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The value imperative: Managing for superior shareholder returns
REVIEW
The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, HENRYM[NTZBERC,Prentice Hall (1994), 458 pp., £19.95. A challenging tour through the origins, history, present position, and future of strategic planning. You may not agree with everything he says but no-one seriously concerned with strategic planning can afford not to have read it.
The Value Imperative: Managing for Superior Shareholder Returns, JAMES M. MCTACC~RT, PETER W. KONTES and M]CHaEL C. MANKINS, The Free Press (1994), 366 pp., $35.00 (£27.95). Provides a powerful framework for the day-to-day management of that vital commodity--shareholder value-using a systematic approach to 'value based management'. Based on more than 16 years of consulting experience with many international corporations; Should be widely read by the director's of all corporations, especially in conjunction with the Mintzberg volume mentioned above.
Review Briefs are not detailed reviews. They are mainly brief notes and descriptions of books received for review to enlighten the reader on their general intention and approach. The expectation is that more books can be described to readers than has proved possible by publishing only critical reviews. The descriptive information should enable interest in the books to be raised beyond that induced by just listing the titles. However, it is recognized that a critical review can be far more informative about a book than is attempted with Review Briefs and, accordingly, offers to review any books are solicited. Having been described in Review Briefs, a review should c~itically examine the contents of a publication as an assessment of whet~her its stated intentions have been met and whether the way it achieves these intentions is attractive to the reader. It is expected that each review will !require 10001500 words and will be fully attributed. The reviewer keeps the book but Long RangePlanning makes no payment. As an alternative, it may be apparent that either a single 'm!lestone' class publication or several books on a single topic could constitute a wider perspective Essay Review. This would be expected to comprise an article of some 3000-4000 words and would have a written introduction by the Review Editor. The Journal would make its usual article contribution payments to the author of an Essay Review. Readers interested ino reviewing any book in Review Briefs should be prepared to offer a copy deadline some 5 months ahead which can be relied on in planning the Journal. As a matter of readership policy, reviewer preference will be given to practising managers, or planners 4Your interest should be expressed as a specific request to review a book from Review Briefs, preferably giving some intimation of why you think your review would be of interest to readers, addressed to: Bruce Lloyd, Book Review Editor, 48 Aberdare Gardens, London NW6 3QA, UK.
The Competitive Power of Constant Creativity, CLAY CARR, AMACOM (1994), 177 pp., $22.95.
Fundamental Issues in Strategy: A Research Agenda, Edited by R3CHAm3P. RUMELT, DAN E. SCHENDELand DAVIDJ. TEECE, Harvard Business School Press (1994), 656 pp., $45.00. Twenty-two of the most influential strategic thinkers identify (and try to answer) five fundamental issues in the field today. Why do firms differ? How do firms behave? How are policy outcomes affected by the policy process? What are the functions of the headquarters unit in the multibusiness firm? and What determines the international success or failure of firms? A must for serious students of strategic thinking.
BRIEFS
Links creativity to everyday business processes and results, including technology applications, product development, marketing, hiring, and people management. Practical, readable, and relevant. Should be widely read. Interesting to contrast the general approach with the experience detailed in Man-
agers and Innovation: Strategies for a Biotechnology, JOHN HOWELLS, Routledge (1994), 241 pp., £40.00--a case study of the attempts to make new sources of food available for animal and human consumption through bulk fermentation of hydrocarbons and other substances (often called single-celled proteins). 'A case study in innovation failure.' Why innovation appears to be so difficult in so many cases is revealed
in Corporate
Dandelions: How the Weed of Burea ucracy Is Choking American Companies--And What You Can Do to Uproot It, CRAIG1. CANTONI,AMACOM (1993), 162 pp., $19.95. Other case studies on managing change in general can be found in 27 cases in
Cases in Organisational Behaviour, Edited by DEREKADAM-SMITttand ALAN PEACOCK,Pitman Publishing (1994), 294 pp., £19.99. The importance of culture in this process is emphasized in Strategies for Cultural Change. PAULBA'rE, Butterworth-Heinemann (1994), 308 pp., £25.00; while some (controversial) insights into nationial cultural differences are contained in The Seven
Cultures of Capitalism: Value Systems for creating Wealth in the United States, Britain, Japan, Germany, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands, CHARLES HAMPDEN-TURNER and FONS TROMPENAARS,Piatkus: (1993), 417 pp.,
Long Range Planning Vol. 28
February 1995
The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, HENRYM[NTZBERC,Prentice Hall (1994), 458 pp., £19.95. A challenging tour through the origins, history, present position, and future of strategic planning. You may not agree with everything he says but no-one seriously concerned with strategic planning can afford not to have read it.
