See buying choices for this item to see if it's one of the millions that are eligible for Amazon Prime.

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Business Strategy ("The Economist")
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Business Strategy ("The Economist") (Hardcover)

by Jeremy Kourdi (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


2 used from £13.95

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
IBM Business Solutions
   www.ibm.com/uk/soaroute-planner    Develop your strategies with IBM. Watch videos or download brochures. 
Turnaround Review
   www.TurnaroundReview.co.uk    Is it time to take stock and plan ahead. Review strategy & finance. 
Business Success Strategy
   BusinessCoaching.co.uk/Free-CDs    Claim your Free 3-CD Now and Bullet Proof Your Business Today. 
  
 

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Guide To Business Planning (Economist)

Guide To Business Planning (Economist)

by Graham Friend
5.0 out of 5 stars (3)  £16.25
Guide To Analysing Companies (Economist Guide to Analysing Companies)

Guide To Analysing Companies (Economist Guide to Analysing Companies)

by Bob Vause
4.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £15.49
Guide To Management Ideas ("The Economist")

Guide To Management Ideas ("The Economist")

by Tim Hindle
4.5 out of 5 stars (2)  £19.00
Guide To Business Modelling (Economist)

Guide To Business Modelling (Economist)

by John Tennent
4.1 out of 5 stars (7)  £17.50
Business Consulting: A Guide to How it Works and How to Make it Work (Economist)

Business Consulting: A Guide to How it Works and How to Make it Work (Economist)

by Gilbert Toppin
£14.00
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Profile Books Ltd (16 Oct 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1861974590
  • ISBN-13: 978-1861974594
  • Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 14 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 428,570 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Product Description
Powerful new forces are reshaping the business world. Traditional boundaries between industries, disciplines and countries are blurring, and the role of the manager in making effective strategic decisions and building competitive advantage is increasingly complex and demanding.This book shows the busy manager how to create and sustain a dynamic, profitable business. It provides decision-making techniques to support effective entrepreneurial decisions. It evaluates the tools, tactics and techniques for making profit-boosting decisions. It outlines solutions to executive problems and to keeping up with the pace of change. Moreover, it contains insights into effective strategic decisions - what worked and why; what failed and why.

About the Author
Jeremy Kourdi is a consultant and author of seven business books. He has worked with leading business organisations, including The Economist Group, London Business School and the UK Institute of Management.

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
Check a corresponding box or enter your own tags in the field below
strategy
management
competition

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Basic, Practical, and Comprehensive, 17 Jun 2006
By Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This is one of the volumes in the "Guide to..." series published by Profile Books Ltd. in association with The Economist. In this volume, written by Jeremy Kourdi, the reader is provided with a remarkably comprehensive "guide to effective decision-making" when formulating and then implementing strategy.

At this point in my brief commentary, I think it appropriate to quote a statement by Peter Drucker in an article he wrote for Harvard Business Review (Managing for Business Effectiveness," May-June, 1963) and reprinted in the recently published anthology, Classic Drucker (2006). According to Drucker, "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all." Hence the importance of selecting the correct objectives and setting appropriate priorities before formulating a strategy (or strategies) and tactics to achieve the given objectives. Drucker goes on to observe, "Business enterprise is not a phenomenon of nature but one of society. [Moreover] in a social situation a very small number of events - 10% to 20% at most - account for 90% of all results, whereas the great majority of events account for 10% or less of the results."

Kourdi's aim in this book is to help those who have to make strategic decisions by rigorously examining the decision-making process. "The first part focuses on the forces shaping major decisions, including ideas, developments and potential pitfalls. The second part outlines practical insights and techniques for handling decisions. Some of these ideas are tried and trusted. Others, such as information orientation [pages 71 and 157-160] and reversal theory [pages 74 and 79-84], are recently developed approaches providing valuable techniques and guidance for leaders."

I especially appreciate Kourdi's skill use of mini-case studies which includes a brief analysis in combination with several reader-friendly checklists of key points. For example, "Looking for the emperor's new clothes: Luc Vandevelde and Marks & Spencer. Kourdi identifies the key elements of the approach which Vandevelde took to establish a team capable of managing change and to restore growth and profitability (i.e. closing some continental stores, listening to customers, establishing new brands with aggressive ands focused marketing, identifying talented people, and managing people more effectively) and then suggests which specific lessons which can be learned.

