Reviews (21)

Insightful!
Continual improvement is the key to survival in today's business climate, and as companies like GE and Motorola have proven, Six Sigma is a useful tool for ingraining the quest for perfection in an organization. After reading The Six Sigma Way, you'll probably be ready to jump out of your chair and immediately follow in these companies' footsteps by launching a Six Sigma initiative of your own. The authors, three consultants who teach firms to implement Six Sigma efforts, convincingly extol the money-saving and efficiency-enhancing virtues of the holistic approach. This book offers a lot of jargon and complex concepts, but the material is presented in easily understood charts and lists, and there are plenty of concrete examples. We [...] recommend The Six Sigma Way to managers who have heard wondrous tales of Six Sigma, but would like a more down-to-earth explanation of how it can be used and the benefits it offers.

How to Achieve "Practically-Perfect Quality of Performance"
Over the years, I have worked with dozens of small-to-midsize companies, all of which were in dire need of improving one or more of the following: cost reduction, culture change, customer retention, cycle-time reduction, defect reduction, market-share growth, productivity improvement, and product-service development. You can thus understand why I was curious to know to what extent (if any) Six Sigma could be helpful to small-to-midsize companies.

By now we have become well aware of the success of Six Sigma initiatives at major international corporations such as ABB, Allied Signal/Honeywell, Black & Decker, Dow Chemical, Dupont, Federal Express, General Electric, Johnson and Johnson, Kodak, Motorola, SONY, and Toshiba. Once having read this book, I am convinced that -- with certain modifications -- Six Sigma could perhaps be even more valuable to small-to-midsize companies which, obviously, have fewer resources. What exactly is Six Sigma? The authors provide this definition: "A comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining, and maximizing business success. Six Sigma is uniquely driven by close understanding of consumer needs, disciplined use of facts, data, and statistical analysis, and diligent attention to managing, improving, and reinventing business processes."

The authors identify what they call "hidden truths" about Six Sigma:

1. You can apply Six Sigma to many different business activities and challenges -- from strategic planning to operations to customer service -- and maximize the impact of your efforts.

2. The benefits of Six Sigma will be accessible whether you lead an entire organization or a department. Moreover, you'll be able to scale your efforts, from tackling specific problems to renewing the entire business.

3. You'll be prepared to achieve breakthroughs in these untapped gold mines of opportunity -- and to broaden Six Sigma beyond the realm of the engineering community.

4. You'll gain insights into how to strike the balance between push and pull -- accommodating people and demanding performance. That balance is where real sustained improvement is found. On either side -- being "too nice" or forcing people beyond their understanding and readiness -- lie merely short-term goals or no results at all.

5. The good news is, Six Sigma is a lot more fun than root canal. Seriously, the significant financial gains from Six Sigma may be exceeded in value by the intangible benefits. In fact, the changes in attitude and enthusiasm that come from improved processes and better-informed people are often easier to observe, and more emotionally rewarding than dollar savings.

The authors organize their material as follows: Part One: An Executive Summary of Six Sigma; Part Two: Gearing Up and Adapting Six Sigma to Your Organization; Part Three: Implementing Six Sigma -- The Roadmap and Tools; and finally, The Appendices: Practical Support. According to Jack Welch, "The best Six Sigma projects begin not inside the business but outside it, focused on answering the question -- how can we make the customer more competitive? What is critical to the customer's success?...One thing we have discovered with certainty is that anything we do that makes the customer more successful inevitably results in a financial return for us."

If anything, it is even more important for small-to-midsize companies (than it is for the GEs of the world) to answer these two questions correctly and then track and compare their performance in terms of what their customers require. The well-publicized objective of Six Sigma is to achieve practically-perfect quality of performance (ie 3.4 defects for every million activities or "opportunities") and this is indeed an ambitious objective. Collins and Porras, authors of Built to Last, would probably view it as the biggest of Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs). In that book, they assert that the most successful and admired companies have the ability -- and willingness -- to simultaneously adopt two seemingly contrary objectives at the same time. Stability and renewal, Big Picture and minute detail, creativity and rational analysis -- these forces, working together,, make organizations great. This "we can do it all" approach they call the "Genius of the And."

Pande, Neuman, and Cavanagh suggest that all manner of specific benefits can result from following "the Six Sigma way." For example, Six Sigma generates sustained success, sets a performance goal for everyone, enhances value to customers, accelerates the rate of improvement, promotes learning and "cross-pollination", and executes strategic change. All organizations (regardless of their size or nature) need to avoid or escape what the authors refer to as the "Tyranny of Or." Here in a single volume is about all they need to seek "practically-perfect quality of performance." Whether or not they ultimately reach that destination, their journey en route is certain to achieve improvement which would otherwise not be possible.

A Breakthrough in "Boundaryless Thinking"
From livejournal notrealnews

Jack Welch, the retired CEO of General Electric, has hailed his recent affair with Harvard Business Review reporter Suzy Wetlaufer as a breakthrough in the business concept of "Boundaryless Thinking". "I could have easily spent the rest of my life trapped in the narrow view that my marriage meant lifelong monogamy," said Welch, a smug look on his face, "but with boundaryless thinking, I was able to take the concept of marriage in a whole new direction. Just like the things I did at GE."

Boundaryless thinking was one of the tenants that allowed Welch to get GE out of the failing appliances business and into the credit business, which now comprises more than half of GE's corporate makeup. It was a concept Welch highly stressed and touted in his autobiography "Jack: Straight from the Gut." He intends to follow it up with a new book, "Cheating on your wife the Six Sigma Way: How CEO's of GE, Motorola, and Other Top Companies are Honing Their Extramarital Performance".

What a load of c***!
I never read the book, but the CD is such a masterfully "abridged" version of the book that it manages to tell you for hour HOW WONDERFUL six sigma is, while totally neglecting to tell you WHAT SIX SIGMA ACTUALLY IS, or HOW IT IS IMPLEMENTED. In short, the CD contains nothing but self-marketing bull. If you have money to waste, go buy it.

The Six Sigma Way
The book was very easy to follow. I found it especially helpful that the Six Sigma Way gave tips as to which chapters should be read for each level of Six Sigma implementation. Since my company already had it implemented and I was only reading the book for an understanding of what my company was doing, I was able to skip the unneeded portions about implementation. This was a big time saver. ... Read more

Book Description

From the New Yorker to USA Today, everyone from journalists to market pros are turning to behavioral finance to explain, analyze, and predict market direction. In contrast to old-school assumptions of cool-headed rationality, the new behavioral school embraces hot-blooded human irrationality as a core feature of both individuals and financial markets. The 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to scholars of this new scientific approach to irrationality.

In Mean Markets and Lizard Brains, Terry Burnham–an economist who has a proven ability to translate complex topics into everyday language–reveals the biological causes of irrationality. The human brain contains ancient structures that exert powerful and often unconscious influences on behavior. This "lizard brain" may have helped our ancestors eat and reproduce, but it wreaks havoc with our finances. Going far beyond cataloguing our financial foibles, Dr. Burnham applies this novel approach to all of today’s most important financial topics– the stock market, the economy, real estate, bonds, mortgages, inflation, and savings.

