- Email: [email protected]
Adventures in Capitalism
Also it is always important to emphasise the importance of getting the simple things right. Usefully read in conjunction with First Person: Tales of
Customers,
SANDRA VANDERMERWE, mary of the fascinating, and vast, legacy
Wiley (1996), 244 pp., £24.95.
Management Courage and Tenacity, THOMAS T E A L , Harvard
Business School Press/McGraw-Hill (1996), 267 pp., £14.95 (which "bear witness to how difficult management really is". Actually management is easy; it is 'good' management that is difficult!). The 'mLts and bolts' of running a small business (in the UK) are well documentec in Lloyds Bank Small Business Guide, SARAWILLIAMS,Penguin (1996) 10th edition, 454 pp., £16.00 (500,000 copies ~old of earlier editions!).
Market Unbounded: Unleasing Global Capitalism, LOWELL BRYAN and DIAN FARRELL,Wiley (1996), 222 pp., £24.95. Based on extensive research by McKinsey. It discusses the far reaching effects of the true globalization of capital markets.
Strategic Management: an Introduction, RONALD ROSEN, Pitman Publishing (1995), 197 pp., £15.95.
Strategic Renaissance and Business A sound, well presented, basic introTransj,)rmation, edition by HOWARD duction to strategy. But what happens THOMAS, DON O'NEAL and JAMESKELLY, Wiley 1!996), 48 pp., £29.95. Arouml the themes of 'restructuring and rec~rganization in the public and privat,: sectors'; 'issues and patterns in global competition'; 'managing organizational learning' (a particularly relevant section); 'managing the processes of str.~tegic change' and finally one paper by Andrew Pettigrew 'On studying Managerial Elites' in the section on 'Research on top management: what we know and what we need to know'. More useful details of the background to developments in one ara are considered in The Dynamic American Firm, edited by KENNETH CHILTON, MURRAY WEIDENB2~'IM and
ROBERT BATTERSON,
Kluwe:- Academic (1996), 240 pp., £60.51).
Strategic
Integration,
edited
by
HOWARD THOMAS and DON O'NEAL,
Wiley (1996), 410 pp., £29.95. Integrates (using 19 relevant and well preselsted articles) what a company might do; could do; wants to do and should do, using resources, competencies, markets, opportunities, organizatioual structure, culture, the environment, innovation and technology. A well argued, well presented, framework for moving from a productmaking focus to a customer-owning approach is provided if The Eleventh
Comr~andment: Transforming to 'Own'
in practice? Who will be the high performers of tomorrow? And what will be their real competitive advantage? Discussed in a study of Corporate Stra-
tegies of the Top 100 UK Companies of the Future, Corporate Research Foundation UK (1995), 416 pp., £18.99. Starts with the relevant quote from Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome, AD 161-180: "Whatever you do, do it with foresight; look to the end." One of the first to use MBO?
of key management thinkers of the 20th century, at least up to 1990--but no mention of Senge and the concept of the Learning Organization). A specialist aspect of the subject is covered in
The Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties: From Self-Improvement to Adult Education in America, 17501990, JOSEPH F. KETT, Stanford University Press (1994), 581 pp,, £50.00. Discusses how the role of learning in society is critical for its development, this authorative, academic, study merits attention from those seriously interested in the subject. You might expect the whole question of learning to be at the core of Reinventing the University:
a Radical Proposal for a Problemfocused University, JAN SINNOT, and LYNN JOHNSON, Ablex Publishing (1996), 211 pp., npq. Interesting, stimulating and badly needed, but the concept of the University as a Learning Organization was not addressed. Pity. Also potentially relevant University
Challenge: Student Choices in the 21st Century, H. CONNOR, R. PEARSON, G. COURT, N. JAGGER, The Institute for Employment Studies (1996), 116 pp., £35.00. Presents the findings of a study commissioned by the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals of UK universities in 1995, on student trends, diversity and likely future growth in demand for higher education, and the factors influencing them. But little about the whole subject of learning.
Leveraging Knowledge: The 17 Day Program for a Learning Organization, PATRICK THURBIN, Pitman Publishing (1995), 255 pp., £25.00. A practical approach to the identification of critical know-how, combined with how to capture, share and leverage it for competitive advantage. The whole subject of learning is given useful and rigorous coverage in the 10 papers in Organizational Learning and Competitive Advantage, edited by BERTRAND
MOINGEON
and
The Pyrimid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking, BARBARAMINTO, Pitman Publishing (1995) 189 pp., £35.00. Much very valuable advice on how to present information more effectively. Likely to be of increasing importance as we move further into the 'Information
Age'.
