Strategy Bites Back: It Is Far More, and Less, than You Ever Imagined (paperback)

Product Author Bios

Henry Mintzberg normally bites back on issues of management, organization, and corporate social irresponsibility (i.e., shareholder value), as well as management education and strategy. (Managers not MBAs, with Berrett-Koehler in the U.S. and Financial Times-Prentice Hall in Europe was his last book.) He managed to get a Ph.D. degree in management at MIT and has slipped about 130 articles past unsuspecting editors. He is the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University.

Bruce Ahlstrand likes to prospect for strategy gems in unlikely places, from the game of Texas Hold'em to the Greek tragedies. He is devoted to developing new and creative ways of teaching business strategy and has never met a case study that he liked. He has a Doctorate from Oxford University and an M.Sc. degree from the London School of Economics. He is a professor of management at Trent University in Ontario, Canada.

Joseph Lampel began his career believing that strategy is the answer but has recently concluded that it might be the answer to the wrong question. Joe was awarded a Ph.D. degree in management by McGill University for good behavior. He subsequently spent seven years at Stern School, NYU, trying to break into show business. He resides at Cass Business School, City University London, an institution that happily accommodates his quest to find the answer to strategy's unanswerable questions.

Henry, Bruce, and Joe are also the authors of the best-selling Strategy Safari

(Financial Times-Prentice Hall).

Table of Contents

Introduction.

1. What's in a Word.

    Introduction.

    What's in a Buzzword?

    "Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Mo..."

    What Is Strategy?

    Five Ps for Strategy.

    Beware of Strategy.

    Are Strategies Real Things?

2. Swoted by Strategy.

    Introduction.

    The Other Tower of Babel.

    Strategy as a "Little Black Dress".

    The CEO as Strategist.

    The Manager as Orchestra.

    The Tortoise and the Hare: A Fable for Senior Executives.

    Jack's Turn.

3. Strategy Carefully.

    Introduction.

    The Revolution in Strategic Planning.

    Jack Welch on Planning.

    The Seven Deadly Sins of Planning.

    Planning in Case.

    Forecasting: Whoops!

    Plans in Case You Are Stuck.

    The Creaetion.

    How to Plan a Strategy.

    Speech at the Second Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (November 15, 1956).

    Planning and Flexibility.

    Management and Magic.

4. Figuring Strategy.

    Introduction.

    Launching Strategy.

    Positioning the Derriere: Tooilet Nirvana.

    The Soft Underbelly of Hard Data.

    The Glory of Numbers.

    Reversing the Images of BCG's Growth/Share Matrix.

5. A Vision of Strategy.

    Introduction.

    To See or Not to See.

    Imaging Strategy.

    Strategic Thinking as "Seeing".

    Seeing a Symphony.

    The Problem with Problems.

    "Marketing Myopia" Myopia.

    Recognizing the CEO as Artist.

    Reflections of an Entrepreneur.

    Entrepreneurship and Planning.

    Managing Quietly.

    What My Mother Taught Me About Strategy.

6. Inside the Strategist's Head.

    Introduction.

    Biases and Limitations of Judgment: Humans.

    Biases and Limitations of Judgment: Animals.

    Everything I Need to Know About Strategy I Learned at the National Zoo.

    The Man VS. the Machine.

    Think Like a Grandmaster.

    The Emperor's New Suit.

    Management Expert Gary Hamel Talks with Enron's Ken Lay About What It's Like to Launch a New Strategy in the Real World.

7. Strategy a Step at a Time.

    Introduction.

    Good Managers Don't Make Policy Decisions.

    Backing into a Brilliant Strategy: Reports on Honda.

    Ruminations on Honda.

    Bees and Flies Making Strategy.

    Growing Strategies: Two Ways.

    Strategies That Learn.

    Strategy Up and Down.

    Strategy Is Destiny.

    Talk the Walk.

    How to Fight the Strategic Wars.

    Looking a Few Steps Back.

    The Calf Path.

8. Strategy with the Gloves Off and the Halo On.

    Introduction.

    Chess in the Real World.

    Bees in the Real World.

    Laws of Power.

    Planning as Public Relations.

    Brinkmanship in Business.

    Strategy and the Art of Seduction.

    Strategy Is Culture Is Strategy.

    Five Easy Steps to Destroying a Rich Culture (Any One Will Do).

    How Destructive Cultures Develop.

9. Final Food for Thought.

    Introduction.

    Be Your Body's Boss.

    Recipes for cooking Strategy.

Index.