Customer Reviews

Contemporary Strategy Analysis: Concepts, Techniques, Applications (Blackwell Business)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I used this book during my MBA in City University Business School, London and found it extremely helpful. It covers most of ground and guides the reader through different approaches showing them their pros and cons. It takes the magic out of many complicated concepts and make them accessiable. In some few parts it lacks detail but if taken as an introductry book to business strategy, it serves that purpose well. As a strategy consultant, I always keep it on my self with my favorite "The Mind Of The Strategist".

Great book by someone who is serious about the subject! No "The Art of Strategy according to Lord Nelson" or the like. After reading the book, the reader will be able to think about strategy and judge strategic thinking as applied to real cases. But, better still, it will make the reader curious about strategy and willing to look further into some of the many good references given in the book.

This book was used as our main textbook for Business 184 class taught by Dr. P.Skilton. As an actual user of this book, I believe that the details this book provided are unique in the way that they offer good understanding on what business strategy is about. The book answers the ultimate question, "What is strategy?" by distinguishing strategy from plans and tactics. Additionally, it provides insights to different types of strategies, advantages/disadvantages of each, and actual cases of usage. However, this is not to say that the book is without shortcomings, it creates some confusion in a few tables (and I still believe it's in Ch.2...for those of you doing projects for Dr.Skilton's class, watch out cuz that's one thing he is gonna ask you to do for SURE!). Yet, I believe the real merit in this book could only be discovered through reading the book. >_<

This book is a core reading in a UK distance-learning MBA programme to which I am enlisted. The author successfully covers the main areas of current strategic thinking in a style that is easy-to-understand and jargon free. I'm glad that the author pays particular attention to organisational resourced-based capabilities and their alignment to key success factors as an enabler for successful implementation (strategic implementation being the main area where many organisations fail).

I got this book as part of my MBA studies in the UK. The whole course on Strategy leverages this book as a reader throughout and it is truly a wonderful collection tools, techniques and models for the student and business manager alike.

A must have for people involved in defining and setting strategy

Well to be honest I always had a hard time getting through the piles of books during business school. But this "brick" opened my eyes and I actually ended up reading it out of pure pleasure. If you are remotely interested in business you should get this. It sums up many of the conclusions made by the great economists. Get one - and save yourself the cost of 10 others.

'Contemporary Strategy Analysis' offers a balanced analysis of concepts, techniques & applications about business strategy. I find Grant's analysis of various schools of strategy relatively unique compared with books in the market. The content flows fluidly chapter after chapter, & I find the book to be an enjoyable read. The treatment of each topic is concise with great case studies & references. Despite its detail analysis on various elements of business strategy, it remains pragmatic, with the ultimate goal of business strategy - maximizing & sustaining shareholder value - consistently emphasised throughout the book.

Although reviewed most often here as a course text, I have purchased and used this book as a reference source for real world e-business strategy consulting. Having one source detail multiple approaches and the strengths and weaknesses of each is a tremendous benefit when trying to determine a point of view and presentation style for a client. I definitely wouldn't want to read the book cover to cover, nor would I allow a client to see me with it, but it more than serves its purpose as a reference.

I bought this book because I was hoping it would provide me with good guidance in terms of how to use analysis techniques that would support my strategy consulting work. It has a heavy economists' leaning. This is both good and bad. It is good in that it gives some tried and true ways of understanding contemporary strategy. It is bad in that it misses out on the many ways and means by which non-economists understand contemporary strategy and is very thick in terms of its descriptions. It is not a "how to" book, that is for sure. Since competition today often seems to defy economic logic, this economic approach can only go so far. And there is still no better economist's approach than Professor Michael Porter's materials and this book certainly adds little to that great body of work.

For Kindle version Reading Experience Only. The content is what the prior reviewers say...good.
Contemporary Strategy Analysis, 7th Edition

The publisher merely released a lazy ecopy for the Kindle edition without thinking of how we would read it or interact with the content. You can't read any of the graphics on the Kindle for Mac edition (don't even think about it for my Kindle touch). This is where the 'experience' of reading needs to evolve from a publishers perspective and they need to think about it not as a book but the ability to consume everything from a users' experience perspective. I would get more out of an actual .pdf exact copy file than this kindle copy. The kindle version is worthless... I had to revert to the actual book to read and follow along. I uploaded pictures comparing the two... Quite frustrating.

For this to to be a book on strategy, they failed to understand the contemporary strategy surrounding consuming the content.

To Amazon: you all have a long way to go before I move to electronic editions for text books. I can't even imagine doing this for my diagram intensive engineering textbooks from my undergrad.