Book Description

All eyes are on China. Home to a quarter of the world's population, China's rapid growth, expanding openness, and developing consumer market have made the region a hotbed of opportunity-and risk-for today's multinationals.

Harvard Business Review on Doing Business in China offers a timely and insightful analysis of what it will take to successfully do business in twenty-first-century China. Featuring eight articles, each written by experts in Chinese business and culture, HBR on Doing Business in China explores issues including:

-The possibilities and pitfalls multinationals face in the newly opened Chinese domestic market

-The unique cultural and social factors that govern the buying preferences of Chinese consumers

-The deep-seated cultural traditions Westerners must understand to negotiate successfully with the Chinese

-The emergence of Chinese brands as powerful rivals in the global market

-Strategies for entering and winning in China as competition- both local and global-heats up

... Read more

Book Description

Lessons from China's leading entrepreneurs on competing in unpredictable markets

U. S. entrepreneurs from Bill Gates to Michael Dell have been studied and emulated by executives worldwide. Yet we know next to nothing about the pioneers who are reshaping the world's second largest economy: China. In the face of murky ownership structures, inconsistent access to capital, shifting industrial policy, and other obstacles, an elite few Chinese firms have thrived during the turbulence of the last decade.

In Made in China, Donald N. Sull profiles eight of these formidable ventures to reveal the secrets behind their surprising success. Based on extensive research, including in-depth interviews and access to corporate archives, Made in China explores these entrepreneurs' winning strategies, from how they anticipate and maneuver through emerging threats and opportunities ("active waiting"), to how they manage risks, to how they consistently out-execute rivals. Taken together, these principles represent a comprehensive model for managing in unpredictable environments worldwide.

An insider's look at the playbook of some of the world's savviest and most resilient entrepreneurs, Made in China is essential reading for companies operating in China or in any volatile industry or market.

Donald N. Sull is an Associate Professor of Management Practice at London Business School. Previously an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, Sull was also a consultant at McKinsey & Company, Inc. He advises both multinational firms and new ventures in several countries.

... Read more

Book Description

Knowledge has always resided in organizations-but it wasn't until the Information Age put a premium on ideas that intellectual capital was recognized as a critical resource. Now, forces like technology, globalization, and the rise of free agency and virtual workplaces are bringing another form of "hidden" capital to the forefront.

In Good Company is the first book to examine the role that social capital-a company's "stock" of human connections such as trust, personal networks, and a sense of community-plays in thriving organizations.Written by leading knowledge management experts Don Cohen and Laurence Prusak, this groundbreaking book argues that social capital is so integral to business life that without it, cooperative action-and consequently productive work-isn't possible. The authors help today's leaders understand the nature and value of social capital, suggest ways they can encourage and enhance it, and explore how they can protect this vital but increasingly vulnerable resource in a volatile, virtual world.

Drawing on major social and economic theories, and the experiences of organizations including the World Bank, Aventis Pharma, Alcoa, Russell Reynolds, and UPS, In Good Company identifies the social elements that contribute to knowledge sharing, innovation, and high productivity. The authors convincingly show how almost every managerial decision-from hiring, firing, and promotion to implementing new technologies to designing office space-is an opportunity for social capital investment or loss.They also reveal the benefits that derive from investments in social capital, such as greater commitment and cooperation, increased talent retention, and more intelligent responses to customer needs.

A landmark book on the critical role that relationships play in organizational success, In Good Company helps employees at all levels recognize the power of social capital to help people work better, and make organizations better places to work. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Work as Social Process
Why do new CEOs staff the company with their men?
Why are women under-represented un the business world?
Why could some succeed in launching and establishing new enterprises while other couldn¡¯t manage do so?
Why are the MBA degree craved, while there is no link between MBA results and future salary?
Social capital is supposed to be the answer to these questions. Social capital is widely exploited to emphasize the social nature of work: the work is the social process. Previously, corporate culture is used to point out such a nature. Organization¡¯s culture means the set of rites and rituals that give it its unique character. Culture is the ¡®way things are done around here.¡¯ The HP way, for example, the open-plan, walkabout management style laid down in the 1950s, by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, a style that still imbues the company today. But culture is a elusive concept. It¡¯s too soft to be managed. One executive asserted that ¡®the only culture round here is in the yoghurts in the canteen.¡¯ Nevertheless, though too soft to grasp, it¡¯s very real one. So many M&As have been botched for clashes between corporate cultures. It¡¯s real but too elusive to manage and grasp. Social capital is introduced to ground it on tangible material base. Then what is social capital? Social capital refers attributes like trust, commitment, attachment and so forth which belongs to active connections among people, in other word, network and community.
When the God decided to put a stop to human-being¡¯s first great collective enterprise, he confused their language so they could no longer understand one another, and could not carry out the joint project, Tower of Babel. Carry a heavy stone could be done without words. The real problem was the loss of understanding that cannot be mimed or diagrammed. Without common speech, the tower¡¯s planners could not have inspired others to join the project, workers could not have learned to trust each other¡¯s judgment, resolve unexpected problems together, or count on each other¡¯s help in dangerous situations. In other words, what they lost was not just common language, but the social capital which was probably more critical than the failure of information exchange.
Some schools in economics of organization characterized the firm as the flow of information. It¡¯s hard to deny. In this regard, however, corporate culture is no more than each company¡¯s idiosyncratic frame to each processing info: the firm is no more than a cybernetic system. But the firm is a social process built on community and network. Culture is what resides in community and network within personnel.
Moreover, organization¡¯s knowledge and capabilities lies not in official hierarchy but in unofficial community of practice. Most job training occurs after workers join a firm. They learn by dong on the shop floor. There is always a manual that describes how to operate a particular machine or conduct a job. As times passes, however, workers are apt to devise better ways to do the job and surpass the manual. And this is the collective process. As they work together, knowledge slowly moves from person to person. Network and community are not only the repository of corporate knowledge and capacities, but also the incubator of collaboration, especially voluntary collaboration that does not rely on external incentives. They help create and sustain our personal identities, the intrinsic satisfactions of praise, respect, and gratitude from fellow members. Those have more meaning and power than little prizes or even monetary rewards.
Now, I think, you¡¯ve got what is social capital. Above, I followed the style of the book which does not burden the reader with abstract concepts, but illustrate the picture of social capital with real world examples, to enlighten readers to the practical meaning of social capital in their own workplace. With closing the last page. I bet you get the crux and import of social capital.

I was glad someone noticed!
This is a good and helpful read. While Cohen and Prusak do tend to say a lot of things that one has a gut feeling of but has never read or heard someone say aloud about working relationships, some of it was really fascinating. They have a particularly interesting chapter on chat and storytelling and the functions those activities serve at work. The theme of the book is that organizations should invest in social capital the way they invest in other kinds of capital, but that such investments can't be faked. Workers know when the love is real, so to speak.

