International Strategy

This comprehensive volume from Wiley's Global Dimensions of Business series explores the topic of international strategic management at an MBA or Executive Education level. Authored by an accomplished teacher who possesses a strong understanding of the market, this text offers clear frameworks coupled with lively, international case studies. Written by an experienced teacher possessing a strong research profile and a clear understanding of the market. Emphasizes organizational competences and provides a direct bridge to the strategy frameworks and concepts essential to MBA and Executive Education programs. Focuses on capabilities, capability-building and knowledge, and highlights the distinction between input and leveraging in terms of capabilities. Reviews additional opportunities for making performance gains in the international environment and the additional complexity involved in managing in a global – rather than domestic – environment. All chapters include sections on essential reading, student questions, summaries, case examples, and ‘key terms.’

A practitioner-focused approach to strategy and real-world strategic thinking This 3rd edition has been revised and updated throughout to reflect the current thinking in strategy in view of the current economic and business climate. It questions how we are thinking differently about strategy now, in light of emerging from the global economic crisis. It includes new and updated case illustrations throughout, plus a new chapter on Strategy Execution and Performance Appraisal. Rigorously founded on current thinking and theoretical concepts in the field of strategic management, Strategy in Practice: Provides the strategy practitioner with a systematic and insight-driven approach to strategic thinking Establishes and translates the relevance of strategy theory to its application in the practice field Leads you through the strategic thinking process, beginning with the formulation of compelling and clearly articulated strategic questions that set the scene for practical issues Provides tools of strategic analysis in combination with informed intuition to understand the strategic landscape Has additional online resources available for instructors

Successful business alliances today are critical to the competitive advantage of many companies. Mastering Alliance Strategy presents state-of-the-art thinking and practices for using partnerships effectively. This essential resource will help you understand and use alliances better, whether you are a new or seasoned alliance professional, a business-development specialist, a line manager, or a top executive. The authors argue that the secrets to success lie not solely in the intricacies of a deal but also in the strategy and organization behind the deal. They draw ideas and tools from years of research and reporting on four elements that are key to an effective alliance strategy: * Designing the alliance and crafting the agreement * Managing the alliance after it is launched * Leveraging a constellation of alliances * Building an internal alliance capability

What people are saying about Discount Business Strategy: «Michael Andersen and Flemming Poulfelt provide a provocative discussion of the rapidly growing role of discounters across numerous industries: how they operate; how they create uniqueness; and how they can destroy value for incumbents. Understanding the specific moves and tools that the authors analyze will be valuable for attackers and incumbents alike.» —Adrian J. Slywotzky, Director, Mercer Management Consulting USA «This book is very timely, dealing with today's most critical strategic issue: how to provide more value to the consumer through aggressive discounting. Those players in manufacturing and distribution who master this will be the winners; many established firms will fall by the wayside. A similar set of issues are facing many nations today – Europe vs. Asia!» —Peter Lorange, President, IMD, Switzerland «Andersen and Poulfelt have researched one of the most important themes in today's business world – how fundamentally new business models have wiped out establishments not with new products or technologies, but by creating new rules for conventional industries. Read this book and learn how to recognize the disruption of your industry before it is too late!» —Sigurd Liljenfeldt, Senior Partner, Monitor Group, France «This book asks if a firm can have its cake and eat it too – that is, maintain high quality at low prices. My favourite example and shopping place is big box Costco. Ikea is another. A must read for a broad audience concerned about corporate survival!» —Professor Larry E. Greiner, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, USA The aspiration to adopt the right strategy still prevails over the business world. But is there a single 'best' strategy for a company? Can an organization create sustainable competitive advantage from an 'off-the-peg' strategy? And are most companies likely to craft a strategy that genuinely creates uncontested market space and makes the competition irrelevant? The answer to all these questions is probably 'No'. And the rising tide of companies like Dell, CostCo, Skype and Linux means that asking them at all may soon be futile. While strategists have foundered in old paradigms, a new breed of competitors has emerged. Value destroyers. Old-style thinking understood value destruction when it was confined to an industry and driven by a new product or technology. But what are the implications when the destruction stems from a new way of thinking – from a strategy that simultaneously creates value? The implications are enormous. Every company in every industry is potentially at risk. This risk – or opportunity – is precisely the reason for this book and its focus on exploring why and how some companies have bridged the gap between differentiator and cost leader strategies to emerge as winners in hypercompetitive markets, and what this entails in terms of value destruction and creation. Discounting organizations are here to stay – are you?

