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  • 1.  In search of a fun strategy book

    Posted 11-11-2006 14:41
    I'm looking for a really good non-traditional book to use in a strategy
    course next semester. Students tell me the text I am using this semester
    (Hill & Jones, Strategic Management, 7th edition, 2007), while thorough, is
    boring. I want a book that is inviting, much like the video on "Enron: The
    Smartest Guys in the Room," and that can spark a healthy application of SWOT
    and other business strategy concepts. One book that comes to mind is Tichy
    and Sherman's "Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will," about Jack Welch
    at GE, but the book is about 10 years too old to use now. So much has
    happened with both Welch and GE since the book was written (1993) that I
    cannot use it. Another book that comes to mind is Argyris' "Flawed Advice
    and the Management Trap," or perhaps Kennedy and Moore's "Going the
    Distance," but my gut tells me there is something better out there.

    Do you have any suggestions for a fun, inviting, stimulating, non-textbook
    for use in a strategy course?

    Thanks,


    Larry Pate
    Redondo Beach, California


  • 2.  In search of a fun strategy book

    Posted 11-11-2006 16:34
    Dear Larry,
     
    Here is a thought:
     
    (Organizational Change), John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber (2006). Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions. (New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 160 p.). Professor, Harvard Business School; Executive, Becton Dickinson. Organizational change; Organizational effectiveness; Penguins--Fiction. Most of the denizens of the Antarctic penguin colony sneer at Fred, the quiet but observant scout who detects worrying signs that their home, an iceberg, is melting. Fred must cleverly convince and enlist key players, such as Louis, the head penguin; Alice, the number two bird; the intractable NoNo the weather expert; and a passle of school-age penguins if he is to save the colony; journey illuminates how to manage the necessary change that surrounds us all. 
     
    Might be some other ideas at:
     
     
     
    Hope this helps.
     
    Kip Altman
     
     
    -----Original Message-----
    From: larry.pate@GMAIL.COM
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Sent: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 11:40 AM
    Subject: In search of a fun strategy book

    I'm looking for a really good non-traditional book to use in a strategy course next semester.  Students tell me the text I am using this semester (Hill & Jones, Strategic Management, 7th edition, 2007), while thorough, is boring.  I want a book that is inviting, much like the video on "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," and that can spark a healthy application of SWOT and other business strategy concepts.  One book that comes to mind is Tichy and Sherman's "Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will," about Jack Welch at GE, but the book is about 10 years too old to use now.  So much has happened with both Welch and GE since the book was written (1993) that I cannot use it.  Another book that comes to mind is Argyris' "Flawed Advice and the Management Trap," or perhaps Kennedy and Moore's "Going the Distance," but my gut tells me there is something better out there.  Do you have any suggestions for a fun, inviting, stimulating, non-textbook for use in a strategy course?  Thanks,   Larry Pate Redondo Beach, California
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  • 3.  In search of a fun strategy book

    Posted 12-04-2006 19:15
    Hi Larry,

    I'm using Stead & Stead's Sustainable Strategic Management (M.E. Sharpe)
    and Post, Preston, and Sachs' Redefining the Corporation: Stakeholder
    Management and Organizational Wealth (Stanford U Press). Stead & Stead
    includes the natural environment as a part of the value chain. Post et
    al provide an instrumental rather than a normative approach to
    stakeholder theory that argues how paying attention to stakeholder needs
    improves competitive advantage. We are using it in conjunction with Al
    Gore's An Inconvenient Truth DVD and with a case on Interfaces, the
    carpet company that allow customers to return worn out carpets for
    recycling rather than dumping them in a landfill.

    Any suggestions from the group for good sustainability cases would be
    welcome.

    Jim

    James C. Spee, Ph.D. Associate Professor
    2006-2007 Past President, Western Academy of Management
    2006 HR/OB Track Chair, North American Case Research Association

    University of Redlands School of Business
    1200 E. Colton Ave.
    Redlands CA 92373-0999

    Voice: 909-748-8786
    Fax: 909-335-5125
    Email: james_spee@redlands.edu

    Pointy haired boss: "Where's your artifical sense of urgency?"
    Dilbert: "Teamwork killed it."
    Dilbert, by Scott Adams, July 25, 2006

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Management Education and Development Discussion
    [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Larry Pate
    Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2006 11:41 AM
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: In search of a fun strategy book

    I'm looking for a really good non-traditional book to use in a strategy
    course next semester. Students tell me the text I am using this
    semester
    (Hill & Jones, Strategic Management, 7th edition, 2007), while thorough,
    is
    boring. I want a book that is inviting, much like the video on "Enron:
    The
    Smartest Guys in the Room," and that can spark a healthy application of
    SWOT
    and other business strategy concepts. One book that comes to mind is
    Tichy
    and Sherman's "Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will," about Jack
    Welch
    at GE, but the book is about 10 years too old to use now. So much has
    happened with both Welch and GE since the book was written (1993) that I
    cannot use it. Another book that comes to mind is Argyris' "Flawed
    Advice
    and the Management Trap," or perhaps Kennedy and Moore's "Going the
    Distance," but my gut tells me there is something better out there.

    Do you have any suggestions for a fun, inviting, stimulating,
    non-textbook
    for use in a strategy course?

    Thanks,


    Larry Pate
    Redondo Beach, California