The writers address particularly cogent trends of telecommuting and volatile industries and how those can cause stress in organizations because they lower social capital. They had some interesting points. One thing I particularly responded to was the chapter on trust. They wrote that when someone says their organization is particularly political, what they are saying is
that there is very low trust. Another thing they wrote that really interested me is that the virtual office isn't going to succeed - and hasn't as predicted - because work is an inherently social activity. That's one of the reasons people like it and are dedicated to it. Not that many people are ever going to want to work at home in their pajamas - every single day. They also suggest that money isn't the only effective lure for new talent or retainer of current employees. They write that if talent can just be bought, it will be, but if you create high social capital in your organizations, money alone won't be able to suck the talented people from your offices.

[The book made me want to read more by Chris Argyris, who is an organizational pyschologist at Harvard, and the book "The Social Life of Information."]

Pointing Out the Intangible Values of Positive Connection
"Social capital consists of the stock of active connections among people, the trust, mutual understanding, and shared values and behaviors that bind the members of human networks and communities and make cooperative action possible." What is new about this book is that it applies this sociological concept to business enterprises.

As the authors point out, having more social capital inside an organization is good, but it is not sufficient to create a successful enterprise. Digital Equipment is used as an example of this point. Also, organizations can have social capital and be serving harmful ends (the Nazis are used as an example).

The authors feel that there are important limits to what free agency, telecommuting, virtual organizations, and hoteling offices can accomplish because their basis in social capital will be weaker.

On the positive side, they argue for hiring and encouraging people who fit the values and culture of the organization, and creating an environment in which social capital will build. To do this, companies should actively take steps that build trust, networks and communication through making appropriate spaces and time available, and help people learn through effective story telling.

The benefits of this approach will be better knowledge sharing, lower transaction costs, lower turnover of key employees, better coherence of action due to organizational stability and more shared understanding. You may also see more creativity if people are allowed to experience the intrinsic pleasures of making the future.

I thought that the best part of this book was in the detailed look at the various kinds of stories that organizations tell and what their purposes are. This book extended my understanding of that subject, which is an important one for communications.

The main drawback of the book is that it does not address social capital in terms of the connections between the individuals in the organization and most stakeholders (like customers, suppliers, partners, owners, lenders, and the communities the company serves). These connections are more important in those dimensions discussed in the book than the equivalent connections within the company. So this omission is a pretty significant limitation of the book.

The major secondary drawback of the book is that those who work in organizations like the ones described here with lots of social capital (UPS, SAS Institute, and J & J) will probably find little that is new. For those who are insensitive to the importance of social connections, this book will seem too amorphous and nonquantitative to change minds. If the target is to make those with low emotional intelligence become more effective and supportive, this book won't make the grade. It's preaching to the choir, without enough discipline in defining its prescriptions. For example, the book argues that cubicles with lots of sight lines are great for improving communications. But those who need quiet time and places to work for extended periods will tell you that cubicles drive them up the wall and reduce certain kinds of productivity. What's the best way to encourage both more communications and quiet thinking time when it's needed?

If you are interested in seeing lots of case histories on these subjects, you would probably enjoy the parts of The Dance of Change that focus on improving communication, trust, and connection.

After you finish this book, think about where your organization needs more trust, where you need more connections within and without the company, and how you can create a more cohesive creativity on the significant opportunities that face you.

Be open to the positive potential of the new, and help others to see it also!

Common sense, uncommon insight
If I could inflict one book on business executives this year, this would be it. In arguing that social capital within organisations has a value, and that there are ways to encourage it, the authors will not surprise most corporate infantry. But they draw together the human strands of this topic - trust, networking, the office environment, gossip - in an elegant and compelling way, and turn an insightful lens towards everyday facets of employee interaction. While the approach is scholarly, there's enough case study and anecdote to give their case a grounded authenticity. It's extremely well written, and the ideas it brings together beg for enlargement and further research.

Good Company Makes for Good Business
Here's a fascinating read that emphasizes one of the most-often overlooked components of an organization's success: the power of chance or commonplace conversations in stairwells or over a drink after work. The authors' "knowledge management" bias leads them to urge companies to invest in "social capital" by bringing together isoldated groups, encouraging in-person meetings, and giving employees time for casual conversations. Clearly a humanist argument but an important one that's gaining a lot of currency in a number of companies. ... Read more

Book Description

The first edition of Managing Across Borders was hailed as a landmark book, widely praised for its pioneering insights into the management of companies operating in an international environment. With the introduction of an entirely new organizational form--the transnational--Bartlett and Ghoshal showed how the nature of the competitive game had fundamentally changed, requiring that companies simultaneously capture global-scale efficiency, respond to national markets, and cultivate a worldwide learning capability for driving continuous innovation across borders. In this newly revised edition, the authors revisit their breakthrough concepts, updating the material with fresh, timely examples drawn from today's leading global enterprises. The insightful profiles of global middle managers and the real-world case studies paint a complete picture of the issues, problems, and opportunities encountered on the road to becoming a transnational. Included with this edition is a new application workbook, a highly practical tool for translating the book's ideas into action. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

An appreciative book that looks forward into the future
Now in an updated second edition, Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution by Christopher Bartlett (Daewoo Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School) and Sumantra Ghoshal (Professor of Strategic and International Management, The London Business School) is an informative introduction to the "transnational corporation", the new corporate phenomena of the interconnected global and digital age, which stretches its competition worldwide and fundamentally rewrites the nature of doing business. A fascinating, appreciative book that looks forward into the future, Managing Across Borders is highly recommended reading for anyone seeking to understand and capitalize on what the 21st century business community is evolving for purposes of international trade in a truly global and increasingly "borderless" age!

Pathbreaking book
This seminal book has been a part of my professional library for almost a decade, now. I am an Associate Professor in International Business and teach the subjects covered in this book. From this book a number of concepts have grown which continues to dominate the discussion of global management. Let me jus mention a few: administrative heritage, which is the idea, that the organisational structure of multidomestic enterprises reflects the historical period they were established in - especially with respect to the regime of coordination and communication. For instance, whereas the typical american firm entering Europe after 2ww would follow a strategy of tight operational control (given the business circumstances of this firm) Phillips, a multinational from the 19th century would display a strategy of much more delegation and subsidary autonomy.

Another concept is that of transnational companies - firms which simultaneously seek to adjust to local circumstances and enjoy the benefits of global integration. This idea remains a hot issue in global management even today - more than a decade after this book was published. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Making True Revolution with Success
This is a complex and multidimensional book on many levels. This book is not really about what governments can do to help their countries develop. In fact, the word "development" hardly appears. It is about the unproductive relationship between government and the private sector that wastes time and other valuable resources in emerging economies. The authors hold both parties responsible for moving on.