AMY
EDMONDSON, Sage (1996), 229 pp., £13.95. Pity the subject was not at the core of Making Sense of Management, MATS ALVESSON and HUGH WILLMOTT,
Sage (1996), 246 pp., £13.95 (a critic a l - a c a d e m i c - a n a l y s i s of received wisdom, for serious students of the subject). And Management Theory: From Taylorism to Japanization, JOHN SHELDRAKE, International Business Press (1996), 225 pp., £16.95 (a readable sum-
Adventures in Capitalism, TOBY LITT, Secker & Warburg (1996), 228 pp., £12.99. A somewhat eccentric view of the market economy. Many fascinating, and fun, facts in The Guinness Book of Business Records, TOM CANNON, Guinness Publishing (1996), 224 pp., £15.95.
Long Range Planning Vol. 30
April 1997
Other, particularly demographic, facts and figures are contained in The Geode-
mographic Pocket Book: a Portrait of Britain's Products, Towns, Counties and Marketplaces, CACI Information Services/NTC Publications (1996), 154 pp., £32.OO.
Fast Forward: the Best Ideas on Managing Business Change, JAMES CHAMPY and NITIN NOHRIA, Harvard Business School Press/McGraw-Hill (1996), 278 pp., £17.95. Fourteen articles and interviews from the Harvard Business Review that combine reflection on the central truths of all business change, with an assessment of p o p u l a r m e t h o d s of change management and a discussion of the leadership qualities n e e d e d for the shape of organizations in the future.
The Transformation Imperative: Achieving Market Dominance Through Radical Change, THOMAS E. VOLLMAN, Harvard Business School Press/ McGraw-Hill (1996), 268 pp., £20.95.
Saga of the Richest Family in Japan, Argues that only w h e n change programmes are deep and fully integrated across the organization can transformation be both continuous and effective. Offers sound advice that needs to be w i d e l y read, including a key chapter on 'Learning Capacity'.
Value-focused Thinking: a Path to Creative Decisionmaking, RALPH L. KEENEY, Harvard University (1996), 416 pp., £11.95.
Uses the power of sociolinguistic analysis to fulfil the potential of teams and helps them to i m p r o v e results by listening to their own voices. All too frequently this is b a d l y needed, unfortunately. But surprising not to find greater emphasis on 'learning conversation' work. The technical issues of managing ('controlling') an organisation are well d o c u m e n t e d in Effec-
tive Management Control: Theory and Practice, ERIC G. FLAMHOLTZ, Kluwer A c a d e m i c (1996), 174 pp., £56.95. Pity the whole question of trust was not addressed more explicitly.
Value Migration: How to Think Several Moves Ahead of the Competition,
Argues that it is through recognizing and articulating fundamental values that we can improve the quality of our decisions.
Serious students of ethics could try
The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics, MARTHA C. NUSSBAUM, Princeton University Press (1994), 558 pp., £16.95.
Strategies for Asia Pacific, PHILIPPE LASSERRE and HELLMUT SCHUTTE, Macmillan Business (1995), 315 pp. Aims to a p p l y the concepts and theoretical frameworks of international business strategy - the Asia Pacific Region. Essential re ~g for managers (and students) o p e - a m G in, or concerned with, that part of the, world. Also for excellent relevant tnoliday?) reading try: The Collapse oj Barings: Panic, Ignorance and Greed, STEPHEN FAY, Arrow Books (1996), 310 pp., £6.99.
by DAVIn WARWICK, The Daiwa AngloJapanese F o u n d a t i o n (1996), 122 pp., £7.50. An effective mixture of the 'form a l / h a r d ' and 'informal/soft' is n e e d e d to really u n d e r s t a n d the situation.
Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Forty Women Whose Ideas Shape the Modern World, edited by SIAN GR1FFITHS, Manchester University Press (1996), 282 pp., £35.00 (hb), £9.99 (pb). Profiles, mostly professors, who appear to have broken the 'glass ceiling.' Revealing. A n d a relevant quote (p. 236): 'Glories, like glow-worms, a far off shine bright. But looked to near, have neither heat nor light'. Interesting to note w o m e n are 20% of contributors to
ART WHITE and GAVIN CAMERON, Dartmouth (1996), 375 pp., £39.50 (hb), £17.50 (pb). Fourteen papers on a range of questions to be debated as we move into a new c e n t u r y / m i l l e n n i u m . Pity not more input from strategic thinking either by these authors or others. Also, virtually nothing on 'alternative' scenarios. Sobering, and useful, reading from another part of the world, especially for those concerned with the future of the 'East', is An Empire's New
Clothes: the End of Russia's Liberal Dream, BRUCE CLARK, Vintage (1995), 346 pp., £7.99. Some of the problems of managing the change processes in Hungary, Poland and the Czech and Slovak Republics are revealed in Com-
The Jap( ;se Advantage? The IT Battleground in Europe, BRIAN HUNT
petition Policy and the Transformation of Central Europe, JOHN FINGLETON,
and DAVID TARGETT, ButterworthH e i n e m a n n (1996), 246 pp., £16.99.
ELEANOR FOX, DAMIENNEVEN and PALIL SEABRIGHT,Centre for Economic Policy Research (1996), 253 pp., £16.95. But pity not greater concern for the managerial issues. A brief analysis of some
Discusses the special issues of the a p p l i c a t i o n of IT, including 10 case Book Reviews and Review Briefs
Culture and Communication Issues for British and Japanese Business, edited
Options for Britain: a Strategic Policy Review, edited by DAVIDHALPERN, STU-
ADRIAN J. SLYWOTZKY, Harvard Business School Press/McGraw-Hill (1996), 326 pp., £19.95. Based on the need for a strategic understanding of the higher priorities of customers, where value resides in the industry today and where it will move to tomorrow.
LESLEY DOWNER, Vintage (1995), 454 pp., £7.99. Gives a h u m a n face to the more detached, less personal, analysis contained in the 10 papers on various aspects of these issues w h i c h are considered in Managing Across Borders:
Press
Team Talk: the Power of Language in Team Dynamics, ANNE DONNELLON, Harvard Business School Press/ McGraw-Hill (1996), 297 pp., £17.95.
studies. Pity not integrated with recent work on Learning Organization and Knowledge Management. Other publications on d e v e l o p m e n t s in that part of the w o r l d include: The Brothers: the
Customers,
SANDRA VANDERMERWE, mary of the fascinating, and vast, legacy
Wiley (1996), 244 pp., £24.95.
Management Courage and Tenacity, THOMAS T E A L , Harvard
Business School Press/McGraw-Hill (1996), 267 pp., £14.95 (which "bear witness to how difficult management really is". Actually management is easy; it is 'good' management that is difficult!). The 'mLts and bolts' of running a small business (in the UK) are well documentec in Lloyds Bank Small Business Guide, SARAWILLIAMS,Penguin (1996) 10th edition, 454 pp., £16.00 (500,000 copies ~old of earlier editions!).
Market Unbounded: Unleasing Global Capitalism, LOWELL BRYAN and DIAN FARRELL,Wiley (1996), 222 pp., £24.95. Based on extensive research by McKinsey. It discusses the far reaching effects of the true globalization of capital markets.
Strategic Management: an Introduction, RONALD ROSEN, Pitman Publishing (1995), 197 pp., £15.95.
Strategic Renaissance and Business A sound, well presented, basic introTransj,)rmation, edition by HOWARD duction to strategy. But what happens THOMAS, DON O'NEAL and JAMESKELLY, Wiley 1!996), 48 pp., £29.95. Arouml the themes of 'restructuring and rec~rganization in the public and privat,: sectors'; 'issues and patterns in global competition'; 'managing organizational learning' (a particularly relevant section); 'managing the processes of str.~tegic change' and finally one paper by Andrew Pettigrew 'On studying Managerial Elites' in the section on 'Research on top management: what we know and what we need to know'. More useful details of the background to developments in one ara are considered in The Dynamic American Firm, edited by KENNETH CHILTON, MURRAY WEIDENB2~'IM and
ROBERT BATTERSON,
Kluwe:- Academic (1996), 240 pp., £60.51).