This broad and scholarly investigation provides an in-depth look at why manias, panics, and crashes happen, why people are built to want to buy at irrationally high prices and sell at irrationally low prices. Most importantly, by incorporating the new science of irrationality, readers can position themselves to profit from financial markets that often seem downright mean. Mean Markets and Lizard Brains skillfully identifies the craziness that is part of human nature, helps us see it in ourselves, and then shows us how to profit from a world that doesn’t always make sense.

Terry Burnham, PhD (Cambridge, MA), is an economist at the Harvard Business School. He has been an active and extremely successful participant in the financial markets for over 20 years. Dr. Burnham has a PhD in business economics from Harvard University, a masters in finance from MIT, an MS in computer science from San Diego State University, and a BS in biophysics from the University of Michigan. Before becoming an economics professor at Harvard, he worked on Wall Street, and was the President and CFO of a successful start-up biotechnology firm. He is the author of the bestselling book Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food, Taming Our Primal Instincts. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In their previous book, The Balanced Scorecard, Robert Kaplan and David Norton unveiled an innovative "performance management system" that any company could use to focus and align their executive teams, business units, human resources, information technology, and financial resources on a unified overall strategy--much as businesses have traditionally employed financial management systems to track and guide their general fiscal direction. In The Strategy-Focused Organization, Kaplan and Norton explain how companies like Mobil, CIGNA, and Chemical Retail Bank have effectively used this approach for nearly a decade, and in the process present a step-by-step implementation outline that other organizations could use to attain similar results. Their book is divided into five sections that guide readers through development of a completely individualized plan that is created with "strategy maps" (graphical representations designed to clearly communicate desired outcomes and how they are to be achieved), then infused throughout the enterprise and made an integral part of its future. In several chapters devoted to the latter, for example, the authors show how their models have linked long-term strategy with day-to-day operational and budgetary management, and detail the "double loop" process for doing so, monitoring progress, and initiating corrective actions if necessary. --Howard Rothman ... Read more

Reviews (19)

The Perilous "Journey" to Breakthrough Performance
If you have not already read Kaplan and Norton's The Balanced Scoreboard, I presume to suggest that you do so prior to reading this book. However, this sequel is so thoughtful and well-written that it can certainly be of substantial value to decision-makers in any organization (regardless of size or nature) which is determined to "thrive in the new business environment." Research data suggest that only 5% of the workforce understand their company's strategy, that only 25% of managers have incentives linked to strategy, that 60% of organizations don't link budgets to strategy, and 85% of executive teams spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy. These and other research findings help to explain why Kaplan and Norton believe so strongly in the power of the Balanced Scorecard. As they suggest, it provides "the central organizing framework for important managerial processes such as individual and team goal setting, compensation, resource allocation, budgeting and planning, and strategic feedback and learning." After rigorous and extensive research of their own, obtained while working closely with several dozen different organizations, Kaplan and Norton observed five common principles of a Strategy-Focused Organization:

1. Translate the strategy to operational terms

2. Align the organization to the strategy

3. Make strategy everyone's job

4. Make strategy a continual process

5. Mobilize change through executive leadership

The first four principles focus on the the Balanced Scorecard tool, framework, and supporting resources; the importance of the fifth principle is self-evident. "With a Balanced Scorecard that tells the story of the strategy, we now have a reliable foundation for the design of a management system to create Strategy-Focused Organizations."

After two introductory chapters, the material is carefully organized and developed within five Parts, each of which examines in detail one of the aforementioned "common principles": Translating the Strategy to Operational Terms, Aligning the Organization to Create Synergies, Making Strategy Everyone's Job, Making Strategy a Continual Process, and finally, Mobilizing Change Through Executive Leadership. Kaplan and Norton then provide a "Frequently Asked Questions" section which some readers may wish to consult first.

There are many pitfalls to be avoided when designing, launching, and implementing the program which Kaplan and Norton present. These pitfalls include lack of senior management commitment, too few individuals involved [or including inappropriate individuals at the outset], keeping the scoreboard at the top, too long a development process (when, in fact, the Balanced Scorecard is a one-time measurement process), treating the Balanced Scorecard as an [isolated] systems project, hiring consultants lacking sufficient experience with a Balanced Scorecard, and introducing the Balanced Scorecard only for compensation. When organizations experience one or more of these pitfalls, their key executives can soon become impatient, confused, frustrated, and ultimately, opposed to Balanced Scorecard initiatives. It is imperative to understand both what the Balanced Scorecard must be (e.g. cohesive and comprehensive) and what it must not be (e.g. fragmented and episodic). Kaplan and Norton correctly note that the journey they propose "is not easy or short. It requires commitment and perseverance. It requires teamwork and integration across traditional organizational boundaries and roles. The message must be reinforced often and in many ways." Those who are determined to achieve organization-wide breakthrough performance are fortunate to have Kaplan and Norton as companions every step of the way during what is indeed a perilous "journey."

Extremely detailed, highly informative, dryly written
The Strategy-Focused Organization

Building on their Balanced Scorecard approach, Kaplan and Norton have developed an impressive framework in The Strategy-Focused Organization for the implementation of strategy. They have found that 90% of strategic initiatives fail due not to formulation but to implementation difficulties. Successful implementation of strategy requires all parts of an organizations to be aligned and linked to the strategy, while strategy itself must become a continual process in which everyone is involved. The Balanced Scorecard, originally seen by the authors as a measurement tool, is now presented as a means for implementing strategy by creating alignment and focus.

Financial measures report on lagging financial indicators. The Balanced Scorecard aims to report on the drivers of future value creation. The book shows in detail how this is done from four perspectives: Financial, customer, internal business perspective, and learning and growth (these are outlined on p.77). These four perspectives produce a highly detailed framework when combined with the five principles of a strategy-focused organization: 1: Translate the strategy to operational terms. 2: Align the organization to the strategy. 3: Make strategy everyone's everyday job. 4: Make strategy a continual process. 5: Mobilize change through executive leadership.

Absorbing every detail of this book will require many hours. The sheer detail of this complex system requires considerable attention, perhaps more than some readers can muster, but clearly distinguishes this work from many books full of business fluff. The style tends to be turgid and pedantic while being admirably complete. Readers can grasp the essence of the book's central points by reading only Chapter 1 (Creating the Strategy-Focused Organization), Chapter 3 (Building Strategy Maps), and Chapter 8 (Creating Strategic Awareness). Skip quickly through the chapters in Part Two: Aligning the Organization to Create Synergies. This section is the least engaging of the five. The balanced scorecard approach to strategy will appeal to those with a systematizing frame of mind. The book is filled with complex diagrams of corporate processes consisting of interrelated boxes and forces.

