Recommending Books for Purchase (Bulletin 38 - June 2019): Strategy

Price: £ 40/-

Based on over fifty years of experience from the author's hands-on work in the field, Michael Stankosky provides 21 guiding principles on how to lead and manage today's global organization. 21 for 21 is packed with case studies, aiding visuals, and mantras to help facilitate a deeper understanding of the dynamics and complexity of leading and managing a global enterprise, and it is both multi- and inter- disciplinary in its treatment. Each chapter focuses on a different principle: from successful knowledge management, to the secrets of successful negotiations, and managing systems engineering alongside project management.  This applicable guide is an ideal companion for MBA students of management, leadership, and innovation, and it is also of keen interest to senior managers and leaders in a global organization, and researchers in these areas.

Price: £ 27.95/-

21st Century Corporate Citizenship is a practical guide to building a successful business in the modern day. It is a book about leveraging all the tools, trends and assets at the disposal of business to drive bottom-line results, value chain resiliency, productivity, innovation, long-term shareowner value, and benefit for the community. This is the book that leverages corporate citizenship as a value-creating enterprise and translates sustainability, corporate responsibility, and social impact to help you create the most successful business possible in tomorrow's competitive landscape. For the up and coming manager, this book is the crib sheet to the 21st century MBA that you can't get (yet) in business schools.  The tools and insights presented are valuable for every business person thinking about how to differentiate their company and maximize business and social value--from the sole proprietor to those working in a global megacorporation--the concepts explored are 'must do' for those working for manufacturing B2B or B2C companies that are managing complex supply chains, global operations, and corporate reputation. This 'how-to' handbook presents a step-by-step process aimed at helping you create the most successful business possible in the 21st century competitive landscape, empowering corporate citizenship professionals to accelerate their credibility within their company as an effective contributor who understands their company's strategy and who creates value.

Price: € 39.99/-

Truly global in scope and ambition, the 21st Century Public Manager addresses key trends, challenges, and opportunities facing public managers across contexts and regimes. This accessible textbook aims to inspire public managers in rethinking their roles, skills, and values as they enter a VUCA world--one characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. It is written for aspiring and current public managers in graduate schools and executive education programs.    

Price: £ 80/-

Understanding how accelerators build an entrepreneurial ecosystem, generate innovations and create new technologies is key for anyone wishing to nurture a start-up company. This book compares the success of accelerators in comparison to the independent growth of new companies or incubators through a series of in-depth studies.Accelerators: Successful Venture Creation and Growth examines how the organisational structures and practices of start-up accelerators generate innovations and identify new technologies, products and services. Mike Wright and Israel Drori have developed an entrepreneurial approach to this topic, exploring accelerators and start-ups as temporary organisations. This allows the contributing authors to highlight issues relating to both internal and external processes. This book focuses on an important entrepreneurship trend that is growing, but has not yet undergone thorough research, and as such, is key for anyone wishing to understand the topic. This would be a stimulating and valuable read for entrepreneurs, policymakers and students looking to enter accelerators.

Price: € 64.99/-

Across several industries, we are observing a paradigm shift from traditional, firm-centric and top-down value creation to more open and collaborative approaches, also referred to as bottom-up economics. The boundaries of firms dissolve and external actors (customers, user, suppliers etc.) enter the domain of value creation by means of advanced information and communication technologies. These new and evolving patterns require a renewed and interdisciplinary understanding of how co-creation enables organizations to reshape business and society. With contributions from industrial and academic experts, this book provides deep insights into the theory and practice of bottom-up economics, and addresses the major opportunities and challenges that have emerged in the era of co-creation.  A must read for decision-makers looking to innovate their companies' business models--from ideation to marketing.  Dr.-Ing. Michaela Colla, K-GXI Leader - Industry 4.0 at Volkswagen  Simply put, co-creation is the future of work. With technology morphing the way we work and young people wanting to tackle problems that matter, co-creation is the sandbox where the world can come together to solve big challenges. Plus, co-creation rapidly delivers products with built-in market fit.  Megan Brewster, Vice President of Advanced Manufacturing at Launch Forth  Successful leaders will co-create the future. This book is an excellent starting point. Jürgen Bilo, Managing Director co-pace GmbH, The Startup Organisation of Continental AG

Price: € 139.99/-

Exploring the theoretical concept of collaborative dynamic capabilities, this book illustrates how service innovation can be achieved in an era of technological convergence. Focusing on e-healthcare systems within hospitals and private businesses, the author provides detailed case studies and answers topical questions about generating service innovation across different industries. Making a new and thought-provoking contribution to research on innovation and technology management, this useful book engages with theory and provides applicable solutions for practitioners to implement in the future.

