Harvard Business Review on Corporate Strategy

Some of the theories were tough to get through, although I'm sure some people will love this. I prefer it more practical, so the part where it talks about what makes for good corporate strategy was good. The book shows five tests to determine if a resource can be the basis for an effective strategy. So many corporations need this!

This is another excellent collection of essays from Harvard Business Review and the topic is Corporate Strategy. 8 essays in a little less than 250 pages address various corporate strategies that can be useful if you are in a similar situation. These are very interesting theories and it is fascinating to read them with all the real life examples. If you don't enjoy pure strategy, some of the material may feel dull though. This book goes into the guts of what makes for good corporate strategy. It starts out with a chapter on Creating Corporate Advantage where you are exposed to examples of companies that leveraged their multibusiness capabilities extremely well to create a serious corporate advantage (the companies are Tyco International, Sharp, The Newell Company, and Saatchi and Saatchi). The book then moves on to the strategy in the 1990s with a focus on competing on resources. Five tests are put forward that should help determine if a resource can qualify to be the basis for an effective strategy. The rest of the book addresses topics such as Synergy, Strategies for a Sustainable World, Emerging Markets, Competing on Capabilities, Parenting Advantage (the kind of businesses a company should own), etc.Overall, the book has some very serious discussions on Corporate Strategies. Some of these may not be as relevant to the particular situation you are in, but most would be if you work in a large organization. I picked up the book to see what I could learn on strategy for small businesses but this isn't the book for that. Though these lessons could be applied when the small business starts transforming into a large business. Bottom line - this book is an interesting read especially if you are in an MBA program or are part of the upper management of a large corporation. Enjoy!