Simply Strategy

Simply Strategy

The shortest route to the best strategy

Richard Koch, Peter Nieuwenhuizen

Nov 2006, Paperback, 232 pages
ISBN13: 9780273708780
ISBN10: 0273708783
£19.99
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Are you responsible for devising the strategy for your business unit? Want to make sure you have a smart, achievable and effective strategy but not sure where to start? This book gives you strategy in a nutshell. Everything you need to know to assess your business unit and build an effective strategy for future profitability is here. The core of the book is a step-by-step guide to strategy that coaches the reader through key questions such as:

* How do you increase profits quickly?

* Who are we and what do we do?

* How good is your competitive position?

* Is this a good industry to be in?

* What do your customers think?

* How do you organize and realize your new strategy?

There is no wallowing around in abstract theory: this is a highly practical guide to developing real strategy. Two business cases, with all the complicated nitty gritty of the real world, are threaded through the text to bring the concepts and techniques discussed to life. The first follows the voyage of strategy development and discovery taken by a large American tea company; the second describes a globally operating manufacturing business which carries out a so-called 'bottom-up' business analysis.

To further enhance the book's application potential, it can be used in conjunction with a specially-developed and customisable software that allows you to generate information and graphs from your own business data - samples of this are available free to readers on the book's companion website.

Foreword

Authors' acknowledgements

Publishers' acknowledgements

Part 1. Introduction

Part 2. Business Strategy

1 Overview

2 What businesses are you in?

3 Where do you make the money?

4 How good are your competitive positions?

5 What skills and capabilities underpin your success?

6 Is this a good business to be in?

7 What do the customers think?

8 What about the competitors?

9 Should you do something else?

10 Who are we? What will we do?

11 How to raise profits quickly

12 Conclusion

Part 3. Hints on managing the strategy process

13 Selling the need for a new strategy

Appendix 1: Strategy and its history
Appendix 2: Glossary of strategy terms

Index

  • Focuses on strategy where it counts most - the business unit.
  • This book is ideal for the busy business unit manager who is trying to create and implement their strategy quickly - this is a focused and practical book.
  • Co-authored by the author of the best-selling FT Guide to Strategy.
  • Richard Koch has a straight talking style that will bring hands-on strategy thinking straight to the frontline manager.
  • Compact and easy to use - an appealing 'less is more' approach.
  • Uses case studies to illustrate the techniques and concepts with real-life examples.
  • Includes graphics and quantitative exercises that have been road-tested within both large and small organizations - they work well and deliver results.
  • This can be used in conjunction with a specially-developed and customisable software that allows you to generate information and graphs from your own business data - samples of this are available free to readers on the book's companion website.

Richard Koch is the author of 15 highly acclaimed books, including The FT Guide To Strategy and the best-selling 80/20 trilogy --- The 80/20 Principle (over 700,000 copies sold), The 80/20 Individual, and most recently Living the 80/20 Way. He is also a strategy consultant and entrepreneur. Peter Nieuwenhuizen is a highly experienced manager who has worked in both strategy and marketing. He has made a speciality of helping managers to develop practical strategy for their business units.

"A step-by-step guide…revealing the best routes to profitability" - Director Magazine