Price: £ 29/-

A powerful "how-to-do-it-better" book, this is the first guidebook on competitive intelligence that uses case studies to provide behind-the-scenes insights into how professionals improve competitive intelligence processes. * Provides readers with practical tools and strategies to immediately identify and address their CI problems * Enables businesses to realize discernible improvements in performance, planning, competitiveness, and agility * Offers helpful checklists and other easy-to-use aids to make improving CI operations a straightforward process * Serves leaders in any organization--for profit or nonprofit--charged with the challenge of maintaining a competitive edge in their industry

Price: £ 45/-

Considering the tangible implications the present focus on research output poses for early career researchers, it is strange that perspectives from this group are rarely, if ever, included in the ongoing debates in the field. This book aims to put these views on record. By bringing together a group of critically-orientated early career researchers from global business schools it investigates a series of timely questions pertaining to the impact that institutional pressures have on junior academics - particularly those who conduct 'critical' or non-mainstream research. What is the nature of the institutional pressure that is placed upon doctoral students to publish in certain journals or to conduct positivist research? How do students with a critical orientation resist these pressures - or why do they succumb to them? What are the implications on critical scholars for resisting or acquiescing to these pressures and what does this mean for scholarship more broadly? Taking a narrative approach, this book will be required reading for all doctoral students as well as all those in academia dissatisfied with the current intellectual hegemony in business schools.

Price: $ 119.95/-

In presenting the concepts and the logical structure of the reasoning offered by game theory and their applications, the book explains the rational process of decision making in the framework of firm management and market competition. The book will expose both general teachings and a comprehensive analysis applied to specific case studies of various sectors of the economy.

Price: £ 70/-

The tapestry of human behaviour in the marketplace today is turbulent, unpredictable, and chaotic. Yet it is also so diverse, rich and global that it presents a rare ethical and moral opportunity, and challenge, to out-behave competition and create enduring value. This is corporate ethics for corporate advantage.  Corporate Ethics for Turbulent Markets: The Market Context of Executive Decisionsfocuses on the HOW of doing business - the economic, social, ethical, moral and spiritual values we bring to our business ventures - and how thereby we impact the world.   The book focuses on the LEMS (legality, ethicality, morality, and spirituality) technique that we submit as a prescriptive benchmarking tool for all corporate thinking, deliberation, explanation, evaluation, choices, strategic implementation, accountability and moral responsibility. It demonstrates that by going beyond the legal obligation (legality) to do the "right thing" (ethicality), to do the "right thing rightly" (morality), and doing the "right thing rightly and for the right intentions" (spirituality), we can create a sure strategy for good decision making and implementation that can heal the world from its current addictions to corporate fraud in all its evil forms.  Envisioning a moral reawakening, this book will challenge business students and executives alike to re-evaluate the moral justification of business choices, decisions, actions and their consequences. LEMS as a four-dimensional cross-checking skill for all that we think, do, become and be takes time and patience but it can surely heal an otherwise divided and broken world.

Price: € 69.99/-

This book addresses the core challenges currently faced by traditional companies. In the age of digitization many industries are now challenged by disruptions of the traditional value chain: new competitors are coming into play, traditional products don't sell any more, and profits are at risk. As such, CEOs need to adopt new business models for these established industries, while many companies have to reinvent themselves by developing new products for new markets. In this book, leading CEOs share their experiences in transforming established companies. They provide insights on transforming industries and demonstrate what it takes to redefine companies from the ground up. Issues such as organizational transformation, new product development, implementing a new organizational spirit, and many more are discussed.

