (with a very nice treatment of what the authors call "ARC" - architecture, routines, and culture) and external factors. There is also a good, practical treatment of how strategy should be done, written by people who obviously have seen the process at work.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed with level of text
Review: This is a new textbook in the crowded field of business strategy texts. I had high hopes for a book authored by three excellent faculty members from Stanford's Graduate School of Business. The topic coverage is well targeted and includes such process issues as managing strategic change, aligning incentives, and the managers' roles in implementation. Unfortunately, most of the concepts derived from economics are illustrated with examples straight from an introductory undergraduate text in microeconomic principles. I would be embarrassed to use this book with my undergraduate strategy students or with my executive education seminars.

Rating:
Summary: Great Overview of Strategic Management
Review: This is a very accessible introduction to strategic management. The book has very good coverage, is current, and has lots of examples to illustrate the concepts. Easily one of the best management books I have read in a while. It can be approached at multiple levels. You can browse through for the main concepts, but it also has lots to make you really think about if you want. You won't regret buying it!