Lords of Strategy

Lords of Strategy
Author: Walter Kiechel
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2010-03-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1422157318

Imagine, if you can, the world of business - without corporate strategy. Remarkably, fifty years ago that's the way it was. Businesses made plans, certainly, but without understanding the underlying dynamics of competition, costs, and customers. It was like trying to design a large-scale engineering project without knowing the laws of physics. But in the 1960s, four mavericks and their posses instigated a profound shift in thinking that turbocharged business as never before, with implications far beyond what even they imagined. In The Lords of Strategy, renowned business journalist and editor Walter Kiechel tells, for the first time, the story of the four men who invented corporate strategy as we know it and set in motion the modern, multibillion-dollar consulting industry: Bruce Henderson, founder of Boston Consulting Group Bill Bain, creator of Bain & Company Fred Gluck, longtime Managing Director of McKinsey & Company Michael Porter, Harvard Business School professor Providing a window into how to think about strategy today, Kiechel tells their story with novelistic flair. At times inspiring, at times nearly terrifying, this book is a revealing account of how these iconoclasts and the organizations they led revolutionized the way we think about business, changed the very soul of the corporation, and transformed the way we work.

The Lords of Strategy

The Lords of Strategy
Author: Walter Kiechel
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1591397820

Journalist and editor Walter Kiechel recounts the birth and evolution of strategy, arguably the most influential business paradigm of the past half century and the trials and triumphs of the disruptors who invented it.

Good Strategy Bad Strategy

Good Strategy Bad Strategy
Author: Richard Rumelt
Publisher: Currency
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2011-07-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0307886239

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world. Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” In Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” He introduces nine sources of power—ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth—that are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can easily be put to work on Monday morning, and uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007–08 financial crisis. Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.

Lords of Magic

Lords of Magic
Author: Joe Grant Bell
Publisher: Prima Games
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1997
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 9780761511472

Designed from the beginning with multiple players in mind, Lords of Magic, the sequel to the highly acclaimed Lords of Realm II, supports up to four players over an IPX Network or two-player head-to-head battles via modem. With the help of this guide, gamers will master 11 battle tactics, lizards, and dark sorcery players.

The Firm

The Firm
Author: Duff McDonald
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2014-09-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1439190984

Star financial journalist Duff McDonald uncovers how the managing consulting firm of McKinsey & Company and its high-powered, high-priced business savants have ushered in waves of structural, financial, and technological shifts to the biggest and best American organizations, revealing a list of world-shaping successes and striking failures.

Myth

Myth
Author: Bart Farkas
Publisher: San Francisco : Sybex
Total Pages: 294
Release: 1998
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 9780782121407

This is the only authorized guide to Myth, to be published "day-and-date" with the game. Written with the full support of Bungie Software, this book contains in-depth strategies and tactics for every mission, behind-the-scenes information, original art from the game, and tips for multiplayer gaming and customization.

Winning Westeros

Winning Westeros
Author: Max Brooks
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2019-09-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1640122389

Set in the fictitious world of Westeros, the hit television series Game of Thrones chronicles the bitter and violent struggle between the realm’s noble dynasties for control of the Seven Kingdoms. But this beloved fantasy drama has just as much to say about the successful strategies and real-life warfare waged in our own time and place. Winning Westeros brings together more than thirty of today’s top military and strategic experts, including generals and admirals, policy advisors, counterinsurgency tacticians, science fiction and fantasy writers, and ground?level military officers, to explain the strategy and art of war by way of the Game of Thrones saga. Each chapter of Winning Westeros provides a relatable, outside?the?box way to simplify and clarify the complexities of modern military conflict. A chapter on the doomed butcher’s boy whom Arya Stark befriends by World War Z author Max Brooks poignantly reminds us of the cruel fate that civilians face during times of war. Another chapter on Jaqen H’ghar and the faceless men of Bravos explores the pivotal roles that stealth and intelligence play in battle. Whether considering the diplomatic prowess of Tyrion Lannister, the defiant leadership style of Daenerys Targaryen, the Battle of the Bastards and the importance of reserves, Brienne of Tarth and the increased role of women in combat, or dragons as weapons of mass destruction, Winning Westeros gives fans of Game of Thrones and aspiring military minds alike an inspiring and entertaining means of understanding the many facets of modern warfare. It is a book as captivating and enthralling as Game of Thrones itself.