As stated on the first page, Simon Bolivar's epitaph reads, "Whomsoever has worked for a revolution has plowed the sea." Meant by Bolivar to convey despair and the heartbreak of failure, these words are transformed by the authors who have maintained a sense of optimism and good humor throughout their own experiences in the rugged world of transformation consulting. The Introduction, the book's first substantive chapter, is a cautionary tale of the Colombian flower industry, that prospered globally for decades, but later declined and has not yet recovered. Through this "case", seven patterns of firm behavior that inhibits economic agility are identified. The first seven chapters of the book elaborate on these patterns, wonderfully illustrated with other cases (Peru's fishmeal and Bolivia's soy industry, for example). The authors describe a sort of bratty adolescence that traps companies and industries in emerging economies. Chapters 8 and 9 are a fine application of micro principles around the theme of strategy, again focused on the firm. The authors advocate the old-fashion but culture shattering step of focusing on customers, costs and competitors in order to guide and inform decisions about strategy, positioning and productivity. They offer information and learning as a way for firms to experience a "coming of age" in the competitive sense. The role of government in promoting economic transformation is not touched until Chapter 10, two-thirds of the way through the book. Chapter 10-12 are probably where readers will find the book a bit frustrating and repetitive. Not enough time is spent defining what the authors mean by "steering mechanisms". This is undoubtedly because the book assumes the reader already knows alot. Chapter 10 mostly illustrates shifts in steering mechanisms using the case of a wall-bouncing Bolivian government. Chapter 11 is almost singular for business books - there is an actual discussion of research and the presentation of data. It is a practitioners discussion, however, not an academic one, so potential readers can relax.

B-school vets and other warriors will recognize alot here as an application of Michael Porter's "diamond model" from his Competitive Advantage of Nations (1990) and indeed, Porter writes the Foreword. The authors have extended the "diamond's" scope and reach, but their own model is not apparent until the end, Chapter 13. Their model for bringing about industry level change appears in the book's final four pages.

This book's protagonists are leaders in firms, industries and government, as well as their mindsets and actions. The word "leader" might be interpreted by some readers as "government" but this is not accurate. This book does do something extraordinary, however. On one hand, it is a blood and guts how-to on diagnosing and fixing the self-defeating decision making of firms in the emerging world. On the other hand, the conceptual framework within which political economics is practiced, debated, planned and evaluated is updated to reflect the fact that competitive advantage, not absolute or comparative advantage will increasingly referee the win/loss columns in the global economy. The context of political economics is addressed entirely without reference to ideology. This might strike some as soulless or arrogant. It might strike others as about time.

The writing in this book reflects a highly integrated understanding of business and economics, as well as intimate and affectionate knowledge of Latin American business and classical culture. Also apparent are the authors very fine liberal arts backgrounds, years on the road and a sense of mirth. Finally, these authors clearly know their work and thinking is culture altering and socially revolutionary. Their obvious goal is to realize the dream of Bolivar by capturing the minds of today's business, industry and government trend setters. While I would say their hearts are definitely not bleeding nor on their sleeves, their drive and focus are more uplifting than anything I have read or seen in a long time.

Insightful but too wordy
A very insightful book about how countries as a whole compete in the world economy. It presents several interesting ideas about relative competitive strengths & weaknesses of nations and the source of these competitive positions.

The book falls short on readability. The authors could have conveyed the same message in half the pages. Often, I found myself skipping entire paragraphs and sections to find the ideas burried in all the verbiage.

I still rate it a 4 because of the importance of the topic covered and the insights contained in the book.

A refreshing guide to strategy in third world economies
This book is a surprise. Very fun to read, very insightful and plenty of new ideas for doing business from emerging economies.

terrific read
I found the book a terrific read. I think it is huge task for an developing country to grow out of the habits of being follower. It is not impossible, but the probablity is low, especially since most of these countries are not technologically savvy.

The book gives anyone from an emerging country some hope that they too can compete in this quickly advancing world.

Cheers

Victor

Insightful, Refreshing and a Great Read
It isn't everyday that one gets to read a book about business and have it read as pleasurably as a good novel. Fairbanks and Lindsay have a gift for business analysis and a gift for writing. When will their next book be coming out? ... Read more

Book Description

The competitive landscape in Asia is undergoing a sea change. Companies are finally breaking the bonds imposed by the 1997 financial crisis. The engine of growth is shifting from exports to Asian market demand. China's rapid development is redrawing the Asian playing field. National fiefdoms are succumbing to cross-border competition. Together, these forces are signaling the emergence of a fundamentally new competitive game-and there will be no going back.

International business expert Peter J. Williamson argues that competing in this rapidly evolving arena will require a very different kind of company. In this book, he identifies the key challenges that will distinguish the winners in tomorrow's Asia and explores the fundamental changes-in business models, mind-sets, organizational structures, and management processes-that will be required to meet those challenges.

Asian companies will need to leverage the strengths of their local heritage into the future by building distinctive, new strategies around them. Western multinationals will need to fundamentally reassess the approaches that have won them a share of Asia's rapid growth over the last two decades.

Laying out strategies for creating a new and distinctive breed of Asian corporation, Winning in Asia provides a blueprint for reshaping the future of Asian competition. ... Read more

Amazon.com

"Metanational" is the term that Jose Santos, Peter Williamson, and YvesL. Doz--management and technology professors at the international INSEADgraduate school of business--coined to describe a new type of globalcorporation. It refers, they explain in From Global to Metanational, to"a company that builds a new kind of competitive advantage by discovering,accessing, mobilizing, and leveraging knowledge from many locations around theworld." And as they unveil and dissect the concept, it becomes apparent that itmay indeed be an apt description for those worldwide enterprises most likely tosucceed in our rapidly changing times. Based on interviews with 36 companiesfrom America, Asia, and Europe (including long-established firms like 3M andToyota and newcomers like Acer and Shiseido), the authors describe innovativeways to efficiently tap into "pockets of technology, market intelligence and ...specialist knowledge scattered around the world," rather than relying solely oninput from a home nation or a few select locales. They explore how trailblazersare identifying this information wherever they find it, parlaying it into newproducts, services and processes, and merging the result with all sales,distribution, and marketing efforts. Anyone involved in multinational businessshould find this both provocative and potentially useful. --HowardRothman ... Read more

Reviews (5)

The new small world
I was delighted to grab a better understanding on global competitiveness and the new productive opportunities provided by the Metanationals.

You don't know about it yet?? God, your business is under great danger...

nothing new here
Just a recap of ideas about globalization. They didn't even coin the term metanational, they probably read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) and stole it from him. Furthermore, the book doesn't even begin to deal with the issue of democracy in global corporations. These so-called "virtual states" are feudal by design, and fundamentally backwards. They may make money for their CEOs and boardmembers, and "stimulate the economy" (which really means helping other CEOs and boards make money), but where does all that money come from? Ultimately globalization just centralizes power and money, putting us back in the dark ages.

