From Resource Allocation to Strategy
From Resource Allocation to Strategy

Author: Joseph L. Bower

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2005-10-27

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 019151540X

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Joseph L. Bower and Clark G. Gilbert have collected together some of the leading experts on strategy to examine how strategy is actually made by company managers across the several levels of an organization. Is strategy a coherent plan conceived at the top by a visionary leader, or is it formed by a series of smaller decisions, not always reflecting what top management has in mind? Often it is by examining how options for using resources are developed and selected, that we can see how a company's competitive position gets shaped. On the basis of this understanding, we can see better how these processes can be managed. The book's five sections examine how the resource allocation process works, how the way it works can lead a company into serious problems, how top management can intervene to fix these problem, and where the most recent thinking on these problems is headed. A fifth section contains assessments of this work by thought leaders in the fields of economics, competitive strategy, organizational behavior, and strategic management. The implications for those who study firms are considerable. Activity that is normally thought about in terms of substantive outcomes such as market share and revenue growth, or present value and internal rate of return, is seen to be inextricably related to organizational and administrative questions. The findings presented here should inform the research of economists, strategists, and behavioral scientists. Thoughtful executives and those who consult with them will also find the book provocative. The processes described are complex, but clear enough so that the way toward effective management is apparent. The models developed provide a basis for building the systems and organization necessary for today's competitive world.

Real Options
Real Options

Author: Lenos Trigeorgis

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1996-03-14

Total Pages: 452

ISBN-13: 9780262201025

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Comprehensive in scope, Real Options reviews current techniques of capital budgeting and details an approach (based on the pricing of options) that provides a means of quantifying the elusive elements of managerial flexibility in the face of unexpected changes in the market. In the 1970s and the 1980s, developments in the valuation of capital-investment opportunities based on options pricing revolutionized capital budgeting. Managerial flexibility to adapt and revise future decisions in order to capitalize on favorable future opportunities or to limit losses has proven vital to long-term corporate success in an uncertain and changing marketplace. In this book Lenos Trigeorgis, who has helped shape the field of real options, brings together a wealth of previously scattered knowledge and research on the new flexibility in corporate resource allocation and in the evaluation of investment alternatives brought about by the shift from static cash-flow approaches to the more dynamic paradigm of real options—an approach that incorporates decisions on whether to defer, expand, contract, abandon, switch use, or otherwise alter a capital investment. Comprehensive in scope, Real Options reviews current techniques of capital budgeting and details an approach (based on the pricing of options) that provides a means of quantifying the elusive elements of managerial flexibility in the face of unexpected changes in the market. Also discussed are the strategic value of new technology, project interdependence, and competitive interaction. The ability to value real options has so dramatically altered the way in which corporate resources are allocated that future textbooks on capital budgeting will bear little resemblance to those of even the recent past. Real Options is a pioneer in this area, coupling a coherent picture of how option theory is used with practical insights in into real-world applications.

Marketing Strategy
Marketing Strategy

Author: Devanathan Sudharshan

Publisher: Prentice Hall

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 472

ISBN-13:

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This text is appropriate for advanced/MBA level marketing strategy courses found in marketing departments and undergraduate level marketing capstone courses in business administration departments. Offering a fresh and extremely current approach to marketing strategy, this superb new text emphasizes relationships, presents relevant material from other fields (such as finance and accounting), and establishes coherent analytical frameworks through which to examine strategic options. Integrating coverage of research findings with observed practice and cutting-edge ideas with traditional notions, this text provides a sound, balanced and contemporary basis for understanding and implementing all facets of marketing strategy.

Good Strategy Bad Strategy
Good Strategy Bad Strategy

Author: Richard Rumelt

Publisher: Currency

Published: 2011-07-19

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 0307886239

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Good Strategy/Bad Strategy clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world. Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” In Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” He introduces nine sources of power—ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth—that are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can easily be put to work on Monday morning, and uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007–08 financial crisis. Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.

Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management
Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management

Author: Anand Sanwal

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2007-07-30

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 0470149604

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If where an organization allocates its resources determines its strategy, why is it that so few companies actively manage the resource allocation process? "Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management: Aligning Investment Proposals with Organizational Strategy" goes beyond platitudes about why you should use corporate portfolio management (CPM) by offering a practical methodology to bring this powerful discipline to your organization. "Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management" takes an expansive view of where CPM can be utilized by demonstrating that it can be used across any business line, product group or functional area, e.g., IT, R&D, innovation, marketing, salesforce, capital expenditure, etc. CPM is appropriate anywhere discretionary investments are being selected and executed. As a result, other terms used to describe portfolio management such as IT portfolio management, enterprise portfolio management, and project portfolio management are all merely subsets or slices of CPM. The book is written by Anand Sanwal, an expert on CPM, who has led American Express' CPM discipline (referred to as American Express Investment Optimization). American Express' CPM efforts are widely recognized as the most extensive, substantial and progressive deployment of CPM across any organization. Sanwal avoids academic theories and consultant jargon to ultimately deliver pragmatic and proven recommendations on how to make CPM a reality. The book features a foreword by Gary Crittenden, former CFO and EVP of American Express, and several case studies from leading financial services, technology, and government organizations utilizing CPM. Additionally, the book has received significant praise from thought leaders at Google, HP, American Express, The CFO Executive Board, Gartner, Accenture Marketing Sciences, The Wharton School of Business and many others.

Projects as Arenas for Renewal and Learning Processes
Projects as Arenas for Renewal and Learning Processes

Author: Rolf A. Lundin

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 1461556910

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There is a growing tendency to organize various aspects of business life by projects, and to set up temporary organizations in a competition where speed and adaptability becomes a major necessity. Organizing by projects is perceived as a good way to ensure action and to stress the importance of getting work done. However, there is a need to balance the stress on action so that learning capabilities are not only retained, but augmented. Projects as Arenas for Renewal and Learning Processes provides examples of how different types of projects function from a learning or renewal perspective, taken from a wide variety of real-life environments in industrial and public organizations. This book illustrates the mistaken habit of assuming too much in the project area: for example, project notions are, in fact, culture-dependent; classical market-oriented contracting business relations do not fit with the learning dimension of projects; and long-term learning on core competencies and product development projects need to be connected. The book is also intended to represent many of the research frontiers in the project field. Enhancing learning capabilities is - or should be - of a mutual concern to researchers and managers alike.

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management

Author:

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Published: 2018-05-04

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780230537217

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The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management has been written by an international team of leading academics, practitioners and rising stars and contains almost 550 individually commissioned entries. It is the first resource of its kind to pull together such a comprehensive overview of the field and covers both the theoretical and more empirically/practitioner oriented side of the discipline.

Seven Strategy Questions
Seven Strategy Questions

Author: Robert Simons

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press

Published: 2010-11-16

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 142213332X

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Simons presents the seven key questions a manager and his team must continually ask. Drawing on decades of research into performance management systems and organization design, "Seven Strategy Questions" is a no-nonsense, must-read resource for all leaders in any organization.

The Granularity of Growth
The Granularity of Growth

Author: Patrick Viguerie

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2011-01-13

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 1118045475

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While growth is a top priority for companies of all sizes, it can be extremely difficult to create and maintain—especially in today’s competitive business environment. The Granularity of Growth will put you in a better position to succeed as it reveals why growth is so important, what enables certain companies to grow so spectacularly, and how to ensure that growth comes from multiple sources as you take both a broad and a granular view of your markets.