The Mind Of The Strategist: The Art of Japanese Business: Kenichi Ohmae

• Filed under: Business

Editorial Reviews

This provocative book by a Japanese executive shows that the keys to business success in the West are the proven techniques of the Far East successful strategic planning and its conservative execution. Strategy in the classic military sense is deploying your forces to achieve a competitive advantage. Concentrating on the thought processes behind Japan’s successful strategic thinking, this book describes what strategic thinking is and presents concepts and concrete examples for its application. Only by integrating the three C’s in a strategic triangle Customer, Competitor, and Company can sustained competitive advantage exist. Business managers at all levels can benefit from this ‘how to think about it’ guide by developing profitable and creative strategies.

From the Back Cover

A Masterful Analysis of Company, Customer, and Competition

Kenichi Ohmae-voted by The Economist as “one of the world’s top five management gurus”-changed the landscape of management strategy in The Mind of the Strategist. In this compelling account of global business domination, Ohmae reveals the vital thinking processes and planning techniques of prominent companies, showing why they work, and how any company can benefit from them.

Filled with case studies of strategic thinking in action, Ohmae’s classic work inspires today’s managers to excel to new heights of bold, imaginative thinking and solutions.

“In many ways, Ohmae can be considered the modern reincarnation of a much older guru, Adam Smith.”-Journal of Marketing

“A fascinating window into the mind of one of Japan’s premier strategists…full of ideas about how to improve strategic thinking.”-Michael E. Porter, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University

Order The Mind Of The Strategist: The Art of Japanese Business: Kenichi Ohmae form Amazon.

The Visionary’s Handbook: Nine Paradoxes That will Shape the Future of Your Business: Watts Wacker, Jim Taylor, Howard Means

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

At a time when business bestsellers such as Six Sigma are touting scientific management, The Visionary’s Handbook desires to be different. Authors Watts Wacker, Jim Taylor, and Howard Means forgo the nuts-and-bolts approach for a philosophical look at management, examining nine broad trends, or “paradoxes,” they say are shaping business today.

At the heart of these paradoxes lies change–change that is occurring at an increasing rate. The more certain we are of the future, say the authors, the more likely we are to be wrong. To support their argument, they cite both online and real-world examples, including Xerox, eBay, Kodak, and Cisco. Their observations, if not groundbreaking, are certainly accurate. For instance, the Paradox of Size–the bigger your company, the smaller it needs to appear–has been explored at length in Customers.com. Similarly, the need for continual innovation–even to the detriment of your core business–is a paradox that merits attention and one that readers of The Innovator’s Dilemma will recognize.

The Visionary’s Handbook is about more than just paradoxes, though. Interspersed throughout its pages are exercises challenging readers to pencil in the future they want to see, to visualize and outline their success. Some may find these exercises a valuable and practical addition to the text. Broadly conceived and thought-provoking, The Visionary’s Handbook will be an eye opener for many readers. –Demian McLean

Review
“Highly original, full of insights, and lots of fun to read.” — – Sally Helcesen, author of The Web of lnclusion and The Female Advantage

“Just the idea of looking at the creation of your future as a serial experience, as is done in The Visionary’s Handbook, is a breakthrough for business planning andespecially for one’s own life. A must read.” — Christopher Forbes, vice chairman, Forbes Inc.

“Leaders of all kinds of organizations can use this astonishingly insightful conceptual toolbox to create their desired futures while increasing effectiveness in today’s multidimensional, multiparadoxical world.” — Gloria Feldt, president, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund

“The authors combine an intellectual thrust with old-fashioned, down home logic. There is a consistent theme within this book that urges you to become part of your own story; the style ensures that you become part of their story.” — David S. Ford, chief executive, Gardner MerchantFood and Management Services

“This book will challenge your most fundamental beliefs about competition, value, time, action, and leadership. Get ready for enlightenment!” — Philip Kotler, Professor of International Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

“Watts Wacker’s newest book, The Visionary’s Handbook, contains the thoughts of an undeniably great thinker.” — – Edward C. Emma, president and COO, Jockey International, Inc.

The Visionary’s Handbook succeeds in providing an intriguing narrative filled with insightful analysis. — - Business 2.0

Order The Visionary’s Handbook: Nine Paradoxes That will Shape the Future of Your Business: Watts Wacker, Jim Taylor, Howard Means form Amazon.

