Customer Reviews

Competitive Intelligence and Global Business

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I bought this book based upon the the review I read of it in the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge publication. I agree with that review that this book has a lot to offer those individuals and organizations seeking to do business abroad and who intend to pursue those business opportunities and risks in a strategic manner. Each chapter has something of value in it, although some were clearly more beneficial for my organization than others. It surprised me initially that most were written by Canadian-based practitioner authors, but that may also explain why most chapters brought a wider and more balanced perspective than you'd ordinarily see coming from the more active American authors in this strategy field.

I don't really have any beefs with this book but do think that a handbook or textbook in the area of applied global strategy, along the lines of this book, would serve many of us well. Maybe the editors or authors will do that someday. If they do, I will be one of the first prepared to buy it. Until that time, a book like this one serves a valuable purpose and is more than worth the expense and time.

While compilations by multiple authors such as this should give different and insightful perspectives on issues of global commerce this book fails to do so. The chapters seem to repeat over and over the vague generalites and platitudes of problems or potential problems in global commerce. If you find it insightful for an author to repeat over and over in various forms that some companies are becomming global and must consider the implications of language and cultural differences between nations when entering into foreign markets then you will love this book. If this and most other common sense ideas about differences between nations seem like things you take for granted then I would look elsewhere for a book to provide insight into how to deal with issues in global commerce.