Strategic
Integration,
edited
by
HOWARD THOMAS and DON O'NEAL,
Wiley (1996), 410 pp., £29.95. Integrates (using 19 relevant and well preselsted articles) what a company might do; could do; wants to do and should do, using resources, competencies, markets, opportunities, organizatioual structure, culture, the environment, innovation and technology. A well argued, well presented, framework for moving from a productmaking focus to a customer-owning approach is provided if The Eleventh
Comr~andment: Transforming to 'Own'
in practice? Who will be the high performers of tomorrow? And what will be their real competitive advantage? Discussed in a study of Corporate Stra-
tegies of the Top 100 UK Companies of the Future, Corporate Research Foundation UK (1995), 416 pp., £18.99. Starts with the relevant quote from Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome, AD 161-180: "Whatever you do, do it with foresight; look to the end." One of the first to use MBO?
of key management thinkers of the 20th century, at least up to 1990--but no mention of Senge and the concept of the Learning Organization). A specialist aspect of the subject is covered in
The Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties: From Self-Improvement to Adult Education in America, 17501990, JOSEPH F. KETT, Stanford University Press (1994), 581 pp,, £50.00. Discusses how the role of learning in society is critical for its development, this authorative, academic, study merits attention from those seriously interested in the subject. You might expect the whole question of learning to be at the core of Reinventing the University:
a Radical Proposal for a Problemfocused University, JAN SINNOT, and LYNN JOHNSON, Ablex Publishing (1996), 211 pp., npq. Interesting, stimulating and badly needed, but the concept of the University as a Learning Organization was not addressed. Pity. Also potentially relevant University
Challenge: Student Choices in the 21st Century, H. CONNOR, R. PEARSON, G. COURT, N. JAGGER, The Institute for Employment Studies (1996), 116 pp., £35.00. Presents the findings of a study commissioned by the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals of UK universities in 1995, on student trends, diversity and likely future growth in demand for higher education, and the factors influencing them. But little about the whole subject of learning.
Leveraging Knowledge: The 17 Day Program for a Learning Organization, PATRICK THURBIN, Pitman Publishing (1995), 255 pp., £25.00. A practical approach to the identification of critical know-how, combined with how to capture, share and leverage it for competitive advantage. The whole subject of learning is given useful and rigorous coverage in the 10 papers in Organizational Learning and Competitive Advantage, edited by BERTRAND
MOINGEON
and
The Pyrimid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking, BARBARAMINTO, Pitman Publishing (1995) 189 pp., £35.00. Much very valuable advice on how to present information more effectively. Likely to be of increasing importance as we move further into the 'Information
Age'.
AMY
EDMONDSON, Sage (1996), 229 pp., £13.95. Pity the subject was not at the core of Making Sense of Management, MATS ALVESSON and HUGH WILLMOTT,
Sage (1996), 246 pp., £13.95 (a critic a l - a c a d e m i c - a n a l y s i s of received wisdom, for serious students of the subject). And Management Theory: From Taylorism to Japanization, JOHN SHELDRAKE, International Business Press (1996), 225 pp., £16.95 (a readable sum-
Adventures in Capitalism, TOBY LITT, Secker & Warburg (1996), 228 pp., £12.99. A somewhat eccentric view of the market economy. Many fascinating, and fun, facts in The Guinness Book of Business Records, TOM CANNON, Guinness Publishing (1996), 224 pp., £15.95.
Long Range Planning Vol. 30
April 1997
Other, particularly demographic, facts and figures are contained in The Geode-
mographic Pocket Book: a Portrait of Britain's Products, Towns, Counties and Marketplaces, CACI Information Services/NTC Publications (1996), 154 pp., £32.OO.
Fast Forward: the Best Ideas on Managing Business Change, JAMES CHAMPY and NITIN NOHRIA, Harvard Business School Press/McGraw-Hill (1996), 278 pp., £17.95. Fourteen articles and interviews from the Harvard Business Review that combine reflection on the central truths of all business change, with an assessment of p o p u l a r m e t h o d s of change management and a discussion of the leadership qualities n e e d e d for the shape of organizations in the future.
The Transformation Imperative: Achieving Market Dominance Through Radical Change, THOMAS E. VOLLMAN, Harvard Business School Press/ McGraw-Hill (1996), 268 pp., £20.95.
Saga of the Richest Family in Japan, Argues that only w h e n change programmes are deep and fully integrated across the organization can transformation be both continuous and effective. Offers sound advice that needs to be w i d e l y read, including a key chapter on 'Learning Capacity'.
Value-focused Thinking: a Path to Creative Decisionmaking, RALPH L. KEENEY, Harvard University (1996), 416 pp., £11.95.
