The Concept of Corporate Strategy
Executive summary
This book is an academic treatise on strategy. Every chapter is full of insights into strategy creation and how to implement it in organisations. There is so much information it is impossible to summarise. One problem is that the density of information makes it like reading a dictionary, very informative but very dry.
The book argues the four determinants of strategy are:
- Opportunity and risk provided by the environment
- Assessment of your strengths and weaknesses
- Survey of values of leaders and staff
- Social and ethical responsibility you hold yourself to
How do I apply the knowledge in this book?
This book can be used as a reference. When building a strategy or looking for inspiration of where to start, traversing its pages helps get a starting point from which to build.
Chapter reviews
Chapter 1 - Chief Executive Officer, president, or General Manager : Roles and Responsibilities
- Describes the roles and responsibilities of the CEO
- An academic study of what constitutes a good CEO
- Organisational leader, personal leader, architect of organisational purpose
- The goals set by the CEO should allow the sub-units to move in an intended direction
Chapter 2 - The concept of corporate strategy
- Defines the difference between Corporate Strategy (all encompassing) and Business Strategy (products and marketplace strategy)
- Lists why companies do not write down their strategies
- Defined economic strategy
- Studies the size shape of different companies and strategies that work
- Measures of a strategy
Chapter 3 - The company and its environment: Relating opportunity to resources
- Lists areas affecting company strategy
- How to identify risks in your industry
- How to allocate resources to strategy and opportunity
- Identifying strengths and weaknesses and core competency
- Example list of questions to identify opportunity
- It is easier to get something a company is good at and point it at an opportunity that needs those skills
Chapter 4 - The company and its strategists: Relating corporate strategy to personal values
- Companies are heavily influenced by what managers want to do
- Companies should consider what their employees would enjoy doing to maximise quality output
- How to reconcile different values into a coherent strategy
- How to look at your own values and how they affect your judgement
- Strategy must inspire commitment - hence it needs to take into consideration the values of others
Chapter 5 - The company and its responsibility to society: Relating corporate strategy to ethical values
- Why strategy should include an ethical component
- Examples of ethical strategy at different levels
- The benefits to businesses of raising standards (e.g. freely fixing roads if you sell cars)
- How performance measurements effect ethical standards
- Summary of strategy points so far
Chapter 6 - The implementation of strategy: Achievement to purpose
- Components to implementation of strategy
- How to respond to changes during implementation
- How to get buy in from people at all levels
- How to deal with specialists in a strategic environment
- How to organise an innovation company
- How strategy follows the organisational structure
Chapter 7 - The implementation of strategy: From commitment to results
- The forces acting for and against strategy amongst team members
- How to structure an organisation around strategy
- Managers role in guiding strategy
- How to setup reward structures for strategy
Chapter 8 - Strategic Management and Corporate Governance
- Managing strategy as a process
- Example of company strategic evaluation
- How to engage the board of directors in strategy