Price: € 56.99/-

This is an exciting new edition of a core textbook that explores innovation management from a global perspective. Innovation management is increasingly significant, both as an academic discipline and as an integral part of the way businesses seek to change and grow. However the key factors behind successful innovation and the process by which innovation is turned into profit in the global arena remain largely undefined. The new edition provides a unique answer to these questions and offers a step-by-step guide to innovation strategy development, taking into account the global context in which businesses today operate.  Written by a highly experienced instructor, this is an ideal companion for undergraduate students of innovation as well as postgraduate and MBA students taking modules with an innovation component.

Price: $ 124.95/-

The book investigates the meaning of RRI if little or no valid knowledge about consequences of innovation and technology is available. It proposes a hermeneutical turn to investigate narratives about possible futures with respect to their contemporary meaning instead of regarding them as anticipations of the future.

Price: € 119.99/-

The second title in the Palgrave Studies in Global Human Capital Management series, this book explores how human capital contributes to innovation within the context of an inter-connected and globalized world. Investigating globalization as a phenomenon reflected within increasing cross-border flows of goods, services, know-how and talent, Human Capital and Innovation: Examining the Role of Globalization illustrates various facets of innovation at individual, team and organizational level.  It highlights the influence of new economic realities, such as technological advances and the rise of emerging economies, on human capital and innovation.

Price: $ 104.95/-

"We do not know where Silicon Valley is really located", Feldman writes, because these types of organization, when they are dynamic, are moving and fluid. Innovation and production ecosystems or clusters are proliferating today because they seem to be adapted to the demands of innovation, growth and employment. The process leading to their institutionalization escapes a summary analysis of the behavior triggered by monetary incentives or, at the very least, makes it richer. The relational aspect becomes predominant, the interactions between the participants testify to the difficulty of separating the geographical and social dimensions. In the most prominent American clusters, public/private linkages and the building of social links express the centrality of networks in the innovation process. The European vision seeks to articulate entrepreneurial discoveries with vertical public interventions. The competitiveness poles in France suffer from the fact that public choices seem to be torn between two contradictory objectives: efficiency and equity.

Price: $ 140/-

In an uncertain economy where business risk is significant, the company tends to rely more on its environment than to invest, for example, in all steps of technological creation; This can be explained by the fact that investments in the acquisition (ownership) of production resources are less expensive than those implied in the formation of these resources; which also explains the attractiveness (in an open economy) of regions with abundant scientific and technical resources. To understand and analyze the innovation process in order to better design and launch new goods, services and technologies, one has to consider the creative dimension of the individual, the business and the organization in general. In new approaches to innovation, the entrepreneur and the company are analyzed through their skills, and their function of resource generation; Innovation thus becomes endogenous, gradual or radical, integrated in a complex process with many feedbacks and interactions. The innovative organization (small or large) is presented in this book as a dynamic system composed of specific and diverse skills (including those of the contractor, engineers or managers). By acquiring, combining and mobilizing these skills, the innovative agent (entrepreneur or company) can create technological resources and develop relations with its environment. Hence the importance of management in design, implementation, protection of intellectual property as well as of the development of new goods, services and technology, commercial and organizational models.

Price: £ 40/-

Drawing upon a model developed over 25 years of experience and successfully taught for many years at his company Wilson Learning Andina y Rio de la Plata, Alberto Pérez La Rotta presents a comprehensive and replicable approach to integrated business transformation that synchronizes natural human behavior with the needs of leadership, sales, customers, and teams. Here Pérez provides a roadmap to his method as well as case studies from across Latin America and across the financial services, chemical, pharmaceutical, industrial equipment, and consumer products industries, and he demonstrates how to clarify the challenges facing an organization, define a new value proposition, and connect strategy to key capabilities rooted in an organization's leadership, culture, sales potential, customer focus, and value chain. This allows organizations to develop and implement solutions that generate transformation and growth and measure the impact of the transformation on the organization and systems.  Pérez clearly connects theory to practice in each of its real-world business cases, making Integrated Business Transformationof interest to researches, students, and practitioners.