Strategy is not a modern invention. It is an essential and enduring feature of human history that is here to stay. In this original essay, Colin S. Gray, world-renowned scholar of strategic thought, discusses the meaning of strategy and its importance for politicians and the military as a means of achieving desired outcomes in complex, uncertain conditions. Drawing on a wide range of examples from the Great Peloponnesian War to the Second World War, Vietnam, and the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gray ably shows how great military thinkers of the past and present have acted strategically in their various ideological, political, geographical and cultural contexts. Looking to the future, he argues that strategy will continue to provide a vital tool-kit for survival and security, but that the global threat posed by nuclear weapons remains an on-going challenge without obvious practical solutions. As Gray boldy asserts, there is no promised land ahead, only hard and dangerous times that will require us to master the theory and practice of strategy to secure our own future.

In From Strategy to Change-the last in a series-Daniel James Rowley comes full circle in defining his unique vision of the strategic planning process. Written with Herbert Sherman, From Strategy to Change shows how to take the next step after a strategic plan has been formulated. The authors clearly show how to implement a strategic plan that will meet the myriad challenges of today's complex higher education environment and spell success for the academy."It is amazing that while sports teams of colleges and universities meticulously plan their contests against their opponents, their institutions' administrators don't spend nearly enough time or effort in creating andimplementing a strategy. Institutions of higher education seem to be missing the requisite tools to develop and activate their 'play book.' With this new age of globally available real-time information, it becomes increasingly more essential to have a map to help go over and around obstacles, avoid the ever-present pitfalls, and effectively aid in selecting the best route. Rowley and Sherman provide such tools in this exciting and comprehensive new book. I wish that when I was a department chair, president of a faculty senate, and dean that this superb work was available. My function in planning would have been so much easier and more rewarding."–Barry R. Armandi, Distinguished Teaching Professor, SUNY – Old Westbury

The actionable guide for driving organizational innovation through better IT strategy With rare insight, expert technology strategist Peter High emphasizes the acute need for IT strategy to be developed not in a vacuum, but in concert with the broader organizational strategy. This approach focuses the development of technology tools and strategies in a way that is comprehensive in nature and designed with the concept of value in mind. The role of CIO is no longer «just» to manage IT strategy—instead, the successful executive will be firmly in tune with corporate strategy and a driver of a technology strategy that is woven into overall business objectives at the enterprise and business unit levels. High makes use of case examples from leading companies to illustrate the various ways that IT infrastructure strategy can be developed, not just to fall in line with business strategy, but to actually drive that strategy in a meaningful way. His ideas are designed to provide real, actionable steps for CIOs that both increase the executive's value to the organization and unite business and IT in a manner that produces highly-successful outcomes. Formulate clearer and better IT strategic plans Weave IT strategy into business strategy at the corporate and business unit levels Craft an infrastructure that aligns with C-suite strategy Close the gap that exists between IT leaders and business leaders While function, innovation, and design remain key elements to the development and management of IT infrastructure and operations, CIOs must now think beyond their primary purview and recognize the value their strategies and initiatives will create for the organization. With Implementing World Class IT Strategy, the roadmap to strategic IT excellence awaits.