Some of the most valuable material in this book is provided in the final chapter which focuses on leadership. Kourdi outlines the role of leaders "in ensuring that strategic decisions are effectively developed and implemented. It provides a guide to achieving this as well as a summary of the main ideas and themes behind such decision-making." It seems to me eminently appropriate for Kourdi to conclude his book with this focus on leadership which includes but should by no means be limited to senior-level executives. On the contrary, all organizations which achieve and then sustain their success develop and support leaderships at all levels and within all operations throughout the given enterprise.

Here is a brief passage which Kourdi quotes from Daniel C. Dennett's book, How Things Are:

"Making mistakes is the key to making progress...Mistakes are not just golden opportunities for learning; they are, in an important sense, the only opportunity for learning something new...Biological evolution proceeds by a grand, inexorable process of trial and error - and without the errors the trials wouldn't accomplish anything."

He then follows with this brief quotation of George Bernard Shaw:

" The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

These two quotations suggest the need for balancing unconventional conviction with prudent judgment when making decisions, especially when they have serious consequences. Mistakes are inevitable but mistakes which result from having neither unconventional conviction nor prudent judgment are avoidable.

Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Michael A. Roberto's Why Great Leaders Don't Take Yes for an Answer: Managing for Conflict and Consensus, Michael Hammer's The Agenda: What Every Business Must Do to Dominate the Decade, Lawrence G. Hrebiniak's Making Strategy Work: Leading Effective Execution and Change, Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton `s The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment, and Robert E. Mittelstaedt Jr.'s Will Your Next Mistake Be Fatal? Avoiding the Chain of Mistakes That Can Destroy Your organization.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Solid reference on corporate strategy, 14 Dec 2007
By Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract.com" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
In this book, Jeremy Kourdi and the Economist survey the material you might cover in an M.B.A. course on corporate strategy. The book's 13 chapters are grouped into two parts. The first section, "The forces at work," illustrates the factors working on your business that affect its ability to function, grow and compete. The second part, "Making it happen: concepts and tools for strategic decision-making," shows you how to use various analytical tools to help your company. The range of topics is broad, so the text is concise of necessity. The downside is that the treatment of each topic is not particularly deep, though it is solid. If this alerts you to a subject of particular interest, you may have to seek greater depth and innovation elsewhere. Still, the information here will help you think about your processes and methods. We say you can rely on this accurate and well-organized compendium.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Not Too Bad; Could Be Far Better, 12 Jun 2007
By Steve Keen "therealus" (Herts, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   


Needing a bit of a refresher on Business Strategy principles, but a little reluctant to revisit all 800 or so pages of Johnson & Scholes, I picked this up direct from The Economist when it was going at a discount. Having read the aforesaid paper for most of my adult life I already knew there was no such thing as a bargain, but I fell for it anyway.

I guess in a way the problem was my fault - this is one of those lines you'll have rehearsed a few times if you've ever had to break off a relationship - in that I've probably been "doing" strategy for too long to find anything in this book particularly startling. In a way that's a strength, because if you're new to Business Strategy a lot of the things you'll need to take into account get a mention and there's no straying into fads and fashions.

The problem is that the mentions are very thin: they lack the detail you'll need to apply the principles.

Again, not an irretrievable situation. Kourdi does a reasonable job of summarising the basics. But then what? Where do you go for more? Where's the Bibliography? The Further Reading chapter? The advice on gaining first-hand (or at least academic) knowledge and experience? Robert Morris's excellent review (even though I don't agree with all of it) actually sets a good example in that respect.

Overall, it has to be said that the book generally lacks the wit of The Economist, which is a shame. The examples also leave a lot to be desired. Kourdi makes several references to Marks & Spencer, and what a good job Luc Vandevelde has done (the publication date was 2003). Actually, Vandevelde managed to execute a reasonable holding pattern, but not much more, in my opinion. Otherwise, what was Stuart Rose for? And there are also some very glib statements within the To Do lists for budding strategists, including the rather less than incisive advice to "Prepare a plan of action, an approach that will deliver success." I think that comes in the "Motherhood" column, doesn't it?

In the final analysis, then, I'd consider that this book only does half the job as a primer, a disappointment in that it has The Economist's imprimatur on it.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]

   

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Feedback

The Body Shop

The Body Shop - Vitamin C Skin Boost
Protect and boost your glow with The Body Shop Vitamin C Skin Boost.

›Shop The Body Shop

  

More From Jeremy Kourdi

Business Strategy: A...

Business Strategy: A Guide to...

On these decisions hangs the future of the business: how successful it... Read more
£20.00 £13.00

 

A Close Shave

Philips Nivea Coolskin HS8060 Moisturizing Rotary Shaving System
For all types of hair removal, stay smooth with Amazon.co.uk.

›Discover Shaving & Hair Removal

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates