Winning in business today is not about being number one--it's about who "gets to the future first", write management consultants Gary Hamel and CK Prahalad. In Competing for the Future, they urge companies to create their own futures, envision new markets and reinvent themselves.

Hamel and Prahalad caution that complacent managers who get too comfortable in doing things the way they have always done will see their companies fall behind. For instance, the authors consider the battle between IBM and Apple in the 1970s. Entrenched as the leading mainframe-computer maker, IBM failed to see the potential market for personal computers. That left the door wide open for Apple, which envisioned a computer for every man, woman and child. The authors write, "At worst, laggards follow the path of greatest familiarity. Challengers, on the other hand, follow the path of greatest opportunity, wherever it leads". They argue that business leaders need to be more than "maintenance engineers", worrying only about budget cutting, streamlining, re-engineering, and other old tactics. Definitely not for dilettantes, Competing for the Future is for managers who are serious about getting their companies in front. --Dan Ring, Amazon.com

As important now as ever.., 01 Oct 2004
It's been a number of years since Hamel co-wrote this seminal work, and its essence has been re-worked frequently, both by him and others. Indeed, it's a testament to its importance and relevance that it forms the backbone of so much of today's 'accepted wisdom'.

However, neither nostalgia or originality are the reasons to buy this book - rather it's simply that it's so well written - each argument is clear, progressing through why competitive strategy is not quite as mechanical as Porter would have us believe, and then illustrating how this has been achieved by well-known companies.

The result is a compelling and convincing read, which has stood the test of time - if you're looking for a framework for understanding how to compete with other firms, grab a copy.

Few would not profit from this book, 13 Jul 2004
Few companies that began the 1980s as industry leaders ended the decade with their leadership in tact and undiminished. Many household name companies saw their success eroded or destroyed by tides of technological, demographic and regulatory change and order-of-magnitude productivity gains made by nontraditional competitors. "Do you really have a global strategy", the first HBR article by Hamel and Prahalad, developed the theme that small companies could prevail against larger, richer companies by inventing new ways of doing more with less. Differences in resource effectiveness could not be explained by efficiency, labor or capital, but by amazingly ambitious goals that stretched beyond typical strategic plans, raising the question how such incredible goals could get past the credibility test and be made tangible and real to employees? Frequently the small challengers rewrote the rules of engagement; flexibility and speed were built atop supplier-management advantage, built atop quality advantages. Companies made commitments to particular skill areas a decade in advance of specific end-product markets. How did executives select which capabilities to build for the future? Some managers were foresightful, others imagined and gave birth to entirely new products and services. These managers created new competitive space while laggard companies protected the past rather than creating the future. Existing theory throws little light on what it takes to fundamentally reshape an industry and the gap provoked this book in which the goal is to enlarge the concept of the industry and not just the organization. Being incrementally better is not enough because a company that cannot imagine the future won't be around to enjoy it. This book is about strategy and how to think by drawing on the experience of companies that have overcome resource disadvantages to build positions of global leadership. It is about companies that escaped the curse of success to rebuild industry leadership a second or third time. It has been written for companies that believe that the best way to win is to rewrite the rules; it is for those who are not afraid to challenge orthodoxy, for those who prefer to build rather than cut, for those committed to making a difference and staking out the future first.

We need to ask ourselves eight questions:
- does senior management have a clear and broadly shared understanding of how the industry may be different in ten years time? Is management's view of the future clearly reflected in short-term priorities?
- How influential is my company in setting the new rules of competition within the industry? Is it regularly defining new ways of doing business and setting new standards of customer satisfaction?
- Is senior management fully alert to the dangers posed by new, unconventional rivals? Are potential threats to the current business model widely understood? Do senior executives possess a keen sense of urgency about the need to reinvent the current business model?
- Is my company pursuing growth and new business development with as much passion as it is pursuing operational efficiency and downsizing? Do we have a clear view of where the next revenue growth will come from?
- What percentage of our improvement efforts focuses on creating advantages new to the industry, and what percentage focuses on merely catching up to our competitors? Are competitors as eager to benchmark us, as we are to benchmark them?
- What is driving our improvement and transformation agenda - our own view of future opportunities or the actions of our competitors? Is our transformation agenda mostly offensive or defensive?
- Am I more of a maintenance engineer keeping today's business humming along or an architect imagining tomorrow's businesses? Do I devote more energy to prolonging the past than I do to creating the future?
- What is the balance between hope and anxiety in my company; between confidence in our ability to find and exploit opportunities for growth and new business development and concern about our ability to maintain competitiveness in our traditional businesses; between a sense of opportunity and a sense of vulnerability, both corporate and personal?

These are not rhetorical questions. We are told to get a pencil and rate our company because these questions go unanswered in many cases. Such questions challenge the assumption that top management is in control or even that their knowledge and experience may be irrelevant or wrong-headed for the future. The urgent drives out the important and the future goes largely unexplored; the capacity to act is considered to be more important than the capacity to imagine. A capacity to invent new industries and to reinvent old ones is a prerequisite for getting to the future first and a precondition for staying out in front. Gaining an understanding of how to accomplish this most difficult task is the central mission of this book.

What must we do to ensure that the industry evolves in a way that is maximally advantageous for us? What skills and capabilities must we begin building now if we are to occupy the industry high ground in the future? How should we organize for opportunities that may not fit neatly within the boundaries of current business units and divisions? The answers are to be found in this book. Armed with this information, a company can create a pro-active agenda for organizational transformation and can control its own destiny by controlling the destiny of its own industry. No company can escape the need to reskill its people, reshape its product portfolio, redesign its processes, and redirect its resources. There is not one future but hundreds; there can be as many prizes as runners; imagination is the only limiting factor. In no way does the success of one preordain the failure of another. What distinguishes leaders from laggards, and greatness form mediocrity is the ability to imagine what could be. If your senior management did not do well on the eight questions, then your company may not be around a decade from now. There are few who would not profit from reading this book.

Great Up-Date on Peter Drucker's Strategy Model, 30 May 2004
I am a corporate strategy consultant who works mostly with FORTUNE 200 companies. Strategic thinking has gone in and out of fashion in such companies several times in the last 40 years. With this book, Hamel and Prahalad have raised the value of strategic thinking in the current context in an effective way.

This book is clearly designed with the large company in mind, where the need to envision, communicate about, and organize for the future is most difficult. By breaking down strategic thinking into the elements described here, the authors make strategic thinking easier for those who have little experience.

Interestingly enough, many companies have "banned" strategic thinking in favor of more tactically-oriented programs that produce near-term cost reductions. Our firm did a survey of the most successful CEOs, and they reported that they felt that better strategies had the most potential to most improve their companies. These same CEOs also reported that they understood little about how to create better strategies. In such companies, COMPETING FOR THE FUTURE can provide an excellent balance.

A good book to read in conjunction with this one is Peter Drucker's, MANAGEMENT, which provides the intellectual heritage for many of these ideas. For people who need more detail than Drucker normally provides, COMPETING FOR THE FUTURE will be the more helpful book.

Concise, accessible and easy to apply, 23 Oct 2001
This is a very well written business book for practical application to a wide range of business scenarios - veyr readable style, well structured, and with useful illustrations and examples.

EXCELLENT FOR MANAGEMENT STUDENTS. Useful for revision., 09 Aug 2000
I began to read the first page and found it very difficult to put the book down. HAMEL AND PRAHALAD go into great depth about the WHY! OF A SITUATION> THIS BOOK HELPED ME ACHIEVE AN EXCELLENT GRADE IN MY MANAGement exams of May 2000. THERE IS PHILOSOPHY BEHIND BUSINESS WHich has laid dormant for many years but HAMEL AND PRAHALAD HAVE RESEArched their work and have given us a gift of a catalyst for learning and applying more knowledge into our world of Making a success of our goals.

As important now as ever.., 01 Oct 2004
It's been a number of years since Hamel co-wrote this seminal work, and its essence has been re-worked frequently, both by him and others. Indeed, it's a testament to its importance and relevance that it forms the backbone of so much of today's 'accepted wisdom'.