Finding knowledge in unlikely places
What does a large company need to concentrate on for sustained success in a globalized world? Doz and his colleagues claim that it is to become metanational and to become good at innovating from a platform of bringing together knowledge from many different parts of the world. Metanationals differ from globalized companies in that they recognise that new ideas, products or directions may originate somewhere other than the corporate centre.

The focus of the authors is on innovation and they argue that this requires that the organization becomes good at :
• identifying where good ideas and special competencies are;
• mobilizing the often scattered capabilities and opportunities (they use the term 'becoming a magnet' for such capabilities); and
• optimising the size and configuration of operations for efficiency, flexibility and financial discipline.

This is a book that makes an important point about success in a globalized world, but presents one factor in success as if it was the whole. As with a number of books, I had an uncomfortable feeling that the content of a very good article was expanded into an only moderately good book.

The core message is important and useful. Organizations that operate on a global scale need to move beyond the extension of a unitary culture into new localities and recognise that new knowledge is found in unlikely places. They need to become excellent at recognising that knowledge, becoming an attractor for it, mobilizing it to provide a superior stream of innovations and operationalizing production, distribution and marketing into diverse markets.

The weakness is that the book is written at a fairly high conceptual level - for all the detailed example - that fails to get to grips with how to manage multiple cultures or the detail of innovation, or the issues of governance across countries. It also has surprisingly little on the major changes that are occurring in world consumer markets.

The book also falls into the 'one size fits all' trap. Issues of being effective globally are very different for a consumer fashion business, a high tech product or service industry and a major commodity business, but this is not recognised explicitly in the book.

Must reading for international business
This is one of the most refreshing books about managing multinationals that I have read. It goes one step beyond the idea of a transnational, proposing a new model of how a company can succeed by prospecting the world for new knowledge about technologies and customer behaviour and using this to innovate. It won't be easy to implement, but the last three chapters provide a good starting point about how to make it happen. I was convinced that if we didn't try and build a metanational we would simply be left behind.

Nostalgia for Globalization
The first two chapters tell you the picture and that is it. The kernel is summarized in a table at page 83 (end of chapter 3). Make a copy of this page, file it for later reference, and you are done. At best, this book reviews the vaunted wisdom of globalization, which many companies have been living at and dealing for years. At worst, it recites the squabbles between the global platform (the standardization) and regional initiatives (the deviations and the sensing ends). No specific solution or action is advised for the first & most obvious problem - how to transcend the intracompany transaction, which more than often bogs down companies attempting to quickly profit from the global learning. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

solid and realistic intro to confusing behaviors
It is a sad commentary that, now that Japan is no longer viewed as ascendant, critical and better books are coming out than existed (or were known) previously. I think that we did not want to know about the flaws underneath the facades we constructed, though many of us suspected them.

This book takes a good, stark look at the arcana of dealing with Japanese businesses. It is a world where appearences are more important than realities, where superficial politeness hides brutal power relationships, and where the correctness of routine is more important than the reasons - strategic or otherwise - behind them. In practical terms, this reveals that what a lot of us thought about Japan in the 1980s was in fact meaningless ritual and blind procedure (following and copying), couched in nice terms ("tatemae") that so many of us took at face value. The reality underneath, the uglier side of things, is almost invariably truer than the nicer versions. And now that Japan is seen as a beleagered backwater, we have no problem believing the worst.

That makes this book VERY valuable. Unfortunately, it is written like an academic business book, which means its style is rather plain, rather than with the vividness of journalism. But that may be my own bias.

Best book available regarding Japanese management
Read this and come away with a much better understanding of the background and corporate orientation of your Japanese counterparts. Simply outstanding.

This is the first and last book you need to read on Japan.
My 10 years of experience with the Japanese (including 4 different Japanese companies) has provided me with endless cases of dumbfounded bewilderment at Japanese behavior. Upon reading Inside the Kaisha, I found succinct, clear explanations of Japanese thinking and behavior which totally agree with my life experiences. Hats off to the meticulous research and easy-to-read writing style!

A book about "what" and not the "why" of Japan
The author states in the first chapter: " As a trader, my job is to go into the market and try to make money. We still have almost two months before our fiscal year ends. Are you saying I shouldn't even make money because it will affect the budget?" "Yes:' answered the controller, "that's exactly what I'm saying!"

This is a statement about what happens but the author doesn't pause to ask or answer the question "Why does the budget have to be on target?" Anyone who has really worked in a Japanese company and who has some insight would give the readers more substance concerning the topic of Japan. Add this one to the list of "ho-hum" titles on this country and its culture.

a must-read for everyone who's interested in Japan
For a long time Japan business and society have puzzled even its own insiders, it is no longer so after this book. "Inside the Kaisha" describes a society where its people make their date-to-date decisions not based on a set of core values, but on model behavior which varies upon different context. Highly egalitarian from the outset, yet its language effectively enforce a caste system based on seniority and acquired social status. Japan's splendid economic success has spurred global imitations of its business behavior, yet outsiders often failed to understand its culture which is the primal driving force. This book successfully establish such link and I think its essential for everyone who's interested in Japan ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Great insigh! The role of executives in alliance management
There are so many literatures about strategic alliance for practitioner and academics. But few book are really useful for us. My message is just BUY IT. This is nothing but Great! You know what? This research was completed in 1995 and 5year has passed ...then still shining and definitely the mile stone of strategic alliance and cooperative strategy field, I believe. They begin with defining the notion of new types of alliances form 90s and make it clear how drastically the competitive situation changed and what the source of competitive advantage is. That's the entrepreneurial role of top managemant and alliance manager. Competitive advantage of alliancing corporation doesn't come from poor analysis of resources, invisible assets or core competence. The point is relationship between partners. And the greatest point of this book is not only pointing out the importance of "relationship management" of alliance but also ...wow that's enough.. Just BUY IT!

Please read this book if you're serious about joint ventures
This is the best book I know of for understanding how to create and manage a successful strategic alliance.
There is so much redundant business literature out there on this subject that it is such a relief to finally have one good source.
The great thing about this book was that it forced me to think about how competitive strategy and analysis should be the driver of any well conceived strategic alliance.
I cannot think of another book that has so skillfully integrated these two highly related disciplines in such a practical way.

If anyone knows of anyother books or articles that these authors have written on this subject can you please let me know via email? ... Read more

Book Description

Ethnic Chinese control a staggering 98 percent of the East Asian economy outside Korea and Japan. For any company seeking to work with the Chinese, understanding the unique social and cultural values that underpin their commercial practices can make or break business dealings before they even get off the ground.