This approach is extremely detailed and complex. It requires a major commitment and effort. Though the authors claim it can be implemented by smaller organizations, this will be more challenging than for large companies who can commit a team full time to working out the details.

Much of the value of the approach may lie not so much in following through on completely working out the balanced scorecard but on absorbing the lessons regarding organizational integration across silos and the importance of clarity about mission, strategy, and goals. The balanced scorecard is one way to achieve and implement this clarity but not the only way. Another would be continual reiteration of these (as in Confessions of An Extraordinary Executive). Some companies may benefit from strict use of this system, including finding units of measurement for its implementation. Others will gain much from applying the insights without such a formal and complete implementation.

A "Must Read" for Executives!
If you are an executive don't fail to read this. Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard approach has had a tremendous impact on thinking in the executive suite. Buy and read a copy today. I have bought copies for all of my clients.

Michael Beitler
Author of "Strategic Organizational Change"

Overblown and impractical
Having used the BSc a few times in my work, I expected this to be a hepful addition to my knowledge base in the area. I found that it added little to the author's other published tomes and to his articles in journals like HBR. Although the basic concept is sound, the implementation challenges are dealt with as you'd expect from an ivory tower-based profesoor and are several steps removed from the challenges that most of my real-world, and smaller company clients, need to address. I truly felt as though I didn't get my money's worth with this purchase and I should have stuck with the materials I already had by the author that was available in other forms. I would have saved time, money and a degree of frustration.

A must have tool for business improvement
If you're attempting to improve the way you do business, this book is a must have. It is a little dry so you have to be committed to using the concepts presented. If you can manage to stick with it, you will reap the benefits of the BSC. Good Luck! ... Read more

Book Description

Can You Predict the Future by Looking at the Past? Since accurate forecasting requires more than just inserting historical data into a model, Forecasting: Methods and Applications, 3/e, adopts a managerial, business orientation. Integrated throughout this text is the innovative idea that explaining the past is not adequate for predicting the future. Inside, you will find the latest techniques used by managers in business today, discover the importance of forecasting and learn how it's accomplished. And you'll develop the necessary skills to meet the increased demand for thoughtful and realistic forecasts. New features in the third edition include:
* An emphasis placed on the practical uses of forecasting.
* All data sets used in this book are available on the Internet.
* Comprehensive coverage provided on both quantitative and qualitative forecasting techniques.
* Includes many new developments in forecasting methodology and practice. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

This book has the formulas.
Chapters 3 and 4, and on covered the vital information that is useful for inventory system forecasting at the SKU level, and for measuring the accuracy of the forecasts. This book was extremely helpful in that regard. Highly recommended.

Down to earth, practical guide on forecasting.
The book provides coverage of three important areas:

- Basic forecasting tools and methods - summarizing data, statistical tools, regression, as well as some material on more advanced forecasting methods
- Data preparation - time series decomposition, smoothing methods
- A discussion of the issues involved in forecasting - long term versus short term forecasting, accuracy of forecasts, the importance and limitations of judgmental forecasts and combining these with statistical forecasts

I was fortunate enough to stumble across this book in a colleagues office and believe this book should belong in every market research professional's shelf.

More of a reference text
I used this text for an undergraduate course in Industrial Forecasting. Unfortunately, the text is not very good if you actually want to learn new material from it. It is better suited as a reference text for you to look up equations and concepts after you have already learned them.

Excellent Examples and Practical Approach
This book was not only recommended, but given to me as a MUST READ at work. Excellent practical approach to the theory with a minimum of formulation. Good practical examples and demos. I recommend it as a training manual for new analysts on the job.

forecasting
forecasting, economics, business cycles, economic activity, business environment ... Read more

Book Description

All companies must grow to survive-but only one in five growth strategies succeeds. In Profit from the Core, strategy expert Chris Zook revealed how to grow profitably by focusing on and achieving full potential in the core business. But what happens when your core business provides insufficient new growth, or even hits the wall?

In Beyond the Core, Zook outlines an expansion strategy based on putting together combinations of adjacency moves into areas away from, but related to, the core business, such as new product lines or new channels of distribution. These sequences of moves carry less risk than diversification, yet they can create enormous competitive advantage, because they stem directly from what the company already knows and does best.

Based on extensive research on the growth patterns of thousands of companies worldwide, including CEO interviews with twenty-five top performers in adjacency growth, Beyond the Core (1) identifies the adjacency pattern that most dramatically increases the odds of success: "relentless repeatability;" (2) offers a systematic approach for choosing among a range of possible adjacency moves; and 3) shows how to time adjacency moves during a variety of typical business situations.

Beyond the Core shows how to find and leverage the best avenues for growth-without damaging the heart of the firm.

... Read more

Reviews (11)

Standing Tall
Standing Tall among Business Books, Chris Zook has indepth research examples of Companies portraying picture of today's business times. Numerous CEO reports, charts and graphs with real practical illustrations are varied. Outside a core business, the expansion is detailed in this book - on how to go ahead framing and practically applying the ways and means so as not to harness the existence levels. The books offers nurturing roots of business, examples on adjacency expansions with pros and cons of success and failure measures. The name itself speaks big 'Expand market without abandoning Roots' and the rule of the game lies in effective management. The author pin points steps to leverage best avenues and the possible adjacent moves so as to reach competitive edge and pooling profit without harnessing the roots of main frame business. In today's time, with diversifications, 'Beyond the Core'- the book serves a Good Reference and as I read on Chris zook's comments, I feel this is a 'Grab Pick' and Must for all Big Company Executives.

Not All Adjacencies Are Appropriate
Perhaps you have already read Profit From the Core: Growth Strategy in the Age of Turbulence which Zook co-authored with James Allen. It was based on rigorous research which revealed the key strategic decisions that most often determine growth or stagnation in business. They note: "Central to our findings are three ideas: the concept of the core business and its boundaries; the idea that every business has a level of full-potential performance that usually exceeds what the company imagines; and the idea that performance-yield loss occurs at many levels, from strategy to leadership to organizational capabilities to execution." In the five chapters which follow, Zook (with Allen) examines "the types of strategic business decisions that most often seem to tilt the odds of future success or failure." Zook correctly suggests in this book that many organizations cannot resist the appeal ("the siren's song") of "miracle cures" of their problems. Zook focuses entirely on what has been verified in real-world experience, on what is practical, and on what will reliably achieve the desired results of sound strategic decisions.

In the first chapter of this book, Zook discusses what he calls "the growth crisis" which many (most?) organizations encounter. He observes, "Finding or maintaining a source of sustained and profitable growth has become the number one concern of most CEOs. And moves that push out the boundaries of their core business into 'adjacencies' are where they are most often look these days." I agree with Zook that these strategies have three distinctive features: "First, they are of significant size, or they can lead to a sequence of related adjacency moves that generate substantial growth. Second. they build on., indeed are bolted on, a strong core business. Thus the adjacent area draws from the strength of the core and at the same time may serve to reinforce or defend that core. Third, adjacency strategies are a journey into the unknown, a true extension of the core, a pushing out of the boundaries, a step-up in risk from typical forms of organic growth." Much of the material in this brilliant book is guided and informed by what Zook claims is "the new math of profitable growth." Specifics are best provided by Zook himself.