Price: $ 29.95/-

Become a force for change through community, access, knowledge, and innovation The Maker Revolution is a guidebook to the new industrial revolution. Artisans, crafters, DIYers, and inventors around the globe are changing the way we change the world'are you ready to join the movement? This book shows you how to find your place in the revolution. You'll learn how the movement came about, and how Makers are already shifting paradigms and pushing the boundaries of innovation. You'll discover the people, organizations, and technologies that are catalyzing a re-thinking of industry, business, economic development and education, and you'll explore the ways in which specific types of participation could propel the movement toward greater access and inclusivity. You may even discover your own inner Maker, and decide to join the revolution. The world's greatest problems will only be solved by the creativity, ingenuity, and innovation of its inhabitants. The Maker Movement and the revolution it heralds holds that truth at its core, and strives to give everyone access to the knowledge, tools, experience, and community they need to change the world. This book takes you inside the movement, and helps you find your place. Understand the drivers, depths, and goals of the Maker Movement Explore the major trends and technologies that enable makers Learn how institutions can engage and participate in the Maker Revolution Find your inner revolutionary and become a part of the changing world The new revolution will not be televised'it will be something you hold in your hand, something you use every day, and the spirit of the community that created it. The Maker Revolution brings you into the fold to show you the power of breaking away from the status quo and will show you how you too can help change the world.

Price: £ 24.99/-

In an increasingly connected world experiencing acceleratinglevels of technological disruption, the strategic challenges for businessleaders are greater than ever before, and conventional approaches to strategyare unable to contend with today's VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex andambiguous) business environment. A new approach to strategic decision-making isrequired to motivate and mobilize stakeholders to achieve the business'soverarching goals, such as making a profit and delivering on people- and planet-relatedobjectives. Mappinga Winning Strategyintroducesa new mapping method for creating and executing an effective business strategy.This method uses visual maps to engage colleagues throughout the organization,ensuring that every stakeholder's voice is considered by avoiding a top-downapproach. It also enables business leaders to identify the strategic issuesthey face without distraction, so that a clear path is formed towards the beststrategic plan. By mapping out the most effective strategy, organizations cananticipate and manage roadblocks to strategic change and make winning andwell-executed operational choices.

Price: € 64.99/-

Sharing information and knowledge, co-innovating with clients, communities, and competitors and adopting cognitive technology, robo advisors, crowdfunding, and blockchain reflect current socio-economic behaviour. Emerging growth regions in Asia, demographic shifts, intergenerational wealth transfers and increasing regulations are other trends that amplify each other, disrupt the client journey, and affect the entire economy. Moreover, unprecedentedly, new market entrants outside the financial sector, be it Amazon, Apple, Google, or Facebook, are increasingly expanding their scale and scope to offer financial services. Featuring case studies of Chinese business ecosystems, such as Alibaba/Ant Financial, that have transformed from displaying domestic and organic growth to rapid global expansion, this highly readable book gives you glimpses of how banking services are evolving. We break down everything you need to know about the foray of challenger banks into the financial services. You learn how they link health to wealth data and gain advantages through analytical capabilities in the race to attract sophisticated clients with highly personalized experiences. The next level of creating and capturing value for clients and businesses involves platform models embedded in cross-sector ecosystems. Digital platforms are the crucial entry point to global markets, creating value for multiple sides. They leverage self-driving ecosystems that go beyond linear value chains applied in traditional business models as the sources of growth in an interconnected world are collaboration and network effects. The winners will be those who open up and engage themselves in an ecosystem that transcends organizational boundaries and performs without sector borders because every actor contributes to the value constellation of the system. The book provides practitioners and scholars with new insights into open and holistic business models, where competition in future will be between ecosystems rather than at the company level. It encourages leaders to expand their skills and think through the lens of the ecosystem theory while developing compelling strategies to serve the next-generation clients.

