Rating: 
Summary: 1% Inspiration; 99% McKinsey
Review: Ohmae wrote this before he left McKinsey, which was before he was passed over for Fred Gluck's job as Chairman of McKinsey, and also before Ohmae got seriously into Japanese reform politics. According to the bio. on the back, it was back when the author felt compelled to let us know how well-rounded he was, as both a motorcyclist and a clarinetist. This might be mistaken for typical consulting firm know-it-all hubris, but that would be unfair to Ohmae. There is an atypical humility and reach to his writing, which may be rooted in his Japanese background. Friends of mine with whom I have discussed it say this book is turgid and overblown. I disagree. It's well worth reading. Main Points: This book has three (3) main points: 1. The Art of Strategic Thinking is a "combination of analytical method and mental elasticity" (35) and it can be learned. It certainly doesn't just happen. What usually does just happen in any organization is "strategic stagnation." (5) This book's goal is to help develop the "mentality" required to come up with "superior strategic ideas." (5) 2. Modern Strategic Realities have not changed the classic success formula of 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. Creativity works within constraints, and require certain conditions. These must be understood to make an idea work. 3. Building Successful Strategies. Implementing strategic progress (a decidedly Western notion ) calls for a company strategy to organize something real (and of course to make money). This has to exist within a "strategic triangle" of 1) the company itself; 2) customers; and 3) competitors. All is "Strategy." Ohmae's case examples are interesting and refreshingly un-worshipful. His discussion of key factors for success, and strategies for dealing with competitors are also very well done. The issue is always this: Do these books help you take decisive action? Or do they just furnish you with a vocabulary to retrospectively apply to the decisive action you took anyway? How this issue is resolved may be a function of how capable you are as the reader of this book, in some realm outside merely reading books. So success could be reinterpreted as 1% listening to Ohmae, and 99% taking some action on it. Ohmae's other book I have read, The Borderless World, is not as solid as this one, but also reads a lot faster.
Rating: 
Summary: The Strategic Perspective Applied Profitably to Business
Review: Professor Ohmae has created one of the most balanced and useful perspectives ever in this outstanding book on business strategy. Anyone who wants to improve their strategy would do well to read and apply the lessons in The Mind of the Strategist. I have over 30 years of experience with strategic thinking as a consultant and planner. I constantly find that people in the same organization have totally different concepts of what strategy is all about. Each perspective tends to be either too focused in one area (like competition), or incomplete in some aspects (like ignoring the effect of compensation to focus strategic intent). As a result, people "logically" arrive at some pretty bad strategic conclusions. Typically, this involves a strategy that the organization cannot execute well or which the competitors will quickly negate. What I like about this simple book is that it nicely summarizes the case for a balanced perspective involving your customers, competitors and your own company. Although most American companies will believe that they already do this, the American approach is usually much more superficial and incomplete than the Japanese one. For example, if a Japanese company wants to add a new product, the evaluation looks heavily at how well the customer will be able to use the product and how effectively the company will be able to provide it in the context of probable competitive offerings. An American analysis will feature financial analysis of a forecast that is often based on little more than spreadsheet doodling. The development of the Sony PlayStation as described in Revolutionaries at Sony will help you see this point. The weakness of the Japanese model is that it typically looks too little at the business environment (notice how often Japanese companies buy American businesses and properties at the top of the market for inflated prices), and are relatively insensitive to financial implications. In fast moving technology markets, the Japanese consensus-building process also tends to slow down time to market. That is what makes the Sony success mentioned above so interesting. Clearly, there is no perfect model for strategic thinking that fits all situations. A major weakness of many efforts is to assume that the future can be precisely forecast. That is patently wrong. Typically, the relative importance of the elements considered needs to be adjusted to fit the circumstnace. That seems to be an art rather than a science at this point. You may enjoy The Art of the Long View on this point. Although this book has its limitations (as suggested above), it is a valuable perspective on strategy thinking that will be helpful to most American business people if they think about the concepts in a more thorough way. To balance the perspective here, I suggest you also read Profit Patterns to get a sense of how surrounding circumstances play a role in profitability. Good thinking! May this book help you overcome any stalled thinking you have about not doing your home work in thinking about outperforming competitors to provide benefits that matter a lot to customers. May you enjoy irresistible growth!