Zook presumes that those who read this book already know what a core business is, and more specifically, what the core business is of their respective organizations. Given his objectives, that assumption is probably necessary so that he can explore the opportunities which (key word) appropriate adjencies offer. Fair enough. However, my own experience suggests that companies frequently extend the boundaries of a core business without fully understanding what that core business is. Railroads probably offer the best example. Only much too late (if then) did senior-level executives at major railroads realize that their core business was transporting people and cargo, NOT "railroading." Obviously, trains are confined to the tracks as are ships to the water and trucks to the roadways over which they proceed. Early on, what if owners of railroads and their associates had addressed questions such as those Zook poses in his Preface (Page ix)? Had they done so, presumably they would have recognized appropriate adjacencies which include taxi cabs, Super Shuttle, local delivery services, and "overnight" delivery services (e.g. DHL, FedEx, and UPS). While they're at it, why not own or forge strategic partnerships with over-the-road trucking companies and cargo airlines? Given the central locations of railroad stations in major metropolitan areas, it would have been easy enough to combine a full-range of travel services within an upscale retail mall.

The question to ask, therefore, is not what an organization's core business is. Rather, what could AND SHOULD it be? The correct answer to that question is important, of course, because without a proper core, there can be chaos. Also, the correct answer suggests appropriate adjacencies by which to achieve and then sustain increasingly more profitable growth.

In the Afterword, Zook imagines himself engaged in what he calls the proverbial "elevator" conversation during which he reviews the "key messages" contained within his book. It serves no good purpose to list them here because each must be carefully considered within a meticulously formulated context. However, once the book has been read, I strongly recommend that all of these "key messages" be reviewed on a monthly (if not weekly) basis. For decision-makers in at least some companies, this may well prove to be the most valuable book they have read in recent years.

An Outstanding Growth Guide for Global Business Leaders
As a second year MBA student at the Kellogg School of Management and a future corporate strategist for a global financial services firm, I found reading Beyond the Core to be one of the best time investments that I've made over the last few years. Chris Zook seems to have a knack for writing great books that not only stand the test of time but that are also highly relevant to the current business and economic environments. Specifically, his first book, Profits from the Core, which focused on maximizing the value of the core business, was launched when businesses needed it most - during the economic downturn. Now, Beyond the Core is perfectly timed since, from what I and other MBA's are observing in the market, most businesses are remobilizing for growth.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed Beyond the Core - it's a relatively quick read that is focused, insightful and well structured. More specifically, I think there are three key things that make this book stand out in comparison to many other business books I've read: 1) it takes a global perspective 2) it is highly data driven and has great examples and 3) its very actionable and offers lots of insights on implementation.

To elaborate, the first thing I really liked about Beyond the Core is that it takes a truly global perspective with examples from Europe, Asia and Latin America. As an MBA student majoring in International Business Strategy who will be working in a global firm after graduation, it was great to read about the strategies that firms such as Li & Fung (HK), Ambev (Brazil), Lloyd's Bank and Vodephone (UK) and STMicroelectronics (Italy). Overall, I also liked that the book mixes an array of fresh case studies (Tesco, Biogen, Ambev) with more traditional ones (Dell, Nike, American Express).

Secondly, Beyond the Core is highly data driven and the recommendations are based on empirical evidence, not conjectures. As a student of business strategy, I too often come across books or theories that are supported by nothing other than a few select examples that prop up the author's hypotheses. Beyond the Core, in contrast, is supported by an enormous amount of financial, competitive and market research and by many CEO interviews and studies by Bain & Company. This is extremely insightful as it helps the reader understand the odds of success and failure across the business world and thus leads to much more informed strategies.

Finally, Mr. Zook has focused nearly a third of the book on implementation and execution strategy. This makes the book and its recommendations highly actionable instead of leaving the author asking "so what?" The book sets out a systematic and understandable road map for adjacency expansion. More importantly, it discusses issues that are critical to growth initiatives such as: organizational structure, decision making processes, staffing, accountability and reporting, etc.

In sum, I highly recommend Beyond the Core, especially to global business leaders looking for a practical guide for profitably growing their businesses. Enjoy!!

Questionable Choice of Examples and Lack of Definitions!
Many people who have been burned by going into new areas will grade this as five-stars for encouraging caution in expanding a company's scope. If that's all you want from a book, this is a five-star book. If you want to learn what the exact lesson is, and why that lesson is true, you'll have to look elsewhere however. If you want to learn how to beat the odds in this area, you will also have to look elsewhere.

I found Profit from the Core to be a directionless mishmash of data without firm definitions that repeatedly espoused the idea of "stick to your knitting." As a result, I took up Beyond the Core with great trepidation. At first blush, Beyond the Core seemed to cure some of the peripheral problems of Profit from the Core . . . until I began to notice how almost all of the important examples of continuing business model innovation had been excluded that seemed to fit all of the criteria (except perhaps being willing to be interviewed by the author). Mr. Zook continues to avoid defining what "the core" is, so that basic problem continues.

The book's message is "stick to your knitting . . . unless you have not choice . . . then don't go away from your cost advantages and knowledge." If you want to know a little more about that message, you can read all of the key points in the book summarized in the Afterword on pages 189-192 in less than five minutes.

The book will mainly be helpful to those who are thinking about making unrelated acquisitions. The advice: Don't do it! The odds are way against you . . . but even the most unrelated acquisitions sometimes work (GE bought NBC and has done well with it, for example). The book lacks clear direction for how some overcome the odds.

The book was also curiously silent about how companies can use small experiments to test their way into new areas. That's the way that most firms expand beyond their core.

The methodology looks very much like those employed in Build to Last and Good to Great . . . but don't believe it. Cases were selected in part based on whether Mr. Zook could interview the companies. So it's really a subjective sample. So take the conclusions with a selective grain of salt. Here are some of the cases of those who have prospered with expanding into new areas that seem to fit the Zook criteria but don't appear in the book: Beckman Coulter; Berkshire Hathaway; Clear Channel Communications; Education Management; GE; Iron Mountain; Nucor; Paychex; Sony; Virgin Group; Xilinx; and Zebra Technologies. It's not surprising that the book fails to describe the discipline of continual business model improvement as a best practice . . . a serious omission for this subject.

Ultimately, I think the flaw behind the book is to look at moving "beyond the core" separately from looking "at the core." If the two books had been combined into one that looked at how to outperform the competition, there would have been the basis of helpful insights. Or, this book could have been scoped down into how to grow into new areas with internal development activities versus acquisitions. That would have been helpful. But with the focus of "beyond the core," you are left in a never-never land that you may not want to be in. The other interesting question that could have been addressed is how companies prospered by eliminating the old core and replacing it with a new one through acquisition as a number of companies have.