Price: £ 29.99/-

The Seven Competences of the Sustainable Professional shows how every professional can contribute to sustainable development. Through real-life stories told by a range of professionals, each illustrating a sustainability competence, this book provides a practical guide to help professionals realize their sustainability potential. Together, these competences form an accessible framework that is explained in practical terms. Readers are able to check their own sustainability competence level and make plans for personal development at each stage of the book. There are dozens of books explaining how companies and organizations should work decently, dealing with topics like corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainable entrepreneurship, and corporate governance. There is an equally large number of books that describe how individuals should behave in their private lives, for instance, by buying healthy food, using energy-saving equipment, showering with less water, and switching off lights in empty rooms. However, this is the first book to provide individual professionals with a clear framework to enable them to act in a sustainable way in their workplace, be they the CEO, CFO, manager, or office worker.

Price: £ 60/-

Stunningly, strategy has never adequately defined one of its central institutions, the market. Old playbooks got away with a hodgepodge of assertions, assumptions and approximations.   But the undeniable complexity of modern markets confronts us with the truth. Markets are elaborate, evolving ecosystems - think biology, not machinery. Today, strategy must embrace complexity or die.Recognizing markets as complex adaptive systems spells strategic implications. Notably, as markets are partly socially constructed, they can be reconstructed. And while they cannot be predicted or controlled, they can be influenced.  Rooted in the richness of market systems, SMASH traces the three main resulting shifts in strategic thinking: (1) from firm focus to context focus, where the relevant context is our definition of the market; (2) from competing and winning to value creation and cooperation; and (3) from analysis, prediction and planning to non-predictive strategizing and experimentation.   Nenonen and Storbacka weave these three strands together into a cohesive strategic framework - Strategies for Market Shaping. Market shaping strategies acknowledge that much of firm performance is explained by the markets where a firm operates. Crucially, strategic choices go beyond market selection, entry and exit; firms should actively seek to adapt the market to the firm instead of the firm to the market, and open up untapped value in the process.   Market shaping is not new. What is new is systematizing an actionable framework for understanding and shaping markets. And the good news: It does not take market power and resources, or intuitive genius, to shape markets to your own benefit. SMASH offers tangible strategies that savvy market shapers of any size can implement, making it a must-read.

Price: £ 64/-

How do countries create and replicate socio-economic success? This book argues that success comes from how people make sense of their institutions when they are placed under stress. When institutional frameworks are challenged, a range of agents engaged in sensemaking processes that invokecertain identities on "who we are", contain normative claims about "how things should be", and involve strategies on "how to get there". Sensemaking about the future and the past is crucial to institutional competitiveness and includes prospective and retrospective points of departure, as well asfocusing on developing abstract causes of change or replicating success from previous experience.This book brings together a range of world-class scholars from Comparative Political Economy, Institutional Theory, and Organizational Sociology to discuss how sensemaking processes create institutional change. The contributors investigate a range of cases that cover different institutions linked tocompetitiveness, including labour, public management, think tanks, firms, innovation policies, tax and housing policies, and welfare systems. With a strong focus on the Nordic experience and comparisons with advanced industrialized economies, this volume provides an innovative and original frameworkfor understanding institutional change.

Price: £ 60/-

Operating in one of the fastest growing economies in the world, Indian business organizations are constantly faced with new challenges. The demands of globalization and the potential disruption of evolving technologies can make effective management difficult. Leadership theories in a business context have been developed mostly by researchers in the West, and very few attempts have been made to theoretically analyse Indian leadership practices. This book explores the idea of an India-centric leadership model, presenting an in-depth research study of strategic leadership theories and applying them to India's unique culture. Using the input of top level Indian business leaders, this book provides a much needed perspective in today's global economy. As one of the first monographs to comprehensively explore Indian leadership practices from an Indian perspective, this book will be of interest to business leaders, researchers and students alike.

Price: £ 39.99/-

Traditionally, analysis of strategic management has divided the focus between a business and corporate level. This text goes beyond that to help readers recognize the interplay of the "how" and "which" of strategy. It embraces the integrated nature of learning to avoid the compartmentalization of strategy concepts.  Strategic Management in Emerging Markets: Aligning Business and Corporate Strategyhas three uniquely valuable components. First, it identifies and integrates corporate and business strategy levels along with their co-evolution; enabling readers to better understand strategic alignment. Secondly, there is an explicit presentation of strategy for emerging markets which utilizes original theory and cases to help readers to better identify and succeed in high growth business contexts. Thirdly, it presents an integrative and comprehensive case study of an international corporation, Inchcape Inc., which is designed specifically to facilitate cumulative and holistic learning.  The book focuses on newer aspects of strategy theory and the hallmarks of emerging markets, such as dynamic capabilities, environmental turbulence, and the difficulties associated with strategic choice and execution in complex business environments. An appreciation of the role of megatrends is also a key aspect since emerging markets evolve at much faster rates than slower growth developed economies. Appealing to practitioners and students of strategic management and international business, the book bridges conceptual and practical realms of strategy generating intellectual synergies for the reader and enhancing the learning experience.

