Customer Reviews

The Boston Consulting Group on Strategy: Classic Concepts and New Perspectives

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is just a collection of essays/reflections on the management consulting profession. These essays are from the 1990s, so they seem a bit dated with all of the technological advances in the past 15 years. I wouldn't recommend it.

This book is filled with both well known business "facts" as well as unconventional perspectives. It is an excellent book; however it is a rather difficult read. I consider myself to be an above average reader particularly with business jargon, but still I had trouble. The purpose of reading is to expand your mind and grow. Overall this is a book that I would recommend. Be prepared for a challenge.

It is an interesting book if you want to see how strategy was treaten 20, 30 or even 40 years ago. Certainly for students a nice book. A second issue which is too often recurrent in this type of books, certainly useful for fortune 500 companies. For my own practice as a consultant for SMB I could not really find anything usefull.

This is an outstanding book on various ideas on strategy. The book provides some classical and new insights, concepts, tools and perspectives for effective strategy formulation and implementation.

The Boston Consulting Group has been responsible for a number of major management consulting innovations and concepts, such as "time-based competition," "deconstruction," and "capability-driven competitive strategies" and highlighting the importance of competitive advantage. Today BCG is among the largest and most profitable management consulting companies in the world. It is regarded as one of the premier management consulting firms.

The book reeks of the outstanding ideas developed by this iconic consulting firm which the company executive and students of strategy will find very useful and perceptive. The book, among other things, shows how to analyse a firm in the marketplace, formulate and execute an effective strategy, getting people excited about the strategy, how to use strategy to take advantage of opportunities, among other informative ideas.

I strongly recommend people to read this high-quality book.

This collection of publications is incredibly interesting to the business enthusiast. Even Bruce Henderson's publications from the 1970's remain thought-provoking and -transforming today.

This is a dense read. I cannot read very much at one time. However it is grouped by subject, so you can jump around different chapters without consequence.

This is a book consisting of a irregularly issued newsletters by BCG, the management consulting company. Most newsletters are several decades old. Back when management consultants were more thoughtful, BCG had a clear impact on the field of strategic management. However, that means going back to the 1970s and earlier. Henderson's writings from this time are interesting. There are more recent pieces in this book as well (i.e. 1990s) but they are in no way introducing new ideas. For people with an historical interest this book has value. Otherwise, I don't think many people are really keen on reading old newsletters.

Had the book been edited and provided some more insight into the historical operations of BCG, the book would have been more interested. As it stands now, it is just a cut and paste job of old newsletters. Hardly anyone is really going to read the book. It is just created to increase the credibility of BCG in an age where management consultants are under profit margin pressure. (Note: I have nothing against BCG. It is one of the best management consultancies around.) So if a bit more thought would have gone into the book it would have deserved three stars (i.e. good book for a very niche segment). Now, I just give it two stars.

It's outdated but has a good basic knowledge about strategy. The world has changed it the last 20 years. BCG should create a new,contemporary strategy that works.

This book isn't for the faint of heart. It begins with very dense writing but if you can follow it you will gain valuable insight into business strategy. The later chapters are easier to follow.

It was not at all what I expected, but it was packed with good strategy. I liked the format once I got used to it, and I think anyone who uses strategy in any way (work, managing, consulting) would benefit from having this book.

Todd Hagopian
President/CEO
Hagopian Institute
Author of the popular "Quote Junkie" book sereies and the brand new "Idiom Junkie" series

I'm a grad student with IT background and want to become a management consultant or a CEO.
This is not a coffe-table book. The best is to have a business encyclopedia by the hand when reading it (i recommend Business: The ultimate resource,2nd).
For more info about table of contents click on the book picture.

The essays are short (cca 2 pages), but extremely consciously and well written. I think, no former business knowledge is necessary: anybody can pick up this book, who is interested in business, likes to think deeply and have persistence (you'll need it to get through the book).
After reading the book, the reader will have an superb overview of business concepts, strategy, leadership -- i dare to say, that s/he will have all the knowledge a big CEO needs to have.