The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economies: Kenichi Ohmae

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Nations are becoming obsolete from an economic standpoint, declares Tokyo-based business consultant Ohmae (The Borderless World). He argues that the traditional nation-state, now beholden to domestic special interests, its government “an enemy of the public at large,” has become an inefficient, even impossible, business unit in the new global economy. Instead of a world order based on discrete, independent nations, Ohmae envisions autonomous networks of what he calls “region states”?geographically linked economic zones that forge productive ties with the global marketplace by putting the right policies, information technology and infrastructure in place. Examples of emerging region states cited here are San Diego/Tijuana; Hong Kong and southern China; and northern Italy and the Rhine-Alps region of France. Although Ohmae overstates his case, his challenging primer gives managers, economists, politicians and policymakers new ways to think about global economic problems and opportunities.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Ohmae, a former McKinsey & Company senior partner, has touted the global economy in The Borderless World (1990) and Beyond National Borders (1987). His new book spells out more specifically Ohmae’s conviction that the nation state and the global economy cannot comfortably coexist. National boundaries are too porous, he argues, to control the flows of communication, corporations, customers, capital, and currencies, and most national governments are too focused on distributing wealth to be effective in creating it. Ohmae sees “region states” –natural economic zones of 5 to 20 million affluent residents, such as Hong Kong and contiguous areas of China, San Diego, and Tijuana or Silicon Valley–stepping into this vacuum, building links with the global economy independent of the nations that theoretically control them. For Ohmae, these changes raise practical, not ideological, issues: nation states should decentralize power and seek to serve as catalysts for the growth of region states, because this is the only sort of growth the global economy is likely to support. The usual free-market leap of faith lies at the heart of Ohmae’s argument, but his ideas are provocative enough to appeal to readers struggling to understand the consequences of globalization. Mary Carroll

Order The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economies: Kenichi Ohmae form Amazon.

Strategic Thinking and the New Science: Planning in the Midst of Chaos Complexity and Change: T. Irene Sanders

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
A decade ago, James Gleick helped popularize the concept of chaos theory with Chaos: The Making of a New Science (1987). Prior to that, the concept had largely been the province of mathematicians, but Gleick showed broader applications for the idea that systems behave in orderly ways in spite of seemingly random–and chaotic–individual events. And, indeed, investors, meteorologists, economists, astronomers, and biologists have all incorporated chaos theory into the models they construct. Others have even seen applications for management theory, and Margaret Wheatley’s Leadership and the New Science (1992) explored organizational behavior from the point of view of chaos. Now Sanders, a consultant who has worked with corporations, not-for-profit organizations, and even congressional committees, has developed a new model of strategic thinking, based on chaos and complexity, that breaks down the process into two components: insight about the present and foresight about the future. Both of these require “visual thinking,” and she has developed a tool called “FutureScape” that facilitates such thinking. Here she explains her model and demonstrates the application of her method. David Rouse

Review
An eye-opening account of how an awareness of chaos can enter practical decision making. — Edward N. Lorenz, Professor Of Meteorology, Massachusetts Institute Of Technology

Having worked with and greatly admired Irene Sanders, I am intrigued by her new model for strategic thinking. She has taken an original approach to an ongoing challenge: How to plan for the future in a world that is changing rapidly and more interconnected than ever before. — Sam Nunn, Partner, King & Spalding, former U.S. Senator

Ron J. Anderson, M.D. President and CEO, Parkland Health & Hospital System This book should be in the toolbox of all the leaders of complex health care organizations. Sanders’ application of chaos theory will be helpful to leaders of institutions that must work in communities where change is the only constant and where continuous adaptation, anticipation, and visualization of unseen patterns are necessary prerequisites for effective leadership and stewardship. — Review

This useful book is a welcome reminder that forecasting is not foresight, and that the best-laid plans mean little without understanding the web of relationships in which they must be enacted. — Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School, Author of Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the Frontiers Of Management

Order Strategic Thinking and the New Science: Planning in the Midst of Chaos Complexity and Change: T. Irene Sanders form Amazon.

The Systems Thinking Approach to Strategic Planning and Management: Stephen Haines

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

Easy-to-follow and understand, The Systems Thinking Approach to Strategic Planning and Management presents the first practical application of “systems thinking”, a concept first introduced by Peter Senge in the Fifth Discipline as a new, better and elegantly simple A-B-C approach to strategic management, planning, and change. It provides a unique Systems Thinking Approach’ that places equal emphasis on planning, strategies, and change management processes in support of customer satisfaction.

Order The Systems Thinking Approach to Strategic Planning and Management: Stephen Haines form Amazon.

The Strategist CEO: How Visionary Executives Build Organizations: Michel Robert

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

Review
“DPI’s strategic thinking process profoundly impacts the bottom line, both financially and psychologically.”–Herman Shepherd Armstrong Laboratories, Inc.

This practical guide describes a unique and proven method for setting and implementing strategy and for dealing with the qualitative variables that face an organization. After the concepts have been clearly elucidated, Robert describes their implementation in a variety of corporate settings.

Order The Strategist CEO: How Visionary Executives Build Organizations: Michel Robert form Amazon.