As I thought about why the author might have chosen this direction, I realized that it may be an unconscious use of the older ways of strategic thinking. Those analytical schemes separated thinking about existing business areas from entering new ones. For some time though, most strategic thinkers have emphasized seeing the questions as connected. You should, for example, be pursuing your best opportunities. That means comparing all choices in some manner at the same time.

The other problem with data-heavy studies like this one is that you are relying on backward impressions (with 20-20 hindsight). Studies of best practices are best done by looking at the decisions and actions when they are made . . . and then measuring the results to see what happens. Interviews taken at such times reveal much different information than the neat success stories spun after the fact. Clayton Christensen does a good job of explaining this issue in chapter one of his new book, The Innovator's Solution.

As I finished the book, I began to think about the many unsuccessful unrelated acquisitions that I have run into among companies. In almost every case, I remember reading a thick book by a name consulting firm that had explained at the time of the purchase why the acquisition could not miss. Perhaps a follow on for this book would be how to avoid bad advice in evaluating acquisitions.

A great lead-on to Profit from the Core
A very well documented lead-on to Profit from the Core, with practical real life examples on adjacency expansions, including successes, failures and comparisons of companies that started with similar points of departure but went different ways. It comes as no surprise that the book was rated by The Economist among the top 5 business books of the season. The book and its thinking are highly relevant to today's business climate in Europe. ... Read more

Book Description

Projects have been around since ancient times. Noah built the ark, Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine – all projects. Why then, is the topic of project management suddenly of such great interest today? The answer is simple. The audience has changed and the stakes are higher.

Successful businesses and organizations create projects that produce desired results in established timeframes with assigned resources. As a result, businesses are increasingly driven to find individuals who can excel in this project-oriented environment. And that's where this guide comes into play.

Reading Project Management For Dummies could help a diverse group of people, some of which include the following:

• Senior managers and junior assistants (the senior managers of tomorrow)
• Experienced project managers and people who've never been on a project team
• People who've had significant project management training and people who've had none
• People who've had years of real-world business and government experience and people who've just entered the workforce

By reading this guide, you'll gain insight into beginning a project, supporting it throughout its life, and bringing it to a successful closure. You'll discover how to manage the uncertainties surrounding a project, and uncover the definitions to the most common project management terms. And you'll figure out how to handle some of the more common project management situations you'll encounter, from dealing with the people involved to organizing the mountains of paperwork.

While most businesses are looking for ways to get a better handle on their projects, what no one is saying is that the majority of people who become project managers aren't doing so by choice. Instead, project management is often an unexpected but required progression in their chosen career paths. Think of this guide as a friend or comfortable resource that has more to share each time you crack it open as you experience new situations in which you can apply the knowledge. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Covers the basics
This book covers the basics of project management but does not include the "how to" tools to be "the reference guide" for project managers. Perhaps to be a project manager you can't be a dummy.

Great introduction to project management
A solid book that introduces many tools and techniques central to project management. If you have to manage projects in addition to doing your "real work" this book is for you. If you're a project manager by profession, you should be past this book by now.

Too Basic
Individuals with any experience in running a project, whether it is a small focused job or a large-scale product development effort, will find subject treatises too fundamental. The chapters lack the in-depth coverage and focus as the apparent goal is to present a broad-based overview of basic concepts in the field of project management.

Here is a guideline to use in deciding whether or not to purchase this book:
How comfortable are you with using the Microsoft Project software?
If you are very comfortable with MS Project, I recommend that you try "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge" instead.
If you have never used MS Project and/or have no idea what it does, then you should probably buy this book.

Manage your projects wisely
The author details all of the processes, reporting requirements, and pitfalls that go into managing projects intelligently. A great primer on the subject.

Useful and Enjoyable
Stan is an excellent trainer (I have attended 2 of his courses), and it turns out he is a good writer, too! He presents PM concepts and tools in an easy-to-understand way with great real-life examples. As a new PM, I have found this book to be a great reference as well as good "flip-through" reading. ... Read more

Book Description

A Framework for Predicting Industry Winners and Losers

Every day, individuals take action based on how they believe innovation will change industries. Yet these beliefs are largely based on guesswork and incomplete data, and lead to costly errors in judgment.

Now, internationally renowned innovation expert Clayton M. Christensen and his research partners Scott D. Anthony and Erik A. Roth present a groundbreaking framework for predicting outcomes in the evolution of any industry. Based on proven theories outlined in Christensen's landmark books The Innovator's Dilemma and The Innovator's Solution, Seeing What's Next offers a practical, three-part model that helps decision-makers spot the signals of industry change, determine the outcome of competitive battles, and assess whether a firm's actions will ensure or threaten future success. Through in-depth case studies of industries from aviation to health care, the authors illustrate the predictive power of innovation theory in action.

A unique, "outside-in" perspective on industry change, Seeing What's Next will help executives, analysts, and investors develop invaluable intuition into the future that matters to them. ... Read more

Book Description

Principles of Forecasting: A Handbook for Researchers and Practitioners summarizes knowledge from experts and from empirical studies. It provides guidelines that can be applied in fields such as economics, sociology, and psychology. It applies to problems such as those in finance (how much is this company worth?), marketing (will a new product be successful?), personnel (how can we identify the best job candidates?), and production (what level of inventories should be kept?). The book is edited by Professor J. Scott Armstrong of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Contributions were written by 40 leading experts in forecasting, and the 30 chapters cover all types of forecasting methods. There are judgmental methods such as Delphi, role-playing, and intentions studies. Quantitative methods include econometric methods, expert systems, and extrapolation. Some methods, such as conjoint analysis, analogies, and rule-based forecasting, integrate quantitative and judgmental procedures. In each area, the authors identify what is known in the form of "if-then principles", and they summarize evidence on these principles. The project, developed over a four-year period, represents the first book to summarize all that is known about forecasting and to present it so that it can be used by researchers and practitioners. To ensure that the principles are correct, the authors reviewed one another's papers. In addition, external reviews were provided by more than 120 experts, some of whom reviewed many of the papers. The book includes the first comprehensive forecasting dictionary. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Don't let a bad forecast ruin your whole decision
The subtitle of this book, A Handbook for Researchers and Practitioners, too narrowly defines the audience for Armstrong's new reference. Principles of Forecasting is, in fact, an indispensable resource for managers and professionals of every ilk. Forecasting is an integral part of decisions that we make and that are made for us. To be good decision makers and citizens we owe it to ourselves and others both to make our forecasts explicit and to examine the quality of those forecasts. This book gives the guidance to ensure that best practices are followed and to judge forecast quality after the fact

Principles of Forecasting is not a book that you will find in airport bookstores. It is not a popular management title that dishes-up the latest buzzwords. On the contrary, this book will give you knowledge to examine critically the fashions and fads, as well as the received wisdom, of management. And yet, despite being a serious work, the book is a joy to read at length, or to browse. I suspect many decision makers will tend to do the latter.