However, neither nostalgia or originality are the reasons to buy this book - rather it's simply that it's so well written - each argument is clear, progressing through why competitive strategy is not quite as mechanical as Porter would have us believe, and then illustrating how this has been achieved by well-known companies.

The result is a compelling and convincing read, which has stood the test of time - if you're looking for a framework for understanding how to compete with other firms, grab a copy.

Few would not profit from this book, 13 Jul 2004
Few companies that began the 1980s as industry leaders ended the decade with their leadership in tact and undiminished. Many household name companies saw their success eroded or destroyed by tides of technological, demographic and regulatory change and order-of-magnitude productivity gains made by nontraditional competitors. "Do you really have a global strategy", the first HBR article by Hamel and Prahalad, developed the theme that small companies could prevail against larger, richer companies by inventing new ways of doing more with less. Differences in resource effectiveness could not be explained by efficiency, labor or capital, but by amazingly ambitious goals that stretched beyond typical strategic plans, raising the question how such incredible goals could get past the credibility test and be made tangible and real to employees? Frequently the small challengers rewrote the rules of engagement; flexibility and speed were built atop supplier-management advantage, built atop quality advantages. Companies made commitments to particular skill areas a decade in advance of specific end-product markets. How did executives select which capabilities to build for the future? Some managers were foresightful, others imagined and gave birth to entirely new products and services. These managers created new competitive space while laggard companies protected the past rather than creating the future. Existing theory throws little light on what it takes to fundamentally reshape an industry and the gap provoked this book in which the goal is to enlarge the concept of the industry and not just the organization. Being incrementally better is not enough because a company that cannot imagine the future won't be around to enjoy it. This book is about strategy and how to think by drawing on the experience of companies that have overcome resource disadvantages to build positions of global leadership. It is about companies that escaped the curse of success to rebuild industry leadership a second or third time. It has been written for companies that believe that the best way to win is to rewrite the rules; it is for those who are not afraid to challenge orthodoxy, for those who prefer to build rather than cut, for those committed to making a difference and staking out the future first.

We need to ask ourselves eight questions:
- does senior management have a clear and broadly shared understanding of how the industry may be different in ten years time? Is management's view of the future clearly reflected in short-term priorities?
- How influential is my company in setting the new rules of competition within the industry? Is it regularly defining new ways of doing business and setting new standards of customer satisfaction?
- Is senior management fully alert to the dangers posed by new, unconventional rivals? Are potential threats to the current business model widely understood? Do senior executives possess a keen sense of urgency about the need to reinvent the current business model?
- Is my company pursuing growth and new business development with as much passion as it is pursuing operational efficiency and downsizing? Do we have a clear view of where the next revenue growth will come from?
- What percentage of our improvement efforts focuses on creating advantages new to the industry, and what percentage focuses on merely catching up to our competitors? Are competitors as eager to benchmark us, as we are to benchmark them?
- What is driving our improvement and transformation agenda - our own view of future opportunities or the actions of our competitors? Is our transformation agenda mostly offensive or defensive?
- Am I more of a maintenance engineer keeping today's business humming along or an architect imagining tomorrow's businesses? Do I devote more energy to prolonging the past than I do to creating the future?
- What is the balance between hope and anxiety in my company; between confidence in our ability to find and exploit opportunities for growth and new business development and concern about our ability to maintain competitiveness in our traditional businesses; between a sense of opportunity and a sense of vulnerability, both corporate and personal?

These are not rhetorical questions. We are told to get a pencil and rate our company because these questions go unanswered in many cases. Such questions challenge the assumption that top management is in control or even that their knowledge and experience may be irrelevant or wrong-headed for the future. The urgent drives out the important and the future goes largely unexplored; the capacity to act is considered to be more important than the capacity to imagine. A capacity to invent new industries and to reinvent old ones is a prerequisite for getting to the future first and a precondition for staying out in front. Gaining an understanding of how to accomplish this most difficult task is the central mission of this book.