The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economies: Kenichi Ohmae

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Nations are becoming obsolete from an economic standpoint, declares Tokyo-based business consultant Ohmae (The Borderless World). He argues that the traditional nation-state, now beholden to domestic special interests, its government “an enemy of the public at large,” has become an inefficient, even impossible, business unit in the new global economy. Instead of a world order based on discrete, independent nations, Ohmae envisions autonomous networks of what he calls “region states”?geographically linked economic zones that forge productive ties with the global marketplace by putting the right policies, information technology and infrastructure in place. Examples of emerging region states cited here are San Diego/Tijuana; Hong Kong and southern China; and northern Italy and the Rhine-Alps region of France. Although Ohmae overstates his case, his challenging primer gives managers, economists, politicians and policymakers new ways to think about global economic problems and opportunities.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Ohmae, a former McKinsey & Company senior partner, has touted the global economy in The Borderless World (1990) and Beyond National Borders (1987). His new book spells out more specifically Ohmae’s conviction that the nation state and the global economy cannot comfortably coexist. National boundaries are too porous, he argues, to control the flows of communication, corporations, customers, capital, and currencies, and most national governments are too focused on distributing wealth to be effective in creating it. Ohmae sees “region states” –natural economic zones of 5 to 20 million affluent residents, such as Hong Kong and contiguous areas of China, San Diego, and Tijuana or Silicon Valley–stepping into this vacuum, building links with the global economy independent of the nations that theoretically control them. For Ohmae, these changes raise practical, not ideological, issues: nation states should decentralize power and seek to serve as catalysts for the growth of region states, because this is the only sort of growth the global economy is likely to support. The usual free-market leap of faith lies at the heart of Ohmae’s argument, but his ideas are provocative enough to appeal to readers struggling to understand the consequences of globalization. Mary Carroll

Order The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economies: Kenichi Ohmae form Amazon.

Strategic Thinking and the New Science: Planning in the Midst of Chaos Complexity and Change: T. Irene Sanders

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
A decade ago, James Gleick helped popularize the concept of chaos theory with Chaos: The Making of a New Science (1987). Prior to that, the concept had largely been the province of mathematicians, but Gleick showed broader applications for the idea that systems behave in orderly ways in spite of seemingly random–and chaotic–individual events. And, indeed, investors, meteorologists, economists, astronomers, and biologists have all incorporated chaos theory into the models they construct. Others have even seen applications for management theory, and Margaret Wheatley’s Leadership and the New Science (1992) explored organizational behavior from the point of view of chaos. Now Sanders, a consultant who has worked with corporations, not-for-profit organizations, and even congressional committees, has developed a new model of strategic thinking, based on chaos and complexity, that breaks down the process into two components: insight about the present and foresight about the future. Both of these require “visual thinking,” and she has developed a tool called “FutureScape” that facilitates such thinking. Here she explains her model and demonstrates the application of her method. David Rouse

Review
An eye-opening account of how an awareness of chaos can enter practical decision making. — Edward N. Lorenz, Professor Of Meteorology, Massachusetts Institute Of Technology

Having worked with and greatly admired Irene Sanders, I am intrigued by her new model for strategic thinking. She has taken an original approach to an ongoing challenge: How to plan for the future in a world that is changing rapidly and more interconnected than ever before. — Sam Nunn, Partner, King & Spalding, former U.S. Senator

Ron J. Anderson, M.D. President and CEO, Parkland Health & Hospital System This book should be in the toolbox of all the leaders of complex health care organizations. Sanders’ application of chaos theory will be helpful to leaders of institutions that must work in communities where change is the only constant and where continuous adaptation, anticipation, and visualization of unseen patterns are necessary prerequisites for effective leadership and stewardship. — Review

This useful book is a welcome reminder that forecasting is not foresight, and that the best-laid plans mean little without understanding the web of relationships in which they must be enacted. — Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School, Author of Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the Frontiers Of Management

Order Strategic Thinking and the New Science: Planning in the Midst of Chaos Complexity and Change: T. Irene Sanders form Amazon.

The Systems Thinking Approach to Strategic Planning and Management: Stephen Haines

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

Easy-to-follow and understand, The Systems Thinking Approach to Strategic Planning and Management presents the first practical application of “systems thinking”, a concept first introduced by Peter Senge in the Fifth Discipline as a new, better and elegantly simple A-B-C approach to strategic management, planning, and change. It provides a unique Systems Thinking Approach’ that places equal emphasis on planning, strategies, and change management processes in support of customer satisfaction.

Order The Systems Thinking Approach to Strategic Planning and Management: Stephen Haines form Amazon.

The Strategist CEO: How Visionary Executives Build Organizations: Michel Robert

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

Review
“DPI’s strategic thinking process profoundly impacts the bottom line, both financially and psychologically.”–Herman Shepherd Armstrong Laboratories, Inc.

This is a practical guide for CEOs and corporate managers who want to improve their ability to develop corporate strategy, chart the direction of their organization, and involve their key executives in the successful implementation of that strategy. Robert describes a unique and proven method for setting and implementing strategy and for dealing with the qualitative variables that face an organization. The work begins with an examination of the common pitfalls of strategic planning. Subsequent chapters introduce the concept of strategic thinking (a necessary prerequisite to strategic planning), and treat common obstacles and misperceptions. After the concepts have been clearly elucidated, the author goes on to describe their implementation in a variety of corporate settings.

Order The Strategist CEO: How Visionary Executives Build Organizations: Michel Robert form Amazon.