Price: $ 55/-

Real-world strategic management practice in an interactive micro-case format The Strategy Pathfinder presents an innovative, dynamic guide to strategic thinking and practice. Using real-world case examples from companies like Apple, the BBC, Hyundai, LEGO, McDonalds, Nike and SpaceX to illustrate critical concepts, this book enables readers to actively participate in real-world strategy dilemmas and create their own solutions. Strategy Pathfinder's 'live' micro-cases provoke discussion about business models, value creation, new ventures and more, while its complimentary instructional content introduces you to the best 'classic' and new tools of strategic management. Rather than passively reproducing past and current ideas, Strategy Pathfinder encourages strategic thinkers to learn by doing. The book is designed to help the reader to develop a clear understanding of key concepts while shifting your thought processes towards real strategic action and innovation by enabling you to: Use strategy theories and frameworks to engage in analytical and creative discussions about key strategic issues facing real companies today Form strategic views for yourself, and test them against the views of others Effectively make and communicate recommendations based on solid strategic analysis that stand up to scrutiny from multiple stakeholders Become an active producer of new strategic ideas rather than a passive receiver of past wisdom This third edition has been updated with new chapters and cases to reflect the latest, cutting-edge issues in strategic thinking and practice.  And the updated companion website offers students, instructors and managers more resources to facilitate understanding, interaction and innovation. As an active learning experience, The Strategy Pathfinder 3rd Edition engages the reader in the work of strategy practitioners. By arming you with the empirical research you need, and the best strategic management theories and frameworks to better analyse situations you're likely to encounter or already facing in your career, The Strategy Pathfinder teaches you how to improve your strategic thinking and practice, and develop your own strategic pathways for the future.

Price: £ 29.99/-

A Global CEO study by Accenture and the UN Global Compact has shown that 94% of CEOs think that their board should discuss sustainability. And yet there is a real danger that boards are not living up to expectations on sustainability, paying lip-service to the concept rather than fully embedding social and environmental issues into their strategies and operations. Talking Sustainability in the Boardroom sets out why this is the case, identifies the obstacles, and then explains the opportunities for the long-term performance of the organisation that can arise through focusing on social and environmental issues. Written by two leading specialists in sustainability who have significant experience of working directly with boards, this book presents a very practical framework for embedding sustainability into board conversations and strategies. Steps include identifying and prioritising the social and environmental issues that are most pertinent to the organisation and will have the biggest impact on business, presenting the competences and skills to enable this, guidance on how to structure board meetings to ensure that these conversations truly take place, and the development of action plans and tools for measurement.

Price: $ 31.95/-

Trend-Driven Innovation Beat accelerating customer expectations. Every business leader, entrepreneur, innovator, and marketer wants to know where customers are headed. The problem? The received wisdom on how to find out is wrong. In this startling new book, the team at TrendWatching share a powerful, counter-intuitive truth: to discover what people want next, stop looking at customers and start looking at businesses. That means learning how to draw powerful insights from the way leading brands and disruptive startups--from Apple to Uber, Chipotle to Patagonia--redefine customer expectations. Sharing the secrets that have led thousands of the world's most successful brands and agencies to rely on TrendWatching for over a decade, Trend-Driven Innovation is the book that will reconfigure your view of the business world forever. You'll learn: How to spot emerging trends using three crucial building blocks, and how to recognize the expectation gaps that herald opportunity. Why most professionals focus on precisely the wrong trends and innovations, and how to avoid this. How to turn trends and insights into innovations that customers will love. Amid the endless change that defines today's business environment, opportunity is everywhere. Highly practical, and featuring real-world examples from around the world, Trend-Driven Innovation is the actionable, battle-tested manual that will enable you harness those opportunities time after time. Setting you up to build an organization that matters, products customers love, and campaigns people can't stop talking about.