Formulating a strategy is one of the most important but also one of the most difficult challenges faced by businesses: How may one translate a concern into a structured issue and the hypotheses for addressing that issue? How should one approach the designing and executing of the analyses through which these hypotheses can be tested, thus creating the insights from which new strategic options can be developed? And how can one identify the “best bets” from among the many different strategic options available, and determine how these may be translated into a coherent business strategy that the organization and its stakeholders can buy into? This book helps to answer these questions for the senior manager responsible for company strategy; the project manager who’s been asked to chart and defend a new strategic course of action; and the student wishing to “learn the ropes” of strategy-creation. This book offers no theoretical strategy “frameworks”. Nor does it propagate a specific strategy of any kind. It is, quite simply, a “cook book” describing a step-by-step, focused and fast approach for creating a new strategy at medium-sized and large businesses. It is a proven method used by top management consultants to help clients develop new strategies. The Craft of Strategy Formation provides a crisp account of the consecutive steps to take (and pitfalls to watch out for) when typically vague business concerns need to be translated into actionable strategy fast. Featuring the tried-and-tested analytical and organizational approach of top management consultants, this integral account of how strategy is crafted in practice offers a welcome break from traditional handbooks featuring largely isolated frameworks, tools and cases; highly theoretical academic treatises; and largely anecdotal “infotainment” books for the general reader.

Learn to Decode the DNA of Management and Strategy-Execution in an Increasingly Turbulent World Just as DNA contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all living organisms, what if we could decode containing the elements of management and strategy-execution? Traditional management practices are rooted in a mechanical mindset where the problem and solution are known and well-defined, but how do you plan for the reality of today’s increasingly complex world where it is hard to manage the unknown and unknowable? This ground-breaking book offers new perspectives on age-old management challenges and illuminates better ways to organize and manage in an increasingly DANCE-world (Dynamic. Ambiguous. Non-Linear. Complex. Emergent). It puts the management DNA under the microscope, and shows how to develop the DNA elements to build and transform organizational project management and PMO capabilities essential for effective strategy-execution. It provides a framework to measure what matters with a step-by-step approach to define and measure success and business value. The DNA of Strategy Execution: Next Generation Project Management and PMO provides innovative insights for organizational project management and PMO. It builds on iterative, incremental, lean, agile, and adaptive approaches and goes beyond to explore what is required to thrive in a dynamic and complex world. Based on application and learnings from many organizations around the world, this book reveals a playbook for strategy-execution that will help you: Decode the core elements of management and strategy-execution DNA Design and build next-generation Project/Program Management and PMO platform essential for effective strategy-execution Prepare your organization to effectively lead and implement agile transformation and organizational change Improve organizational project management (OPM) and PMO maturity by developing intelligence in each of the DNA areas of strategy-execution Improve overall organizational effectiveness and innovation capabilities Whether you are a part of a startup, or an established incumbent organization, the impact of digitization and disruption and the intensification of the DANCE-world requires a rethink and reset of how we organize and manage. This book presents a holistic approach and a playbook for effective strategy-execution with next-generation Project, Program and PMO capabilities.

Embrace strategies for improving your business and reaching your organization's goals «I wholeheartedly agree with Patrick Stroh: Good leaders understand strategy and good strategists need to be good leaders. Make this book a strategic tool for improving your business strategy.» – Harvey Mackay, author of the #1 New York Times bestsellerSwim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive In today's fast-moving and competitive business environment, strong leadership, insightful strategy, and effective innovation are critical links to staying ahead of your competition. Getting your business house in order can often be complicated, but does it really have to be? How do you take MBA 101 lessons, great models, and exceptional concepts and put them into play in the real world? Business Strategy: Plan, Execute, Win! strives to answers these questions in an educational and entertaining format. Working as a Fortune 20 practitioner with C-level executives, author Patrick Stroh has a keen understanding of the role played by current day strategists. With 5 chapters following the format of «All I Ever Needed to Learn About Business Strategy I Learned…» At the Movies, On the Farm, On Shark Tank, On Hell's Kitchen, and From the Bible, readers will gain valuable strategic insight regardless of industry, business maturity, or current business turbulence and how to apply these insights based on the factors impacting their own business. Each chapter ends with a One Chapter Conclusion, Two Gold Nuggets the reader is to write down and Three Additional Resources/Tools for more information, offering a practical roadmap to simplifying your success.