The Forecasting Dictionary is part of Principles of Forecasting and is a good place to start some directed browsing. For example, experienced decision makers will often rely on their intuition, even for important decisions. Is that a good idea? The Forecasting Dictionary has an entry for "intuition" that tells us, "... it is difficult to find published studies in which intuition is superior to structured judgment". Highlighted terms, such as "structured judgment" in the preceding passage, indicate that there is a separate Dictionary entry for the term. By following the highlighted terms and the references to the body of the book which are included in Dictionary entries, one can quickly pick up a useful understanding of a topic. Some entries are very detailed.

Following the intuition entry to the entry on structured judgement, one finds "role playing" as an approach to imposing structure on a forecasting problem. Role-play forecasting for conflict situations happens to be an interest of mine. There is a chapter on role-playing in Principles of Forecasting that provides evidence that the outcomes of role-plays by students, and other non- representative role-players,provide accurate forecasts of decisions in real conflicts. This is counter-intuitive given that the conflicts examined involved generals, chief executives, directors, and union leaders among others. Moreover, unaided judgment tends to do poorly by comparison. This has important implications for strategy development - after all, what use is a strategy that fails to forecast accurately how other parties will behave?

I keep my copy of Principles of Forecasting handy, refer to it often, and learn something new every time I do so. How many books could one say that of? A precious few. Congratulations to the authors on a unique and valuable work well executed.

Guidelines for Developers, Researchers, and Practitioners
Principles of Forecasting is not a collection of articles describing basic forecasting methods.Instead, 40 authors have used a common format of identifying if-then principles and the support for those principles.Some other common formats of the chapters are:(1) limitations (2) implications for practitioners (3) implications for researchers.

The final chapter of this book contains 139 forecasting principles...

An example of a forecasting principle is:“13.25 Use multiple measures of accuracy”.A primary use for such principles would be as checklists for software developers, researchers, and practitioners to be sure that their work is complete to this level of detail.These are important general principles.Forecasters will need to use other references for the details of forecasting methods.

The Web site for this book is a very valuable resource for forecasters.Some of the resources are:(1) forecasting dictionary [Enter a forecasting term and the Web site returns a definition.] (2) links to forecasting software sites (3) links to forecasting books and reviews (3) links to bibliographies, abstracts, and (for subscribers) full text papers (4) links to conferences on forecasting (5) links to Web sites related to forecasting.

An Excellent Overview of Business Forecasting
Throughout my career, it seemed every five years or so, I briefly strayed from risk analysis into a closely related field, such as weather reporting or stock picking, just to see what others were doing.Most recently, I won a jackpot in return for the effort. I read J.Scott Armstrong's "Principles of Forecasting: A Handbook for Researchers and Practitioners."

Risk analysis has dealt more with subjects like natural and technological disasters.Business forecasting resembled risk analysis in several ways, but over the years, enterprise and capital markets accumulated much more extensive data.Social scientists studied the process of (and procedures for) forecasting with financial data intensively.Small wonder, as poor forecasting often led to costly disasters.

The authors wrote the Handbook in clear, coherent prose.It assembled 29 articles by 40 leading experts into an excellent book with 18 chapters.Armstrong, the editor (and clearly the instigator) created a hierarchical framework that described the relationships between different kinds of forecasting information, beginning with either judgmental or statistical sources."Principles of Forecasting" illustrated this framework in an often repeated diagram.

The framework contributed to a coherent structure.Each chapter described one compartment within the framework.Each had an introduction that described the limitations and uses of a source of data used by forecasters.Each article also started with an abstract.Thus, a reader could quickly survey all of forecasting by skimming through the Handbook and reading either the article abstracts or the chapter introductions.

Instead of reading the text sequentially, the framework and the Handbook's structure also allowed finding a specific article (or a topic of interest within an article) quickly, yet staying oriented to the overall subject.Thus, "Principles of Forecasting" served a handy reference text.The organization and a competent index sped this application.

Many articles were excellent.None were less than very good.The articles concentrated on principles within subdomains of forecasting, which the Handbook emphasized by setting the principles apart in bullet format and bold text.The articles had a common format, which included two useful implication sections, separately for practitioners and for researchers.The articles also had overall summaries, and references to the literature.The authors edited each other's articles, which imposed both high quality and consistency on the Handbook.In addition, an extensive group of outside experts reviewed the articles.This huge effort showed in both dense information content and readability of the articles.

Similarly, the Handbook contained a separate and marvelous "Forecasting Dictionary" toward the end, which allowed quick reference to (and understanding of) separate ideas involved in competent forecasting.In another separate section toward the end of the Handbook, a "Forecasting Standards Checklist" gathered all of the principles from the separate articles and condensed them into a very useful guide.

"Principles of Forecasting" appeared comprehensive in its coverage.The authors wrote it as an explanation of a field, instead of a group of individual articles about related subjects. An introduction and a summary at the beginning and end of the book, also helped orient me to the overall subject of forecasting and to the need for principles.I thought that the Handbook reflected the consistent objective of a group of experts to interpret and explain forecasting.So, I will recommend it as a textbook for classroom use.

"Principles of Forecasting" is not for everyone.It is an expert text.However, for persons involved in (or hoping to become involved in) forecasting or its allied and subsidiary fields, such risk analysis or econometrics, it will prove indispensable. ... Read more

Reviews (22)

A Must Read
Having just finished Lakshman Achuthan and Anirvan Banerji's "Beating the Business Cycle" I have come away informed on what business cycles are and why they are important from both a business and personal perspective. The style of the the book was easy to read and entertaining while it demystified a subject that has been left to the experts for far too long. I feel much more secure to make any future finanicial decisions. The charts and graphs were really helpful. I appreciated the depth of "Beating the Business Cycle" and its accessibility. It is a fine art to treat simple ideas deeply and deep ideas simply which is what this book has done.

Can't beat "beating the Business Cycle"
Although I have not finished the book, I am finding it informatve, entertaining and an invaluable tool for understanding the ebb and flow of the economy. Lakhman Achutan and Anirvan Banerji have writen a book that enables those of us without an MBA to gain insight with practical, usable tools. Hearing some of the advice of the so called "financial experts", and seeing how off base they were, it seems as if they could benefit from reading the book as well.

It¿s About Time!
I've heard of these guys on and off over the years, and after reading their book I finally feel that I have a framework for approaching the dismal science of economics that seems so inconsistent when I listen to the experts of TV or newspapers. I commend the ECRI researchers for staying the course over decades and not selling out to mainstream economics or Wall Street. It is very important to have a "reality check" like the Weekly Leading Index, and I was pleasantly surprised by the free subscription to their weekly report that comes with the book. Even better - the latest report shows that the Leading Home Price Index is holding up!

an engaging read about economic ups and downs
I'm in business, but I didn't know a great deal about cycles of growth and contraction in the economy. This short book gave me a readable overview by two economists who caught the end of the 90's boom when most thought it would go on forever.