Ming-Jer Chen, a leading expert on business strategy and competition, offers Western managers the definitive guide to navigating the fascinating-but often confusing-Chinese business world. Drawing from his intimate knowledge of Chinese culture and history, and from his extensive managerial work and international experience, Chen provides an unrivalled insider's perspective on how to work, compete, and cooperate successfully with Chinese companies around the globe.

Inside Chinese Business explains that almost all major Chinese organizations are relationship-based and continue to be influenced by an enduring set of cultural and social principles. Building on this premise with examples from companies throughout Asia and North America, the book addresses issues including:

* Chinese "business families" and their transformation in the new century.
* Guanxi: what it is, how it works, and how Western managers can develop their own business networks.
* The influence of traditional Chinese concepts such as "face," balance, harmony, and social roles on contemporary business conduct.
* How to spot a yesno: understanding Chinese communication patterns.
* The Chinese distaste for "negotiation"-and how to negotiate with them.
* The cultural roots of Chinese competitive practices, and ways Western companies can successfully adapt these ideas.
* Navigating the People's Republic of China's transitional economy.
* Using cultural difference to develop a globally integrative business perspective.

A powerful guide to resolving the often overwhelming rifts between Western and Eastern ways of doing business, Inside Chinese Business presents critical lessons for global enterprise in the 21st century. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Rehashed
Very little in this book is original. Even the title is borrowed from "Inside Chinese Organizations" written earlier by Kai-Alexander Schlevogt (a sound empirical study)! The style, emphasis and content is very similar to "New Asian Emperors" by George Haley and Chin Tiong Tan (a much better written book with a more complex grasp of the terrain of Chinese management).

The author does tackle some concepts such as "face" etc., but these provide very little insights for any but the most extreme novices.

Disappointing.

Not recommended
I agree with some of the reviewers below -- this book presents a complex topic in a very simplistic fashion. The concepts covered are very basic and almost naive.

Very naive and simplistic
Given the build up for this book, I found it very disappointing. It completely ignores the fact that most American companies have failed in China -- precisely following the strategies the author advocated! If you know very little about China, and have eaten at a Chinese restaurant a couple of times, this book should provide an easy introduction. Otherwise, pass on it! I would much rather recommend "New Asian Emperors: The Overseas Chinese, their Strategies and Competitive Advantages" by George T. Haley et al. for a more complex understanding of business culture in the region.

Disappointing...
I found this book a real disappointment, especially considering the author's apparent qualifications. It amounts to little more than a book report on other published sources and I actually see no evidence of "inside" information at all here. The author doesn't seem to have done a single personal interview for the book, which is unfortunate.

What's worse is that the book takes a chauvinistic approach to doing business with the Chinese. The essential advice here is that Western business people should never say no to Chinese counterparts and should accommodate them in every way possible. After doing business in Hong Kong and Guangzhou for more than 15 years, I fully understand the importance of "saving face": but this book advocates the kind of kowtowing that got many American companies into deep trouble in China...providing everything for their partners and losing their shirts. I am sure the author had honorable intentions but the point of view taken in this book is quite naive...if not dangerous.

That said, Inside Chinese Business is a quick and enjoyable read. If you have never read anything about Chinese business practices, it could be a useful introduction. Just take it with a grain of salt.

Simplistic and Dated
For anyone who has spent time in China (Hong Kong and Taiwan), or has read a book or two on business in Asia, much of the book will be simplistic to the point of being boring as it covers issues of "face", familial loyalty, reciprocity, etc. The impact of the Asian financial crisis is taken into account, but not the Nasdaq fall and subsequent worldwide tech slump. I imagine the author is just the victim of unfortunate timing, but several Asian tech companies, now dead and buried, are praised for their ability to navigate crises. Whoops.
There are lessons to be learned from a study like this, but the book strays dangerously close to the sort of blind fawning westerners saw of Japanese business in the late 80s and early 90s, before economic realities revealed the woeful shortcomings of Japan, Inc.
I have just begun reading another book, "The Coming Collapse of China"; while (so far) quite insular and anecdotal, it does provide a counter to what's quickly become an over-hyped view of China's future in global business.
I was expecting far more from "Inside Chinese Business", but perhaps the author will follow-up this work with a more in-depth study. ... Read more

Book Description

Managing with Power, by Stanford Business School professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, provides an in-depth look at the role of power, and shows how power is used, the conditions under which power and influence are important, and how to manage the political dynamics at work in every organization. Pfeffer shows convincingly that not only is power not a dirty work, its effective use is an essential component of strong leadership. With vivid examples from both the public and private sectors, Managing with Power, provides a fascinating look at the personal attributes and structural factors that are essential for anyone striving to manage with power and influence. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

The ability to influence behavior, events and people
Jeffrey Pfeffer is Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, California. Previously he has been at the University of Illinois, the University of California at Berkeley, and as a Visiting Professor at the Harvard Business School. He has written several business- and management-related books.

This book consists of four parts, with each part consisting of 3-to-6 chapters. Pfeffer starts with a definition of power: "... the potential ability to influence behavior, to change the course of events, to overcome resistance, and to get people to do things that they would not otherwise do." This power is utilized and realized through politics and influence. Based on above definition the book discusses the details to the implementation process which consists of seven steps:
1. Decide on your goals.
2. Diagnose who is important in getting your goals accomplished.
3. Have a sense of the game being played, the players, and what their positions are.
4. Ascertain the power based of the other players, as well as your own potential and actual sources of power.
5. Determine your relative strength, along with the strength of other players.
6. Diagnose what is going to happen in an organization, as well as preparing yourself to take action.
7. Consider the various strategies or tactics that are available to you, as well as those used by others.

I believe it is important to keep these steps in mind since the book does not follow the sequence of these steps. The other chapters in Part I - Power in Organizations provide help both in diagnosing the extent to which situations are going to involve the use of power and in figuring out who the political actors are and what their points are likely to be. Some important quotes in this part are: "Power is a valuable resource [and] those who have power typically conserve it for important issues [scarcity and importance are correlated]." "Knowing the power of various organizational members and subunits is important, and so is understanding whose help you need in order to achieve your goals."

Part II - Sources of Power, consisting of 6 chapters, considers where power comes from, or some people and some subunits have more power than others. It offers implicit lessons on how to acquire more power and influence for ourselves. "Power comes from being in the 'right' place. A good place or position is one that provides you with: 1. control over resources.; 2. control over or extensive access to information; and 3. formal authority." By using both well-known and practical examples, the author discusses each of these aspects in detail. His view is that although individual attributes are important, being in the right place (in particular, the right subunit) is more important.

Once we know where power comes, we need to know how to use it effectively to get things done. This is the subject of Part III - Strategies and Tactics for Employing Power Effectively, which consists of 6 chapters. It begins with the topic of framing and how the way we see things depends upon the context in which they are seen. This, in turn, is affected by the principles of contrast, commitment, and scarcity. There is also the consideration of interpersonal influence by examining the impact of what others are saying or doing, the effects of liking, and the use of emotional contrast. Understanding this make it possible for us to consider some strategic elements in the exercise and development of power. "It is not enough to know that power exists. It is also critical to know how power is used - to have an arsenal of strategies and tactics that translate power and influence into practical results."