Uses the power of sociolinguistic analysis to fulfil the potential of teams and helps them to i m p r o v e results by listening to their own voices. All too frequently this is b a d l y needed, unfortunately. But surprising not to find greater emphasis on 'learning conversation' work. The technical issues of managing ('controlling') an organisation are well d o c u m e n t e d in Effec-
tive Management Control: Theory and Practice, ERIC G. FLAMHOLTZ, Kluwer A c a d e m i c (1996), 174 pp., £56.95. Pity the whole question of trust was not addressed more explicitly.
Value Migration: How to Think Several Moves Ahead of the Competition,
Argues that it is through recognizing and articulating fundamental values that we can improve the quality of our decisions.
Serious students of ethics could try
The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics, MARTHA C. NUSSBAUM, Princeton University Press (1994), 558 pp., £16.95.
Strategies for Asia Pacific, PHILIPPE LASSERRE and HELLMUT SCHUTTE, Macmillan Business (1995), 315 pp. Aims to a p p l y the concepts and theoretical frameworks of international business strategy - the Asia Pacific Region. Essential re ~g for managers (and students) o p e - a m G in, or concerned with, that part of the, world. Also for excellent relevant tnoliday?) reading try: The Collapse oj Barings: Panic, Ignorance and Greed, STEPHEN FAY, Arrow Books (1996), 310 pp., £6.99.
by DAVIn WARWICK, The Daiwa AngloJapanese F o u n d a t i o n (1996), 122 pp., £7.50. An effective mixture of the 'form a l / h a r d ' and 'informal/soft' is n e e d e d to really u n d e r s t a n d the situation.
Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Forty Women Whose Ideas Shape the Modern World, edited by SIAN GR1FFITHS, Manchester University Press (1996), 282 pp., £35.00 (hb), £9.99 (pb). Profiles, mostly professors, who appear to have broken the 'glass ceiling.' Revealing. A n d a relevant quote (p. 236): 'Glories, like glow-worms, a far off shine bright. But looked to near, have neither heat nor light'. Interesting to note w o m e n are 20% of contributors to
ART WHITE and GAVIN CAMERON, Dartmouth (1996), 375 pp., £39.50 (hb), £17.50 (pb). Fourteen papers on a range of questions to be debated as we move into a new c e n t u r y / m i l l e n n i u m . Pity not more input from strategic thinking either by these authors or others. Also, virtually nothing on 'alternative' scenarios. Sobering, and useful, reading from another part of the world, especially for those concerned with the future of the 'East', is An Empire's New
Clothes: the End of Russia's Liberal Dream, BRUCE CLARK, Vintage (1995), 346 pp., £7.99. Some of the problems of managing the change processes in Hungary, Poland and the Czech and Slovak Republics are revealed in Com-
The Jap( ;se Advantage? The IT Battleground in Europe, BRIAN HUNT
petition Policy and the Transformation of Central Europe, JOHN FINGLETON,
and DAVID TARGETT, ButterworthH e i n e m a n n (1996), 246 pp., £16.99.
ELEANOR FOX, DAMIENNEVEN and PALIL SEABRIGHT,Centre for Economic Policy Research (1996), 253 pp., £16.95. But pity not greater concern for the managerial issues. A brief analysis of some
Discusses the special issues of the a p p l i c a t i o n of IT, including 10 case Book Reviews and Review Briefs
Culture and Communication Issues for British and Japanese Business, edited
Options for Britain: a Strategic Policy Review, edited by DAVIDHALPERN, STU-
ADRIAN J. SLYWOTZKY, Harvard Business School Press/McGraw-Hill (1996), 326 pp., £19.95. Based on the need for a strategic understanding of the higher priorities of customers, where value resides in the industry today and where it will move to tomorrow.
LESLEY DOWNER, Vintage (1995), 454 pp., £7.99. Gives a h u m a n face to the more detached, less personal, analysis contained in the 10 papers on various aspects of these issues w h i c h are considered in Managing Across Borders:
Press
Team Talk: the Power of Language in Team Dynamics, ANNE DONNELLON, Harvard Business School Press/ McGraw-Hill (1996), 297 pp., £17.95.
studies. Pity not integrated with recent work on Learning Organization and Knowledge Management. Other publications on d e v e l o p m e n t s in that part of the w o r l d include: The Brothers: the