Rating:
Summary: The Strategic Perspective Applied Profitably to Business
Review: Professor Ohmae has created one of the most balanced and useful perspectives ever in this outstanding book on business strategy. Anyone who wants to improve their strategy would do well to read and apply the lessons in The Mind of the Strategist. I have over 30 years of experience with strategic thinking as a consultant and planner. I constantly find that people in the same organization have totally different concepts of what strategy is all about. Each perspective tends to be either too focused in one area (like competition), or incomplete in some aspects (like ignoring the effect of compensation to focus strategic intent). As a result, people "logically" arrive at some pretty bad strategic conclusions. Typically, this involves a strategy that the organization cannot execute well or which the competitors will quickly negate. What I like about this simple book is that it nicely summarizes the case for a balanced perspective involving your customers, competitors and your own company. Although most American companies will believe that they already do this, the American approach is usually much more superficial and incomplete than the Japanese one. For example, if a Japanese company wants to add a new product, the evaluation looks heavily at how well the customer will be able to use the product and how effectively the company will be able to provide it in the context of probable competitive offerings. An American analysis will feature financial analysis of a forecast that is often based on little more than spreadsheet doodling. The development of the Sony PlayStation as described in Revolutionaries at Sony will help you see this point. The weakness of the Japanese model is that it typically looks too little at the business environment (notice how often Japanese companies buy American businesses and properties at the top of the market for inflated prices), and are relatively insensitive to financial implications. In fast moving technology markets, the Japanese consensus-building process also tends to slow down time to market. That is what makes the Sony success mentioned above so interesting. Clearly, there is no perfect model for strategic thinking that fits all situations. A major weakness of many efforts is to assume that the future can be precisely forecast. That is patently wrong. Typically, the relative importance of the elements considered needs to be adjusted to fit the circumstnace. That seems to be an art rather than a science at this point. You may enjoy The Art of the Long View on this point. Although this book has its limitations (as suggested above), it is a valuable perspective on strategy thinking that will be helpful to most American business people if they think about the concepts in a more thorough way. To balance the perspective here, I suggest you also read Profit Patterns to get a sense of how surrounding circumstances play a role in profitability. Good thinking! May this book help you overcome any stalled thinking you have about not doing your home work in thinking about outperforming competitors to provide benefits that matter a lot to customers. May you enjoy irresistible growth!
Rating: 
Summary: A good insight but could have contributed more
Review: The author has been successful in giving readers an insight into what makes the Japanese tick from a cultural, economic and industrial perspective. The major shortfall however, is that book seems to suggest that the Japanese model is the benchmark for many western businesses to emulate. My feeling is that the book could have contributed more by hypothesising a model that embeds the strengths of both Japanese and Western models to achieve optimum outcomes. After all, continous improvement strategies that many Japanese businesses embrace are hardly drivers for major technological break-throughs. Conversely, many US-based companies are excellent at large-scale investment in major R & D programs (and subsequent patenting) that secure long-term competitive advantage.
Rating:
Summary: The Mind of the Strategist
Review: The best business book I ever read, bar none. This book clearly and succinctly presents issues pertaining to the very core of business building activity. After this, it's all details.
Rating:
Summary: Refreshing Perspective on Strategy
Review: The book provides a refreshing perspective on Strategy, the focus is on the way a good strategist would think, rather than the model or methodology that he/she would use. The discussion about strategy is carried out by Ohmae in a humane manner, which makes the book both an inspiring and enjoyable read.
Rating:
Summary: A must read for anyone interested in Strategy
Review: This book is one of the sharpest insights into strategy thinking. Its chapter about strategy types is one of those classics readings at the same lavel than others like "marketing myopia". Others chapters have suffered from the time elapsed (almost 20 years) but its way of thinking into the prospective future is still quite interesting even if some forescasts have not been succeeded. Ohmae also states about the "Japanise way of thinking and working" which is currently out of date as well as many of his examples. Nevertheless, it is worth to keep in mind this business philosophy since part of its learning is being forgetting nowdays and we will suffer from it.
Rating:
Summary: A must read for anyone interested in Strategy
Review: This book is one of the sharpest insights into strategy thinking. Its chapter about strategy types is one of those classics readings at the same lavel than others like "marketing myopia". Others chapters have suffered from the time elapsed (almost 20 years) but its way of thinking into the prospective future is still quite interesting even if some forescasts have not been succeeded. Ohmae also states about the "Japanise way of thinking and working" which is currently out of date as well as many of his examples. Nevertheless, it is worth to keep in mind this business philosophy since part of its learning is being forgetting nowdays and we will suffer from it.
Rating: 
Summary: Outdated Metamorphosized Western Frameworks
Review: This book smells of an engineer turned management consultant. The author has a fettish for paradigm overkill. Sadly, his ideas leave you wonderding, "haven't I seen that somewhere before."
Rating:
Summary: Packed with Knowledge!
Review: This book, first published in Japan in 1975, is a somewhat dated classic, since the first edition appeared at the high water mark of Japanese competitiveness. Japan's economic doldrums since 1990 probably ensure that few business people will emulate it now. In a way, the fact that the bloom is off Japan's chrysanthemum makes this book more useful and relevant than it was a quarter-century ago. Now that people aren't starry-eyed about Japan, it's possible to sort through the recommendations, take them with a grain of salt and find their deeper usefulness. The author is a famous McKinsey consultant, so the book is packed with charts and jargon. Ignore the jargon, the obsolete observations about how U.S. companies organize themselves and the anachronisms about Soviet-style central planning, now a relic. Focus instead on the examples and asides. We also note that this is a must-read for anyone working in Japan or competing against Japanese companies, if only because so many Japanese managers give it to their new hires as part of their training programs.
| 