However, the discussions of the strategies and tactics for employing power might us lose sight of what organizations are all about - getting things done. Therefore the final section of the book, Part IV - Power Dynamics, begins by providing some cautionary ideas about how power is lost. It shows how even the mighty fall, and consider what this means for us as we think about own personal relationship to power and influence. This part also considers how power dynamics can be productive or unproductive for the organization. "The book is about managing with power, and it is also about managing power." The final chapter returns to the main subject of the book: getting things done through understanding and using power and influence. "... there is a greater sin than making mistakes or influencing others - the sin of doing nothing."

Yes, I do like this book. It discusses a subject with which most of us have to deal day-in day out, whether we like it or not. Jeffrey Pfeffer provides us with an excellent handbook for understanding power and influence, but also with strategies and tactics on using it. Pfeffer also recognizes that certain individuals are obsessed with politics and power (I think that most of you will know what I am talking about), and therefore finishes the book with some excellent cautionary advice. Although the author has a strong academical background the book is written in a very practical manner complemented with good, understandable examples. Highly recommended.

No Practical Advice
This book is too academic with little practical advice, and thus the one star.

A great disection of power
Using some very popular figures such as Presidents, CEOs, and the like. Dr. Pfeffer takes a detailed look at how power is gained, used, and lost in the world of humanity. This book is fairly easy to read and is packed with usable information for wading one's way through the often political nature of business. Even those who aren't aspiring CEOs can benefit from this book. If nothing else you should be able to recognize THE GAME as it takes place in your organization, and in the process keep out of the line of fire. Insightful yet practical.

Thanks Prof. Pfeffer
GREAT BOOK!

I cherish this book and the thoughts that the prof. gives us in it. If you earn your livelihood by interacting with people, you need to read this book and read it every time you take a new job and every time you find yourself running into a brick wall at work. I recommend this book to everyone I meet, especially younger ambitious employees.

Nice Guys Finish Last
Power is a rare coin: glittering, valuable, and hard to swallow. For many people power is unsavory, disgusting, an abrogation of all that our democratic ideals hold dear. Power corrupts, says the axiom, and our lives, our goals, our organizations prosper in joy and harmony only when it has not tainted the very air we breathe.

Stop kidding yourself. Power - politics, influence, authority wielded decisively - is what makes companies work, what allows organizations to function productively and effectively. And as Jeffrey Pfeffer argues in Managing with Power, power is not an evil miasma to be thwarted, but a tool to be seized and wielded. By recognizing the combination of techniques, strategies, tactics, and dynamics that underlie power, managers can use it successfully to accomplish and achieve.

Pfeffer's take on power therefore sidesteps classic moral quandaries regarding good and evil, means and ends. The world's problems are questions not of morals but of action - or rather, of inaction and passivity. Using Managing with Power, the reader can learn to diagnose the sources of power: how communication and allies create influence, why formal authority matters, and when location matters more. The reader can then study how power may be used effectively and how it may be lost in turn, by following Pfeffer as he analyzes the actions of corporate and political leaders (Lyndon Johnson, Henry Ford II, Roger Smith, et al.). His subjects are measured by their results and their actions; morality is rarely relevant.

Machiavelli would have loved this book, which may put it beyond the pale for many readers. Others attracted by the topic may be dissuaded by the scientific tone and language. Pfeffer is ever the calm observer, the dispassionate social psychologist, and his serenity at times traps the reader in sentences more intricate than articulate: "Needless to say, there were more and more such vacuums to be filled, as his reputation as someone who gets things done, in this case, by analysis, grew." And putting the style itself aside, readers expecting a handbook on how to become rich and powerful will be sorely disappointed. This is a meticulous and methodical analysis; it's not How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Nonetheless, if you're interested in power, if you want to understand the real basis of management and leadership (and why that distinction is immaterial), read this book. Managing with Power is thoroughly researched, theoretically grounded, and remarkably persuasive. Readers glutted by the soul-numbing pablum of most modern business writing will find here a book to stretch the mind and question the most instinctive beliefs. Does power corrupt? Power gets things done. ... Read more

Amazon.com

On Competition, a collection of works by Michael E. Porter, is a critical examination of the dog-eat-dog international economy. A Harvard Business School professor, Porter is one of the most respected and innovative economists of his time. Author of 15 books, he advises key elected officials and business leaders in all parts of the world. On Competition features 13 of his best articles over the past 15 years, including 2 new ones.The essence of Porter's message is that every company, country, and person must master competition to thrive in brutal international and domestic economies. Competition is the key to excellence. Worried about losing your job or your services becoming obsolete? Porter believes that a little fear is good for everyone. "Companies that value stability, obedient customers, dependent suppliers and sleepy competitors are inviting inertia and, ultimately, failure," he writes in his 1990 study and essay "The Competitive Advantage of Nations." Porter is a longtime critic of the short-term thinking on Wall Street that often stifles competition and hurts the economy. In "Capital Disadvantage: America's Failing Capital Investment System," he calls for much lower capital-gains rates for people who invest for the long term. He also urges investors and businesses to start thinking together. He contends that pension funds and institutional investors should get a greater say over the companies they own. It's wacky to have company directors with little expertise or financial interest in the company, he writes.

Porter is often unconventional and asserts that businessmen must be, too. In his essay "Green and Competitive," he shows little sympathy for businesses that complain about environmental regulations. Rules to protect the environment don't have to strangle companies--they can actually improve productivity with the right attitude and approach. Rhone-Poulenc, a French chemical and drug company, proved this when it stopped incinerating a certain byproduct and began selling it as an additive for dyes and tanning. Readable and provocative, On Competition is vital for business, government, and financial leaders as well as small-business people and investors. --Dan Ring ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Great, clear frameworks on competition
Michael E. Porter is a Harvard Business School professor and a leading authority on competition. This book consists of three parts - Competition and Strategy: Core Concepts, The Competitiveness of Locations, and Competitive Solutions to Societal Problems - and each of these parts consists of 4-to-5 Harvard Business Review articles which were published between 1979 and 1998. "The study of competition, in its full richness, has preoccupied me for two decades."