I'd recommend it to anyone who's hoping to see the next bend in the road for our economy.

Smaller Wheels, Still Turning....
It is the nature of free market economies to progress rhythmically through periods of expansion and contraction. It is one of a few interesting observations made by the authors of BEATING THE BUSINESS CYCLE that the intensity of these cycles in the U.S. has moderated over time. Booms and busts have become less common. Recessions rather than depressions, thankfully, are more likely to occur. We have a number of "automatic stabilizers" at work to absorb the shock of general and pervasive slowdowns in the economy. Those stabilizers operate through the mechanics of monetary and fiscal policy. The Federal Reserve controls the flow of money through the economy with the tourniquet of interest rates. The "misguided certainty" that leads to excessive optimism or irrational pessimism by corporations, businesses, and individuals can be tempered by prudent monetary action. At the same time social security, tax policy, unemployment insurance, and bank deposit insurance are some of the ways individuals have been protected from the potentially devastating effects of a negative turn in the economy. So there is reason to believe that the cycles have become less pronounced.

Periodically an excessive optimism leads to the illusion that the business cycle has been eliminated, that the economy can grow steadily without retrenchment, without the need to eliminate its own inefficiencies. Mark Twain knew the "gilded age", the 1920's saw a "new era" at a "plateau of prosperity", and the 1990's marveled at a "new economy" with information systems and supply management software that could control excesses (e.g. inventory) before they stalled the economy. Ultimately the business cycle is produced by an imbalance of supply and demand. But it is human psychology extrapolating from the successes or failures of recent past experience that fails to see the imbalances building in the economy before a pivotal shift undermines a previously successful investment or business strategy. Renewed caution follows optimism, risk aversion follows speculation, and the cycle repeats.

Readers will not find completely satisfying answers to "beating" (viz. profiting from) the business cycle in this short study, because its primary purpose is to introduce readers to the subscription advisory services of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI). This explains the sometimes self-congratulatory tone of having accurately predicted recent shifts in economic activity both here and abroad. As a stand alone work of merit on the topic the authors might consider a brief glossary of key terms and concepts for a future edition. ... Read more

Book Description

Named by Inc. and Forbes magazines as one of the top ten essential books for small business, this fully revised and updated fourth edition of The Successful Business Plan: Secrets & Strategies is a complete, step-by-step guide to researching and writing a fool-proof, perfectly formatted, knock-'em-dead business plan.

Required reading at America's top business schools, it's been called "the entrepreneur's bible," having helped hundreds of thousands of successful business people get the funding they need to launch their businesses.

With a foreword by legendary venture capitalist Eugene Kleiner, The Successful Business Plan is packed with insider tips and insightful advice on writing and formatting a business plan that will stand out from the crowd.

Book features:

99 worksheets to help you get started quickly, taking you through every critical section of a successful business plan

Sample business plan offering guidance on length, style, formatting and language

The Abrams Method of Flow-Through Financials, which makes easy work of number crunching — even if you're a numbers novice

Special chapters addressing issues of concern for service, manufacturing, retail, and Internet companies

Added help for teams and students preparing business plans for classes or competitions

Nearly 200 real-life insider secrets from top venture capitalists and successful CEOs – learn what truly impresses funders

New chapter on starting a business in a challenging economy ... Read more

Reviews (21)

The new 4th edition is outstanding.
This is simply the best business planning guide on the market. I teach entrepreneurship classes and have used prior editions in my classes, but I'm really impressed with this new edition and how it reflects the realities of business planning in the post-dot-com era. There's a new chapter on seeking funding in a recession, which is the most frequent question I'm asked by my students now.

The other thing I like about the new edition is the Excel templates for generating the business plan's financials. They work exactly like the worksheets in the book, which lessens the learning curve. BUT, you have to buy the templates separately from the publisher's website.

All in all, a great update to an already excellent book. Highly recommended.

Good starting point and reference
I have probably purchased 5 business plan books over the last year. I have also purchased a couple of business plan software programs (both unsatisfactory). None can be considered a definitive "best" book or resource. Each one has strengths and weaknesses, and anyone searching for a drop-in guide should re-think their goals. Abrams book, on the whole, is certainly one of the better business plan books. The advise and focus of the content are very salient to anyone out there looking for OPM.

Great for someone with little accounting experience!
I was so scared of writing a business plan that I put it off for as long as I could (nearly a year!). But my potential investor made it clear that I would have to bite the bullet. I owe Abrams a huge "thank-you" for making the business plan writing process something that could be done thoroughly, efficiently, and done well--and didn't take me too long at all. But the best part is that you can download finacial spreadsheet templates from the publisher's website!!

I am the kind of person who has an idea and just wants to run with it; I have a hard time figuring out specifics and financial realities. Between the book (which explained exactly what I needed to know about target markets, competition, cost-benefit analysis and the like) and the downloadable spreadsheets (which did all of the math, and carried the numbers through to all of the projection sheets and balance sheets and income statements and such, and took care of all of the formatting--just print and go!), I was able to write a top-notch, professional-looking business plan (if I do say so myself!) to present to my potential investor, and to the bank when I go to apply for a loan! And I won't feel embarassed by my lack of experience--at least, my business plan won't convey it. Plus, it's really important to go through the process of writing a business plan (and Abrams addresses this in the book) so you can really get a good, clear, structured idea of what you're doing, how you need to do it, and why you're starting a business in the first place.

Best business plan book out there
I was assigned this book for an Exec.MBA class, and it's one I'm going to keep after I sell a lot of my other books back. I've had to do business plans for the corporation I work for and for a friend's business, and I've looked at tons of books, and this is just the best one out there. If you go to the publishers website you can also get Excel templates so filling out the financial forms is straightforward and they're also best-of-breed. This is the book to use if you want to impress a boss, professor, or investor.

Not as helpful as I had hoped....
I did not find this book as helpful as I was hoping. First, and most importantly, I needed more examples. There was only one and it was a service organization and I needed to see an example of a manufacturing organization where the target customer was not so geographically limited. Also, I found that the way the book is organized was difficult. I felt the book was more oriented toward helping someone sort out their thoughts and feelings about starting a business than it was focused on actually structuring and writing a business plan. What I actually need are the hard, factual mechanics of writing a business plan and I did not find it to my satisfaction in this book. ... Read more

Book Description

This book represents a new – some may say radical – approach to forecasting.The authors explain how:

Forecasting less, not more, can yield higher customer service and lower inventoriesTeamwork, good communications, and clear accountabilities are more important than complex statistical forecasting models,It’s more beneficial to pursue process improvement than to focus narrowly on forecast accuracy.

