Choosing the Future: The Power of Strategic Thinking [Hardcover]

Stuart Wells (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0750698764 | ISBN-13: 978-0750698764 | Publication Date: November 4, 1997 | Edition: 1st

Strategy requires an ability to conceive the future, see and create possibilities, and focus to choose a direction. Successful strategy is a mental discipline consisting of broad ranging, flexible, and creative thinking. Choosing the Future will help you achieve this success by studying fundamentals such as effective group thinking, knowing when to delay a decision for more information, balancing contrasting modes of thought, and transforming thought into action.

Using a cycle to show the relationship among different strategic thinking tools, Choosing the Future gives you guidance to respond to these basic questions:
What seems to be happening?
What possibilities do we face?
What are we going to do about it?
Choosing the Future will help you advance your thinking skills. Rather than telling you what to do, it teaches you to use your business knowledge to discover your own ideas and strategic direction.

Stuart Wells is Professor of Organization and Management at San Jose State University, where he serves as Director of the Center for Global Competitiveness and as Director of the Small Business Institute. As founder of the Leading Edge Consulting Group and co-founder of Corporate Wisdom, he has worked on leadership development and strategy issues with such major corporations as Clorox, Dupont, PepsiCo, and Proctor and Gamble. He is the author of several books, including From Sage to Artisan: The Nine Roles of the Value-Driven Leader.

A how-to book that advances thinking skills.
A guaranteed approach to improve the quality of strategic thinking.
Shows how to discover your own ideas and strategic direction.

Editorial Reviews

Review

" In ' Choosing the Future ' Stuart Wells caused me the shudder with this simply profound sentence: ' Answers are death: questions are life '. Wow! Makes you think, doesn't it? And that's what you'll get form reading ' Choosing the Future ' - questions that make you think, questions that bring you to life. Questions send us on journeys in our minds, and Stuart Wells takes us on one Helluva fascinating voyage. If you really want to fire up your brain, you've got to read this book."
Jim Kouzes, co-author "The Leadership Challenge" and "Credibility"
Chairman and CEO
Tom Peters Group/Learning Systems

From the Publisher

Using a cycle to show the relationship among different strategic thinking tools, Choosing the Future gives you guidance to respond to these basic questions: What seems to be happening? What possibilities do we face? What are we going to do about it? Choosing the Future will help you advance your thinking skills. Rather than telling you what to do, it teaches you to use your business knowledge to discover your own ideas and strategic direction.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann; 1st edition (November 4, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750698764
• ISBN-13: 978-0750698764
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #817,927 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Choosing the Future" is the bible of Strategic Thinking, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Choosing the Future: The Power of Strategic Thinking (Hardcover)

I just finished reading (enjoying) Choosing the Future. I was marveled by it. The concepts contained in this book have already had a huge impact on the way I think about Strategy and Planning and how I consult with my manager clients. Over the years, I have used the term "Strategic Planning". Not any more. Thanks to professor Well's insightful discussion of the two parts of that term, I now realize they are uniquely different concepts. Strategy is thinking; Planning is doing. Choosing the Future has increased my understanding of Strategic thinking and my ability to assist managers generate robust, well though-out Strategies and Operational Plans that will continue to grow our business. I recommend this work to anyone who values thinking and sees thinking as a valuable asset in their personal and professional life.

Mike Martinez; Strategy and Planning Mgr; Hewlett Packard Co.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sensible, useful, but unexciting, December 7, 2000

By 

Max More "Max More" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Choosing the Future: The Power of Strategic Thinking (Hardcover)

An eminently sensible book in which it's hard to find much with which to disagree. If you haven't thought much about the thinking process and don't have a background in cognitive psychology, this book is well worth reading. If you have, then you'll find it agreeable but not enlightening, though it may remind you of important points that you've forgotten to pay attention to. Wells focuses on flexible thinking and how to ask the right questions. He outlines the strategic thinking cycle: Perceiving, acquiring insight, developing foresight, understanding possibilities, identifying strategic levers, matching levers with capabilities, reasoning, choosing a core strategy, and making the strategy work.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Have Book, August 8, 2009

By 

Eugene Kasper "Gene" (Annandale, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Choosing the Future: The Power of Strategic Thinking (Hardcover)

Stuart Wells has given a major gift to anyone who wishes to receive it. For just $40 anyone in a management position who can immerse into this book will find immense treasures that will enhance business and personal thinking skills.

Most business books have a few points and can be skimmed to find them. This well presented book is different. Almost every paragraph has something to offer. No matter what your level, you will be challenged. Certainly some of the concepts are common sense but Wells puts the process together in an organized manner that will challenge and clarify your thinking process.

I am hard to impress, but I am with Stuart Wells. I place his book in the top ten, including those by Drucker. I rate it the best book of this decade.