Exploring Corporate Strategy [antikvár]

Preface It is now twenty-one years since the first edition of Exploring Corporate Strategy was published. Both the world of business and the public services have seen vast changes over that time. There have also been major changes in the subject of corporate strategy. Central to this has been a widespread recognition of the importance of the subject of strategy to practising managers in both the public and private sectors. This has been reflected in the inclusion of strategy as a subject in educational programmes at undergraduate, postgraduate and professional levels as well as its adoption in short courses and consultancy assignments. It is now accepted that an understanding of the principles and practice of strategy is not just the concern of top managers, but essential for different levels of management - though clearly emphases within the subject will vary. We have consistently argued the importance of this wider interest in strategy, so these are changes that we welcome. The combined sales of our first six editions exceeded 650,000. This seventh edition marks a significant point in the book's development with the addition of Richard Whittington to the author team. Richard will be known to many readers through his own work and publications. Significantly Richard was known to both Gerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes as an MBA student at Aston during the development work on the first edition! This new edition is being published at a time when most organisations are feeling the combined impact of globalisation, information technology and rapid changes in their business environment. More sectors of the economy of most countries are becoming 'knowledge based'. On the negative side there has been an increasing focus on some spectacular failures - such as Enron and WorldCom - leading to changes in corporate governance and a questioning of the motives and ethical standards of some managers and company directors. Whereas the structure of the book remains broadly the same we have tried to give more prominence to these issues. The seventh edition also marks a step forward in terms of text layout and design. This has been made possible by the use of more colours and the incorporation of photographic materials to complement more traditional graphics and tables. The purposes of these changes are to improve clarity and 'navigation' and make reading the book an enjoyable experience. Each chapter has clear learning outcomes and a summary. Important 'definitions' are highlighted in the margins - there has been particular attention given to illustrations and case studies. The vast majority of these are new in this edition and the choice of examples reflects the issues mentioned above. All the 84 illustrations have questions, which allows them to be used as mini-cases by tutors and for students to check out their own progress on understanding the text. The case examples at the end of each chapter allow a reflection back on the range of separate issues within the chapter and help students see how they connect. We have also provided some new integrative work assignments to reinforce the connections between topics and chapters.