The Value Imperative: Managing for Superior Shareholder Returns, JAMES M. MCTACC~RT, PETER W. KONTES and M]CHaEL C. MANKINS, The Free Press (1994), 366 pp., $35.00 (£27.95). Provides a powerful framework for the day-to-day management of that vital commodity--shareholder value-using a systematic approach to 'value based management'. Based on more than 16 years of consulting experience with many international corporations; Should be widely read by the director's of all corporations, especially in conjunction with the Mintzberg volume mentioned above.
Review Briefs are not detailed reviews. They are mainly brief notes and descriptions of books received for review to enlighten the reader on their general intention and approach. The expectation is that more books can be described to readers than has proved possible by publishing only critical reviews. The descriptive information should enable interest in the books to be raised beyond that induced by just listing the titles. However, it is recognized that a critical review can be far more informative about a book than is attempted with Review Briefs and, accordingly, offers to review any books are solicited. Having been described in Review Briefs, a review should c~itically examine the contents of a publication as an assessment of whet~her its stated intentions have been met and whether the way it achieves these intentions is attractive to the reader. It is expected that each review will !require 10001500 words and will be fully attributed. The reviewer keeps the book but Long RangePlanning makes no payment. As an alternative, it may be apparent that either a single 'm!lestone' class publication or several books on a single topic could constitute a wider perspective Essay Review. This would be expected to comprise an article of some 3000-4000 words and would have a written introduction by the Review Editor. The Journal would make its usual article contribution payments to the author of an Essay Review. Readers interested ino reviewing any book in Review Briefs should be prepared to offer a copy deadline some 5 months ahead which can be relied on in planning the Journal. As a matter of readership policy, reviewer preference will be given to practising managers, or planners 4Your interest should be expressed as a specific request to review a book from Review Briefs, preferably giving some intimation of why you think your review would be of interest to readers, addressed to: Bruce Lloyd, Book Review Editor, 48 Aberdare Gardens, London NW6 3QA, UK.
The Competitive Power of Constant Creativity, CLAY CARR, AMACOM (1994), 177 pp., $22.95.
Fundamental Issues in Strategy: A Research Agenda, Edited by R3CHAm3P. RUMELT, DAN E. SCHENDELand DAVIDJ. TEECE, Harvard Business School Press (1994), 656 pp., $45.00. Twenty-two of the most influential strategic thinkers identify (and try to answer) five fundamental issues in the field today. Why do firms differ? How do firms behave? How are policy outcomes affected by the policy process? What are the functions of the headquarters unit in the multibusiness firm? and What determines the international success or failure of firms? A must for serious students of strategic thinking.
BRIEFS
Links creativity to everyday business processes and results, including technology applications, product development, marketing, hiring, and people management. Practical, readable, and relevant. Should be widely read. Interesting to contrast the general approach with the experience detailed in Man-
agers and Innovation: Strategies for a Biotechnology, JOHN HOWELLS, Routledge (1994), 241 pp., £40.00--a case study of the attempts to make new sources of food available for animal and human consumption through bulk fermentation of hydrocarbons and other substances (often called single-celled proteins). 'A case study in innovation failure.' Why innovation appears to be so difficult in so many cases is revealed
in Corporate
Dandelions: How the Weed of Burea ucracy Is Choking American Companies--And What You Can Do to Uproot It, CRAIG1. CANTONI,AMACOM (1993), 162 pp., $19.95. Other case studies on managing change in general can be found in 27 cases in
Cases in Organisational Behaviour, Edited by DEREKADAM-SMITttand ALAN PEACOCK,Pitman Publishing (1994), 294 pp., £19.99. The importance of culture in this process is emphasized in Strategies for Cultural Change. PAULBA'rE, Butterworth-Heinemann (1994), 308 pp., £25.00; while some (controversial) insights into nationial cultural differences are contained in The Seven
Cultures of Capitalism: Value Systems for creating Wealth in the United States, Britain, Japan, Germany, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands, CHARLES HAMPDEN-TURNER and FONS TROMPENAARS,Piatkus: (1993), 417 pp.,
Long Range Planning Vol. 28
February 1995