In Part I, the five HBR articles outline Porter's strategic concepts. "I have sought to capture the complexity of what actually happens in companies and industries in a way that both advances theory and brings theory to life for practitioners. My goal has been to develop both rigorous and useful frameworks for understanding competition that effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice." In the 1979-article 'How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy', Porter introduces the monumental five competitive forces (from existing competitors, new entrants, customers, suppliers, substitution). This article has had an extensive impact on the field of strategy and is still a starting point for strategic management at any MBA-course. 'What is Strategy?' was published in 1996 and is, in my opinion, a reply to all the critics of his frameworks and models. The 1985-article 'How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage', Porter and co-author Victor Millar write how information technology influences competition. The current impact of Internet and e-commerce provide excellent examples for this article. In the 1993-article 'End-Game Strategies for Declining Industries', Porter lines up with Kathryn Rudie Harrigan to discuss the last stage/final phase of a industry. This articles is largely based on Harrigan's 1980 book 'Strategies for Declining Businesses' and is a chapter in Porter's 1980-book 'Competitive Strategy'. Part I is finalised with the magnificent 'From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy'. This article is truly a classic and discusses the radical rethinking of corporate strategy. "Corporate strategy is what makes the corporate whole add up to more than the sum of its business parts." This article is the basis of his book 'Competitive Advantage'.

In Part II, Porter kicks off with 'The Competitive Advantage of Nartions', which is also one of the titles of his books. In this 1990-article Porter argues that in a world of increasingly global competition, nations have become more, not less, important. In 'Clusters and Competition' (1998), Porter expands on the theme and discusses the new economics of competition - clusters. "A Cluster is a geographically proximate group of interconnected companies and associated institutions in particular fields, linked by commonalities and complementarities." Examples are the Italian fashion industry, the California Wine cluster, Silicon Valley's venture capital industry, and Massachusetts IT industry. In the next article, 'How Global Companies Win Out' (1992), Porter, Thomas Hout and Eileen Rudden discuss what a global industry is and how global companies can win out. In the next article, 'Competing Across Locations' (1995), returns on this subject and provides additional insights on global strategy, including a general framework.

Part III includes the latest works of Porter. Porter discusses environmental regulation and competition ('Green and Competitive', 1995), with a great case study of the Dutch flower industry, and the impact of these regulations on competition and industries. In the next article ('The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City', 1995), Porter introduces the economic distress of America's inner cities, whereby "the real need - and the real opportunity - is to create wealth" . In the 1990s, Porter also turned more towards government institutions. He discusses the American health care ('Making Competition in Health Care Work', 1994) and, the according to Porter, America's failing capital investment system ('Capital Disadvantage', 1992).

The advantage of this book is that it provides the a quick insight into the ideas and essential points of Porter's books 'Competitive Strategy', 'Competitive Advantage', and 'Competitive Advantage of Nations'. Part I and Part II are now essentials in the field of strategy and competition with fantastic frameworks and models. Part III are Porter's latest articles and discuss the connection between social issues and competition. A great book that is good to read (simple US-English).

Helpful Essays from a Corporate Strategy Icon
This book is a collection of essays and articles by Michael Porter alone or with others. Most of them are collected from his writings in the Harvard Business Review although two are new to this book. Think of this as a "Porter's Greatest Hits" kind of thing. That is a bit misleading because his HBR articles are not exactly the same thing as his Competitive Advantage books although the topics are definitely related.

The essays are grouped into three broad sections: 1) Competition and Strategy: Core Concepts, 2) The Competitiveness of Locations, and 3) Competitive Solutions to Societal Problems. Will you find each article of the same high quality? Probably not (again, like a greatest hits collection), but you will find them informative and thought provoking. It is impossible to study for an MBA nowadays without invoking "Porter's Five Forces" in your discussions of competitive and marketing strategy.

This book can help add to your thinking and understanding of how every aspect of our life is in some way part of a competitive context and the ways it improves our standard of living. It will also help you improve your thinking in how to best strategize for and participate in competitive situations.

It would be a mistake to think that Porter advocates for a Hobbesian nightmare of life being nasty, brutish and short. Rather, he is more or less helping us think through the nature of the way competition arises and how to best think about its sources and how to manage it and the traps to avoid.

While Porter's model is used by some as a hammer that sees everything as a nail, it really needn't be used that way and, in its proper context, is very helpful.

Great Aggregration Of Porter's Work
'Porter On Competition' is 'lighter' to read than his 'Trilogy', but it nicely consists the core ideas of his work and how it evolved during the past decades. The book provides reader a nice overview about how competitive strategy & competitive advantage are applicable to a wide range of areas: from corporation, industry & nation, to social issues such as health care and environment.

Ladies and Gentlemen please! time to get out the Porter
You can always tell when it's time to dust off the old Michael E. Porter books and to start to frantically search for better and sounder ways to do business and compete, it's when the economy starts to get a little tighter and begin to show signs of taking a down-turn, like about now.

So, before you fork out good money and time to read the next great and grandiose book on how to make a fast few million bucks on the internet read this first, and you will still be in business this time next year, and after that - maybe.

The Gospel on Competition
Prof. Porter's work on competition in industry is a milestone and after two decades still holds its ground. I had his textbook for my MBA class well over a decade ago. His recent (Harvard Bus. Rev - March 2001) article regarding 'Strategy and the Internet' shows that the fundamental principles of Competitive Strategy is still valid as ever in the "new economy". ... Read more

Reviews (27)

1990s thought leadership
Hamel and Prahalad brought two ideas to the forefront of management in the 1990s: Creating a strategic intent that dominates corporate thinking, and then understanding the core competencies that the organization requires to get there. Rather than create numerous 5 year plans, communicate the direction and insure you have the skills to get there.

The impact of this was felt across corporate Americas. As companies struggled in reacting to changing times, they would talk more of core competencies instead of certainy of the future. Well run companies could also articulate their vision and what they're good at. (Example GE: "We are #1 or #2 in every business we run. We get there by rigorous management and continuous improvement.") These ideas are here to stay.

Is it all so simple? In Consulting Demons, Lewis Pinault takes issue with Prahalad and his consulting practice at Gemini. He asserts that the ideas can be misapplied to fuel a consulting boom, and that Prahalad's missionary zeal was better for generating consulting fees than for corporate bottom lines.

Bottom line - the book is a good introduction to some important strategic concepts. Although it is no longer required reading at top consulting firms, it is still relevant and important. Just take the ideas (like all pop management ideas) with a grain of salt.

Great Up-Date on the Peter Drucker Strategy Model
I am a corporate strategy consultant who works mostly with FORTUNE 200 companies, and I also write books and articles about strategy. Strategic thinking has gone in and out of fashion in such companies several times in the last 40 years. With this book, Hamel and Prahalad have raised the value of strategic thinking in the current context in an effective way. This book is clearly designed with the large company in mind, where the need to envision, communicate about, and organize for the future is most difficult. By breaking down strategic thinking into the elements described here, the authors make strategic thinking easier for those who have little experience. Interestingly enough, many companies have "banned" strategic thinking in favor of more tactically-oriented programs that produce near-term cost reductions. Our firm recently did a survey of the most successful CEOs, and they reported that they felt that better strategies had the most potential to most improve their companies. These same CEOs also reported that they understood little about how to create better strategies. In such companies, COMPETING FOR THE FUTURE can provide an excellent balance. A good book to read in conjunction with this one is Peter Drucker's, MANAGEMENT, which provides the intellectual heritage for many of these ideas. For people who need more detail than Drucker normally provides, COMPETING FOR THE FUTURE will be the more helpful book.

