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Essential Managers: Strategic Thinking | 
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| Authors: Andy Bruce, Ken Langdon
Publisher: DK ADULT
Category: Book
List Price: $7.00
Buy New: $1.65
You Save: $5.35 (76%)
New (38) Used (17) from $1.59
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 152686
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Pages: 72
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4.7 x 0.3
ISBN: 0789459728
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.4012
EAN: 9780789459725
ASIN: 0789459728
Publication Date: August 1, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 4 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: A20090105201034W
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
To paraphrase the Rolling Stones, you might not always get what you want from this short 'n' sweet little guidebook on strategic thinking and planning, but you just might get what you need. That would include concise and handy visual and verbal tips on gathering and analyzing key information, setting short- and long-term objectives, developing your team leadership skills, predicting future trends, and maintaining a flexible approach throughout. It also covers the essential tools of strategic management, from SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats) analysis and feasibility studies to budgeting forecasts and contingency plans. Granted, if you're looking for specific or in-depth guidance--say, how to do strategic thinking in a particular field, like biotechnology, or a particular division, like human resources--you may find this book too cursory and general in its approach. But if you're looking for a thumbnail guide to the basic steps of strategic planning, both individually and in a group setting, this may do you just fine.It's worth mentioning that the book is also part of reference publisher Dorling Kindersley's Essential Managers series--20 itty-bitty li'l books on business and career topics ranging from communication, leadership, and decision making to the management of time, budgets, change, meetings, people, projects, and teams. Combining the For Dummies book series's talent for breaking down a lot of information into bite-size bits and sidebars with Dorling Kindersley's signature design style of crisp, classy graphics on a gleaming white backdrop, they don't represent the cutting edge of business thinking and they don't necessarily reflect any unique individual perspective. Instead, it's as though someone collated the best general thinking on these 20 topics and rolled them out into 72 brightly designed and easy-to-read pages, studded along the way with boxed tips, color shots of a multiracial cast of "coworkers" animatedly hashing through the workplace issues of the day, and a self-test of one's skills in the topic at hand on the last few pages of each volume. Again, they're not for anyone looking for more in-depth or focused help on any of the subjects they cover, but they're perfect as a quickie general-interest reference... and let's face it, they're so cute and look so smart in a neat little stack or row that you'll probably want to buy a whole bunch to give to your entire staff or department. --Timothy Murphy
Product Description
Learn about brainstorming, systems, logic, precedents, action plans, and goals. Learn how to plan, develop, and implement dynamic business and team strategies with Strategic Thinking. This concise and informative guide shows you how to identify the route to success by gathering and analyzing key information, setting short- and long-term objectives, developing your team-leadership skills, predicting future trends, and maintaining a flexible approach. It covers the essential tools of strategic management, from SWOT analysis and feasibility studies to budgeting forecasts and contingency plans, to help give you a competitive edge in today's fast-moving business world. The Essential Manager have sold more than 1.9 million copies worldwide! Experienced and novice managers alike can benefit from these compact guides that slip easily into a briefcase or a portfolio. The topics are relevant to every work environment, from large corporations to small businesses. Concise treatments of dozens of business techniques, skills, methods, and problems are presented with hundreds of photos, charts, and diagrams. It is the most exciting and accessible approach to business and self-improvement available.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Strategy 101 August 3, 2008
Joseph P. Gallagher (Bartlesville, OK)
This is a good book on the fundementals of employing a strategic approach to any project or product deployment (though it is heavy on the "product" side, which left me wanting more on the project/initiative/service side). It does, however, satisfatorily introduce the basics of strategic thinking:
1. Planning
2. Implementing
3. Monitoring Performance
4. Re-evaluating
Additionally, it discusses topics that are inherent in executing a strategic plan successfully, such as: analysis, people skills, communication, etc.
For those that are visually inclined, the book includes some process flow charts that succinctly illustrate the steps for carrying out certain elements of strategy. These serve as good framework reminders for folks who are familiar with strategy.
 Basic, essential, and very well-presented June 26, 2007
Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
During a recent business trip, I stopped by an airport store and saw a display of several volumes of the "Essential Managers" series. I purchased this one as well as John Seymour and Martin Shervington's Maximizing Performance, read both while en route home and was surprised, frankly, to find each to be remarkably comprehensive within a 69-page narrative. Obviously, the subject of strategic thinking is vast and complicated. No single book could possibly cover everything, nor do Bruce and Langdon make any such claim. What they offer is a focus on fundamentals, as do the volumes that comprise the Harvard Business Essentials series.
First, Bruce and Langdon share their definition of strategy, examine the strategic process, suggest how to balance pursuit of both short- and long-term goals, prepare for strategic success, and anticipate what may lie ahead. Next, they explain how to analyze the given situation in terms of influences, customers, competition, and the given organization's available resources (e.g. the skills and capabilities of its people). Then Bruce and Langdon focus on the strategic planning process itself (definition of purpose, determination of competitive advantage, setting of operational boundaries, selection of points of emphasis, and estimation of probable costs of implementation. They conclude with a series of observations and suggestions concerning strategy implementation.
As I read this book, I was again reminded of Oliver Wendell Holmes' comment, "I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity." To me, that comment suggests the essential value of the "Essential Managers" series, at least of the two volumes I have read thus far. Here's another point. What Bruce and Langdon have to say about the fundamentals of strategic thinking is consistent with what other experts on the subject suggest, notably Peter Drucker, Henry Mintzberg, and Michael Porter. As I read this book, I was also reminded of what Drucker observed in 1963: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all."
However different they may be in every other respect, all under-performing organizations fail to formulate an appropriate strategy and/or do not implement it effectively. One key word is "appropriate" because a strategy that was appropriate only a few years ago (or yesterday) may no longer be appropriate now. Another other key word is "effectively." With all due respect to the importance of knowing what to do and how to do it, former Texas football coach Darrell Royal is right: "potential" means "you ain't done it yet." Credit Andy Bruce and Ken Langdon with providing a remarkably comprehensive discussion of what to do and how to do it. It remains for those who read their book to apply what they have learned.
I wish I had this book when I was a young corporate rat. March 13, 2001
Lee Say Keng (Singapore)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
I bought this book actually out of curiosity. It was pocket-size, and also visually very appealing. After perusing it, I have this feeling that this book is more intended for very young executives and/or new supervisors.
In terms of basic steps, the book is just fine. In a nutshell, there are some two dozen of "strategic thinking" topics, which have been artfully rolled into the 72 brightly designed and easy-to-read pages, studded along the way with colurful boxed tips, 101 of them to be exact. It is designed for easy reading. There is even a simple but fun test at the end pages.
Highly recommended for all beginners into the management field, as well as for older kids, who wants to learn how to think strategically. I wish I had this book when I was a young corporate rat.
For a deeper treatment on the subject, I would suggest a quick browse of books in my Strategic Thinking Bookshelf (listmania).
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