Product Description

SWOTed by strategy models? Crunched by analysis? Strategy doesn't have to be this way. Strategy is really all about being different. Thinking about it shouldn't make you reach for the snooze button, but in the world of strategy everybody has become so serious. If that gets us better strategies, fine. But it doesn't; we get worse ones--predictable, generic, uninspiring, dull. Strategy doesn't only have to position; it also has to inspire. So an uninspiring strategy is really no strategy at all. The most interesting and most successful companies are not boring. They have novel, creative, inspiring, sometimes even playful strategies. By taking the whole strategy business less seriously, they end up with more serious results--and have some fun in the bargain. Strategy Bites Back invites you to encounter a diverse and unlikely set of voices with something sharp to say about strategy --- from Michael Porter and Peter Drucker to Coco Channel's "little black dress". Taken together these perspectives will provide you with new and dramatically different angles from which to attack the world of strategy. * Strategy as the Little Black Dress * Forecasting Whoops * Management and Magic * The Soft Underbelly of Hard Data * Jack Welch on Planning * The Seven Deadly Sins of Strategic Planning * Strategy from the Grassroots * Strategy One Step at a Time * Strategy and the Art of Seduction * and many more antidotes to dull strategy making and blunt business strategies. This book is for everyone involved with strategy -- manager, CEO, consultant, professor, student -- who wants to see strategy more broadly, more deeply and more playfully. Strategy with a difference starts here, and why not have a good time reading a strategy book for a change?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #145539 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Review
"Henry Mintzberg's views are a breath of fresh air which can only encourage the good guys." The Observer "One of the most original minds in management." Fast Company A refreshing antidote to the footnote-laden tomes that usually make up the field. Meaty enough to be serious yet also pleasantly entertaining Harvard Business School, Working Knowledge "This is a naughty book, a really cheeky little brat of a book which ought to be spanked soundly and sent to bed without any supper. Except that, if you did that, you would be missing out on a delightful, entertaining smorgasbord of advice, insights, red herrings and jokes that together make up a classic text for business leaders." Business Voice Director 2005 a fun read A tasty smorgasbord of writings on strategy' Guardian, 2005 a mine full of nuggets' The Edge, 2005 If you think strategy is boring and best avoided, think again. Strategy Bites Back will not only change your view on strategy, it will inspire and challenge you too ..The authors offer some excellent insights This true gem of a book should sit proudly on any strategist's bookshelf.'

Review

From the Back Cover

Customer Reviews

Pure Genius!
This is pure genius at work. I bow my head in awe. This is not recommended reading, this is the kind of book you MUST read if you're into strategy. Cut down on Porter, Kay, Drucker, etc., and read this instead! After reading this, you can re-visit the old schools and see the world in a different light. In short, I am ecstatic. You'll pry this book from my dead hands (if you can get it away from me even then...).

Read it, or you'll miss a very funny book (if you don't laugh out load a number of times, you lack all sense of humour) as well as a very thought-provoking book with a very important message, which even manages to make strategy fun (you'll understand more after having read the book). Together with Strategy Safari (by the same authors) and Johnson & Scholes books, this should be enough to get anyone to understand and work with strategy.

This has to be one of this decades most important/influential books, so I'll recommend it warmly.

Were Going To Need A Bigger Boat
Just about every book on strategy, or for that matter, every strategy meeting I have ever attended, has been a bit dry to boring. With all this dull talk you usually get a strategy that is less the inspired, more standard and generic then anything else. The authors state that the most successful and interesting companies they know are not boring places, but dynamic and fast moving places. They have novel, creative and inspiring strategies. So the authors believe that we should have fun in creating strategy and in the bargain we will get a better outcome.

The authors spend a good deal of time putting examples into each of the chapters so that the reader can better understand the particular section. They also toss in any number of interesting and many times humorous, extra bits of info to help you not take yourself too seriously. They highlight the people and ideas they believe are worth reviewing, but they do not hold out any one to be the end all be all. Overall the book was fast paced and enjoyable. They took all the pain out of the topic and gave the reader a book that was exciting to open up. They give you solid and beneficial ideas that can be used on any size project or business unit. The book is well worth the time.

Good source
This book is a source of other works about strategy. The book has a balance between Theory and Practice. The theory is well covered by some star authors in the field of strategy. In the other side, some news and interviews are the sample of practice of strategy in business. Im still prefer the Strategy Safari, but this book is still valuable.