What must we do to ensure that the industry evolves in a way that is maximally advantageous for us? What skills and capabilities must we begin building now if we are to occupy the industry high ground in the future? How should we organize for opportunities that may not fit neatly within the boundaries of current business units and divisions? The answers are to be found in this book. Armed with this information, a company can create a pro-active agenda for organizational transformation and can control its own destiny by controlling the destiny of its own industry. No company can escape the need to reskill its people, reshape its product portfolio, redesign its processes, and redirect its resources. There is not one future but hundreds; there can be as many prizes as runners; imagination is the only limiting factor. In no way does the success of one preordain the failure of another. What distinguishes leaders from laggards, and greatness form mediocrity is the ability to imagine what could be. If your senior management did not do well on the eight questions, then your company may not be around a decade from now. There are few who would not profit from reading this book.

Great Up-Date on Peter Drucker's Strategy Model, 30 May 2004
I am a corporate strategy consultant who works mostly with FORTUNE 200 companies. Strategic thinking has gone in and out of fashion in such companies several times in the last 40 years. With this book, Hamel and Prahalad have raised the value of strategic thinking in the current context in an effective way.

This book is clearly designed with the large company in mind, where the need to envision, communicate about, and organize for the future is most difficult. By breaking down strategic thinking into the elements described here, the authors make strategic thinking easier for those who have little experience.

Interestingly enough, many companies have "banned" strategic thinking in favor of more tactically-oriented programs that produce near-term cost reductions. Our firm did a survey of the most successful CEOs, and they reported that they felt that better strategies had the most potential to most improve their companies. These same CEOs also reported that they understood little about how to create better strategies. In such companies, COMPETING FOR THE FUTURE can provide an excellent balance.

A good book to read in conjunction with this one is Peter Drucker's, MANAGEMENT, which provides the intellectual heritage for many of these ideas. For people who need more detail than Drucker normally provides, COMPETING FOR THE FUTURE will be the more helpful book.

Concise, accessible and easy to apply, 23 Oct 2001
This is a very well written business book for practical application to a wide range of business scenarios - veyr readable style, well structured, and with useful illustrations and examples.

EXCELLENT FOR MANAGEMENT STUDENTS. Useful for revision., 09 Aug 2000
I began to read the first page and found it very difficult to put the book down. HAMEL AND PRAHALAD go into great depth about the WHY! OF A SITUATION> THIS BOOK HELPED ME ACHIEVE AN EXCELLENT GRADE IN MY MANAGement exams of May 2000. THERE IS PHILOSOPHY BEHIND BUSINESS WHich has laid dormant for many years but HAMEL AND PRAHALAD HAVE RESEArched their work and have given us a gift of a catalyst for learning and applying more knowledge into our world of Making a success of our goals.

Insightful!, 20 Jun 2005
Remember when you were a youthful entrepreneur operating a neighborhood lemonade stand? If author Michael E. Porter had walked up to buy a cup of punch from you, he probably would have asked about your business strategy. While you poured, he would have questioned what made your lemonade different from anyone else's. If he liked your lemonade, he'd no doubt give you suggestions on how to earn millions competing in the global marketplace. Ah, if only you had listened... The author, America's dean of competition, has spent two decades asking seminal questions such as, "What is competition? What are its effects? How can society benefit?" The Harvard Business Review previously published 11 of the 13 articles collected in this book. In the two new essays, Porter serves up invaluable concepts. His take on the growing importance of location, despite rising globalization, is a tour de force. Oddly, Porter sees no inconsistency in encouraging "productive competition" in the health care industry while advocating universal health care. For Porter, competition is the ingredient that turns lemons into lemonade. We recommend his latest book to any corporate strategist who seeks ideas on becoming more competitive, starting in your own neighborhood.

Great, clear frameworks on competition, 01 Mar 2003
Michael E. Porter is a Harvard Business School professor and a leading authority on competition. This book consists of three parts - Competition and Strategy: Core Concepts, The Competitiveness of Locations, and Competitive Solutions to Societal Problems - and each of these parts consists of 4-to-5 Harvard Business Review articles which were published between 1979 and 1998. "The study of competition, in its full richness, has preoccupied me for two decades."