This is an exciting, new, breakthrough approach to a traditionally difficult and frustrating task. ... Read more

Book Description

The Growth Paradox

At best one company in ten is able to sustain profitable growth. Yet capital markets demand that all companies seek it relentlessly and mercilessly punish those who fail. Why is consistent, persistent growth so difficult to achieve? Surprisingly, it’s not for lack of great ideas or capable managers, nor is it because customers are too fickle or innovation too unpredictable. Innovation fails, say Clayton M. Christensen and Michael E. Raynor, because organizations unwittingly strip the disruptive potential from new ideas before they ever see the light of day.

In his worldwide bestseller The Innovator’s Dilemma, Christensen explained how industry leaders get blindsided by disruptive innovations precisely because they focus too closely on their most profitable customers and businesses. The Innovator’s Solution shows how companies get to the other side of this dilemma, creating disruptions rather than being destroyed by them.

Drawing on years of in-depth research and illustrated by company examples across many industries, Christensen and Raynor argue that innovation can be a predictable process that delivers sustainable, profitable growth. They identify the forces that cause managers to make bad decisions as they package and shape new ideas—and offer new frameworks to help managers create the right conditions, at the right time, for a disruption to succeed. The Innovator’s Solution addresses a wide range of issues, including:

• How can we tell if an idea has disruptive potential?
• Which competitive situations favor incumbents, and which favor entrants?
• Which customer segments are primed to embrace a new offering?
• Which activities should we outsource, and which should we keep in-house?
• How should we structure and fund a new venture?
• How do we choose the right managers to lead it?
• How can we position ourselves where profits will be made in the future?

Revealing counterintuitive insights that will change your perspective on innovation forever, this landmark book shows how to create a disruptive growth engine that fuels ongoing success. ... Read more

Reviews (24)

Another win and the other shoe of the dillemma
The innovator's solution helps answer all of the questions raised in Christensen's first book: the innovator's dilemma. The book is well researched -- to be expected. However, what is different is that the explanations are clearer and more business focused. I can apply these concepts and through processes to my work, which is the best thing, one can say about a business book.

The chapters on growth and avoiding commoditization are particularly important in today's environment.

To be sure that some of the concepts are proposed in an academic way and it takes a while to understand what the "more than good enough" and "less than good enough" concepts. Nevertheless, it works and is worth the time to reflect on what these concepts mean to your business and your future.

Disruption is one of the forces in our society and business. It is one that this book explains very well. You do not have to read the first book "dilemma" to understand and get value out of this book, but once you read the "solution", you can gain a greater appreciation of Christensen's earlier works.

Understands the problem but not the solution. Impractical.
This book makes a prescription. It's a pretty simple one. Make sure innovation happens. Hire people to cannibalize the business you are in. Back those people. I will say flatly it is simple-minded.

Another strategy is for a company to get in on disruptive technologies by participating in a venture capital pool in their sector. That's an insurance policy, and a win-win all the way around. They can get a look at what is coming at them and so they can make plans for what the future life of their current line is likely to be - invaluable business intelligence. If the competition is really a disrupter, they get the big payoff from their venture capital investment. Heads they win, tails they win.

This book has a good description of how things work, but the prescription isn't terribly useful. It indicates just how lacking in real world experience Mr. Raynor is.

Very good explanation of the solution
This is easier to read than the Innovators Dilemma. There is a more varied range of Product and Industry case studies, which helps to show how broadly this theory can be applied.

What I did like is how he covers the footnotes at the end of each Chapter - so if they don't interest you, you can skip over them, but if they do interest you, then you don't have to struggle to the back of the book. I wish more authors & publishers would use that technique.

One quibble - given his Economics background, he suggests that having competing phone standards is not wasteful. Only an Economist would say that. A Consumer finds it frustrating. He has the good grace to suggest in a footnote that some readers might take issue with him, and I am one. He belittles the benefit of schoolgirls from Sweden using their phone on vacation in Spain, but I can vouch that being able to readily check on the safety of my teenage daughters when they're in foreign Countries for over 10% of the year is a definite benefit!

Given his Economics background - of course there are plenty of graphs, and 99% of them are straight lines - there are no time dependent variances in his world. Also some silly proof-reading slips, such as a "semi-log" graph being described as "semi- long".

Probably still worth reading the Innovators Dilemma before reading this one, just to get the theory.

not very bad
sorry for my poor english but i am a student in kyoto university in japan and i really enjoyed this book. i have read many reviews on this website and it make me understand that many people will focus on marketing side of the analysis inside this book. but this is not true. the book has many good idea about overall business management. some people will say that these idea are not new. so what? good idea is good idea and i surely enjoy reading the wonderful thought in this book. i would recommendation you read it for youself. i hope my reader review is useful to you. thank you.

A dilemma with a solution?
I expected Innovator's Solution to provide a resolution to the Innovator's Dilemma-until I realized dilemmas have no satisfactory solution. Innovator's Solution provides common-sense strategies for companies to follow in order to avoid getting blindsided by disruptive innovations--innovate and cannibalize your businesses-but lacks advice on how to avoid being out innovated.

Christensen outlines the Dilemma again in this book, presenting the concepts of disruptive and sustaining innovation, and why large companies consistently struggle with disruptive innovation. He does present some tactics for large companies, such as investing in a venture capital fund. This provides companies with invaluable information about the future in their market and provides an opportunity to identify disruptive technologies early on.

Like many technology books, Innovator's Solution, stretches to make its argument without the aid of quantitative research. Nevertheless, this book is well suited for managers wanting to understand the Dilemma and began putting the theory into practice.

I gave this book 4-stars because it is insightful and very well written. While no golden solution is presented, Christensen outlines several strategies and tactics for addressing the dilemma. Certainly many books will follow by other authors. ... Read more

Book Description

Managerial decision-making in approach, this book explores the basic statistical techniques that are useful for preparing individual business forecasts and long-range plans. Incorporates instructions on using Excel spreadsheets and the statistical package MINITAB to forecast, along with their appropriate output.Organizing Data and a Review of Statistical Concepts. Exploring Data Patterns and Choosing a Forecasting Technique. Moving Averages and Smoothing Methods. Time Series Analysis. Regression Analysis. Multiple Regression. Regression with Time Series Data. The Box-Jenkins (ARIMA) Methodology. Judgmental Forecasting and Other Forecasting Methods. Managing the Forecasting Process.For business managers interested in business forecasting techniques. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

This book SUCKS
This book is a complete and utter waste of paper. Don't bother trying to learn from it; its a waste of time. It will help if you have a decent teacher, but the book is so poorly outlined and structured that it may as well be written in another language.

This book SUCKS! ... Read more

Book Description

Creating a financing proposal, describing the business's operations and goals, forecasting markets and sales, creating marketing and operating plans, obtaining financing from primary and secondary sources, and much more. This new edition also features a list of names and addresses of business and library resources, as well as web site addresses that are especially useful to small business owners. Titles in Barron's Business Library series are currently being revised and updated, and re-set in an attractive new paperback format. They are written especially for men and women starting a company or managing a small-to-medium-size business. Emphasis