Price: £ 75/-

The study of management and organization has transitioned from approaches to deal with steady state management, to approaches that can cope with unknown or unknowable futures. The strategy field has has moved from business policy, through strategic planning, onto strategic management and now grapples with dynamic contexts as the new normal. In that trend the field has seen a broad movement in research interests in corporate and competitive strategies towards an emphasis on the manager's strategic role. Through this shift, strategy has moved from a concept of something organizations have towards something that managers do. This has happened while traditional boundaries of industries have become permeable and even melted away. Managers tasked with doing strategy have lost not just the certainty of a goal-oriented future, but also the certainty of understanding their current position. Decision-making tools have now moved from answer generators to scenario builders. When decisions can rely less on evidence and certainty, it is managers that take up the slack and fill the void. This book focuses on the challenge of making strategic decisions in conditions of uncertainty.

Price: £ 77.99/-

The Value Trail offers a comprehensive approach to competitive analysis and strategy, considering value as a central theme and from a customer based perspective. It fully develops a disruptive new model of strategic analysis (namely the Three Dimensions of Value model) that approaches the drivers of success within a business from a value-based perspective: how value is understood by the customer (Appreciation of Value), and how it is boosted (Concentration of Value) or subtracted (Predation of Value) by different business agents. From this business-level perspective, the book progressively moves down to a company level to allow the reader to understand how companies can set corporate goals and leverage internal resources to deliver successful value propositions. To close the circle, special attention is paid to the definition of an integrated monitoring system based on both market (outside-in perspective) and company (inside-out perspective) metrics. On top of that, the book also identifies, in line with this new theory, the most relevant existing competitive models, together with a comprehensive analysis of their strategic approach and success drivers. If you are an entrepreneur looking for a solid and understandable guide to fully cover all company stages, a manager seeking to improve the implementation of operational and strategic processes or a practitioner in search of a disruptive approach to competitive analysis, this is the book you've been waiting for.

Price: € 54.99/-

This book presents tools for valuing and controlling corporate innovation. It combines a well-established theoretical framework with case studies at Siemens that illustrate the practice of valuing and controlling innovation and underline the strong link between theoretical concepts and practical application. Innovation is a key factor determining the success of companies and since corporate innovation consumes large quantities of resources, the issue of how best to distribute these resources among different projects is crucial. For an optimal resource allocation, companies need valuation tools to assess the benefits, costs and risks of competing projects. The energy sector is an example of a market that is strongly driven by innovation, and as such the book describes the processes and the potential of digitalizing product development and outlines the valuation process for a long-term innovation project in this sector - the development of the latest Siemens gas turbine.

Price: € 69.99/-

This book highlights research-based case studies in order to analyze the wealth created in the world's largest mergers and acquisitions (M&A). This book encourages cross fertilization in theory building and applied research by examining the links between M&A and wealth creation. Each chapter covers a specific case and offers a focused clinical examination of the entire lifecycle of M&A for each mega deal, exploring all aspects of the process. The success of M&A are analyzed through two main research approaches: event studies and financial performance analyses. The event studies examine the abnormal returns to the shareholders in the period surrounding the merger announcement. The financial performance studies examine the reported financial results of acquirers before and after the acquisition to see whether financial performance has improved after merger. The relation between method of payment, premium paid and stock returns are examined. The chapters also discuss synergies of the deal-cost and revenue synergies.  Mergers and acquisitions represent a major force in modern financial and economic environment. Whether in times of boom or bust, M&As have emerged as a compelling strategy for growth. The biggest companies of modern day have all taken form through a series of restructuring activities like multiple mergers. Acquisitions continue to remain as the quickest route companies take to operate in new markets and to add new capabilities and resources. The cases covered in this book highlights high profile M&As and focuses on the wealth creation for shareholders of acquirer and target firms as a financial assessment of the merger's success. The book should be useful for finance professionals, corporate planners, strategists, and managers.