An important book to read
Few companies that began the 1980s as industry leaders ended the decade with their leadership in tact and undiminished. Many household name companies saw their success eroded or destroyed by tides of technological, demographic and regulatory change and order-of-magnitude productivity gains made by nontraditional competitors. "Do you really have a global strategy", the first HBR article by Hamel and Prahalad, developed the theme that small companies could prevail against larger, richer companies by inventing new ways of doing more with less. Differences in resource effectiveness could not be explained by efficiency, labor or capital, but by amazingly ambitious goals that stretched beyond typical strategic plans, raising the question how such incredible goals could get past the credibility test and be made tangible and real to employees? Frequently the small challengers rewrote the rules of engagement; flexibility and speed were built atop supplier-management advantage, built atop quality advantages. Companies made commitments to particular skill areas a decade in advance of specific end-product markets. How did executives select which capabilities to build for the future? Some managers were foresightful, others imagined and gave birth to entirely new products and services. These managers created new competitive space while laggard companies protected the past rather than creating the future. Existing theory throws little light on what it takes to fundamentally reshape an industry and the gap provoked this book in which the goal is to enlarge the concept of the industry and not just the organization. Being incrementally better is not enough because a company that cannot imagine the future won't be around to enjoy it. This book is about strategy and how to think by drawing on the experience of companies that have overcome resource disadvantages to build positions of global leadership. It is about companies that escaped the curse of success to rebuild industry leadership a second or third time. It has been written for companies that believe that the best way to win is to rewrite the rules; it is for those who are not afraid to challenge orthodoxy, for those who prefer to build rather than cut, for those committed to making a difference and staking out the future first.

We need to ask ourselves eight questions:
- does senior management have a clear and broadly shared understanding of how the industry may be different in ten years time? Is management's view of the future clearly reflected in short-term priorities?
- How influential is my company in setting the new rules of competition within the industry? Is it regularly defining new ways of doing business and setting new standards of customer satisfaction?
- Is senior management fully alert to the dangers posed by new, unconventional rivals? Are potential threats to the current business model widely understood? Do senior executives possess a keen sense of urgency about the need to reinvent the current business model?
- Is my company pursuing growth and new business development with as much passion as it is pursuing operational efficiency and downsizing? Do we have a clear view of where the next revenue growth will come from?
- What percentage of our improvement efforts focuses on creating advantages new to the industry, and what percentage focuses on merely catching up to our competitors? Are competitors as eager to benchmark us, as we are to benchmark them?
- What is driving our improvement and transformation agenda - our own view of future opportunities or the actions of our competitors? Is our transformation agenda mostly offensive or defensive?
- Am I more of a maintenance engineer keeping today's business humming along or an architect imagining tomorrow's businesses? Do I devote more energy to prolonging the past than I do to creating the future?
- What is the balance between hope and anxiety in my company; between confidence in our ability to find and exploit opportunities for growth and new business development and concern about our ability to maintain competitiveness in our traditional businesses; between a sense of opportunity and a sense of vulnerability, both corporate and personal?

These are not rhetorical questions. We are told to get a pencil and rate our company because these questions go unanswered in many cases. Such questions challenge the assumption that top management is in control or even that their knowledge and experience may be irrelevant or wrong-headed for the future. The urgent drives out the important and the future goes largely unexplored; the capacity to act is considered to be more important than the capacity to imagine. A capacity to invent new industries and to reinvent old ones is a prerequisite for getting to the future first and a precondition for staying out in front. Gaining an understanding of how to accomplish this most difficult task is the central mission of this book.

What must we do to ensure that the industry evolves in a way that is maximally advantageous for us? What skills and capabilities must we begin building now if we are to occupy the industry high ground in the future? How should we organize for opportunities that may not fit neatly within the boundaries of current business units and divisions? The answers are to be found in this book. Armed with this information, a company can create a pro-active agenda for organizational transformation and can control its own destiny by controlling the destiny of its own industry. No company can escape the need to reskill its people, reshape its product portfolio, redesign its processes, and redirect its resources. There is not one future but hundreds; there can be as many prizes as runners; imagination is the only limiting factor. In no way does the success of one preordain the failure of another. What distinguishes leaders from laggards, and greatness form mediocrity is the ability to imagine what could be. If your senior management did not do well on the eight questions, then your company may not be around a decade from now. There are few who would not profit from reading this book.

A retrospective on a 1994 breakthrough management guide
Corporate strategy texts are notorious for their short shelf lives, but it is instructive to revisit them during business downturns and understand what they contributed and also where they fell short.

Now that the future has happened - nine years after this book was published - what would the authors say about the dot.com bust and the collapse of erstswhile visionary corporate giants such as Enron and Global Crossing?

In 1994, the authors wrote that the goal of competition QUOTE is not to simply benchmark a competitor's products and processes and imitate its methods, but to develop an independent point of view about tommorow's opportunities and how to exploit them. UNQUOTE By this criterion, how exactly did the dot.com dwarfs or giants of the late 1990s, many of which were hailed as exactly the kind of visionary enterprises the authors encourage, fail to leave a lasting legacy?

Certainly, other breakthrough management guides have not been exempt from the harsh judgment which the benefit of hindsight might impose only a few years after these books come out. Such a fate befell one of the renowned predecessors to this book, In Search of Excellence, half of whose most admired corporations ran into serious difficulties within a few years of publicaiton of the book.

None of this undercuts some important contributions this book does continue to make about how organizations should anticipate, manage and thrive amidst rapid change. The single most important idea in this book is that of leveraging core competencies, so that a business continually focuses on what it can do best and most profitably, rather than on what it is currently doing. If nothing else, the authors have left a legacy of language which remains helpful as a common currency among business leaders who need to understand the importance of industry foresight and to shed obsolete competencies.

And the authors did rightly suggest that appropriate public policies are also needed, althought this prophetic message was unfortunately given only a fleeting mention prior to the dot.com bust QUOTE We are not arguing for a set of policy measures that in any way discriminates in favor of large companies. The goal is not to keep dinosaurs alive at any costs. However, society pays a heavy price when, through , managerial malfeasance,a company richly endowed with resources and talent self-destructs. The goal is not to embalm dinosaurs throguh subsidies, protectionism and preferential procurement policies - as European governments have too often done - but to ensure that large companies don't become dinosaurs in the first place UNQOUTE

Not Only must the Future be dreamed of , It Must be Built.<