How Companies Win

How Companies Win
Author: Rick Kash
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2010-10-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0062029452

In a world of contracting markets and diminished consumer demand, The Cambridge Group founder Rick Kash and Nielsen Company CEO David Calhoun show companies how to find new customers and bigger profits. How Companies Win makes The Cambridge Group’s proprietary demand model—a strategy which multi-million dollar corporations pay premium rates to access—available to the general public for the first time. Taking the reigns from Larry Bossidy’s Execution, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne’s Blue Ocean Strategy, and Kash’s own The New Law of Demand and Supply, this is a must-have for succeeding in business in the twenty-first century.

The Essential Advantage

The Essential Advantage
Author: Paul Leinwand
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2011
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1422136515

Conventional wisdom on strategy is no longer a reliable guide. In Essential Advantage, Booz & Company's Cesare Mainardi and Paul Leinwand maintain that success in any market accrues to firms with coherence: a tight match between their strategic direction and the capabilities that make them unique. Achieving this clarity takes a sharpness of focus that only exceptional companies have mastered. This book helps you identify your firm's blend of strategic direction and distinctive capabilities that give it the "right to win" in its chosen markets. Based on extensive research and filled with company examples--including Amazon.com, Johnson & Johnson, Tata Sons, and Procter & Gamble--Essential Advantage helps you construct a coherent company in which the pieces reinforce each other instead of working at cross-purposes. The authors reveal: · Why you should focus on a system of a few aligned capabilities · How to identify the "way to play" in your market · How to design a strategy for well-modulated growth · How to align a portfolio of businesses behind your capability system · How your strategy clarifies growth, costs, and people decisions Few companies achieve a capability-driven "right to win" in their market. This book helps you position your firm to be among them.

The PR Masterclass

The PR Masterclass
Author: Alex Singleton
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2014-02-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1118756231

The PR Masterclass is written by former newspaper, magazine and digital journalist Alex Singleton, who is now a prominent PR trainer and consultant. It reveals the secrets of effective PR and shows how to put in place a practical, reliable and successful media strategy for your product, business or activity – one that delivers the greatest results. Through the book, you get to discover how to develop and pitch effective newsworthy material, regardless of your budget. The PR Masterclass is aimed at PR professionals as well as small business owners and entrepreneurs implementing a PR strategy. "PR can do more for your money than any other marketing tool. But very few people understand how to use it. Alex does because he has been at the receiving end. So will you if you read this remarkably practical book." —Drayton Bird, author, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing "The lessons contained within The PR Masterclass should be plastered over the walls of organisations seeking to utilise the media effectively for their campaigns. This book is a must-have reference point." —Ryan Bourne, CityAM columnist and Head of Economic Research, Centre for Policy Studies "This is an important book about public relations and how the media is changing. Singleton is a straight-talking journalist-turned-practitioner who pulls no punches. He calls on the industry to grow up and adopt the rigour of a professional discipline. It's a call to action that I wholly heartedly support. You should read The PR Masterclass if you're new to public relations or work in the profession and want to continue doing so." —Stephen Waddington, European director, Ketchum, and 2014 President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) "Provides all you need to know about securing press coverage." —Fraser Seitel, O'Dwyer's PR magazine "Every page is packed with insight and practical advice." —Steve Harrison, co-founder, Harrison Troughton Wunderman "Written in a no-nonsense style, every chapter contains a mine of information about the subject. What's more, it's clear that Alex knows the business inside out. This is the kind of book you need to have close at hand. Do what it says, and you'll be miles ahead with your PR." —James Hammond, brand consultant "Alex Singleton's book on public relations strategy is an excellent practical guide to the real world of PR." —Ray Hiebert, Editor, Public Relations Review