In Part I, the five HBR articles outline Porter's strategic concepts. "I have sought to capture the complexity of what actually happens in companies and industries in a way that both advances theory and brings theory to life for practitioners. My goal has been to develop both rigorous and useful frameworks for understanding competition that effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice." In the 1979-article 'How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy', Porter introduces the monumental five competitive forces (from existing competitors, new entrants, customers, suppliers, substitution). This article has had an extensive impact on the field of strategy and is still a starting point for strategic management at any MBA-course. 'What is Strategy?' was published in 1996 and is, in my opinion, a reply to all the critics of his frameworks and models. The 1985-article 'How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage', Porter and co-author Victor Millar write how information technology influences competition. The current impact of Internet and e-commerce provide excellent examples for this article. In the 1993-article 'End-Game Strategies for Declining Industries', Porter lines up with Kathryn Rudie Harrigan to discuss the last stage/final phase of a industry. This articles is largely based on Harrigan's 1980 book 'Strategies for Declining Businesses' and is a chapter in Porter's 1980-book 'Competitive Strategy'. Part I is finalised with the magnificent 'From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy'. This article is truly a classic and discusses the radical rethinking of corporate strategy. "Corporate strategy is what makes the corporate whole add up to more than the sum of its business parts." This article is the basis of his book 'Competitive Advantage'.

In Part II, Porter kicks off with 'The Competitive Advantage of Nartions', which is also one of the titles of his books. In this 1990-article Porter argues that in a world of increasingly global competition, nations have become more, not less, important. In 'Clusters and Competition' (1998), Porter expands on the theme and discusses the new economics of competition - clusters. "A Cluster is a geographically proximate group of interconnected companies and associated institutions in particular fields, linked by commonalities and complementarities." Examples are the Italian fashion industry, the California Wine cluster, Silicon Valley's venture capital industry, and Massachusetts IT industry. In the next article, 'How Global Companies Win Out' (1992), Porter, Thomas Hout and Eileen Rudden discuss what a global industry is and how global companies can win out. In the next article, 'Competing Across Locations' (1995), returns on this subject and provides additional insights on global strategy, including a general framework.

Part III includes the latest works of Porter. Porter discusses environmental regulation and competition ('Green and Competitive', 1995), with a great case study of the Dutch flower industry, and the impact of these regulations on competition and industries. In the next article ('The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City', 1995), Porter introduces the economic distress of America's inner cities, whereby "the real need - and the real opportunity - is to create wealth" . In the 1990s, Porter also turned more towards government institutions. He discusses the American health care ('Making Competition in Health Care Work', 1994) and, the according to Porter, America's failing capital investment system ('Capital Disadvantage', 1992).

The advantage of this book is that it provides the a quick insight into the ideas and essential points of Porter's books 'Competitive Strategy', 'Competitive Advantage', and 'Competitive Advantage of Nations'. Part I and Part II are now essentials in the field of strategy and competition with fantastic frameworks and models. Part III are Porter's latest articles and discuss the connection between social issues and competition. A great book that is good to read (simple business US-English).

Great, clear frameworks on competition, 30 Nov 2001
Michael E. Porter is a Harvard Business School professor and a leading authority on competition. This book consists of three parts - Competition and Strategy: Core Concepts, The Competitiveness of Locations, and Competitive Solutions to Societal Problems - and each of these parts consists of 4-to-5 Harvard Business Review articles which were published between 1979 and 1998. "The study of competition, in its full richness, has preoccupied me for two decades."

In Part I, the five HBR articles outline Porter's strategic concepts. "I have sought to capture the complexity of what actually happens in companies and industries in a way that both advances theory and brings theory to life for practitioners. My goal has been to develop both rigorous and useful frameworks for understanding competition that effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice." In the 1979-article 'How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy', Porter introduces the monumental five competitive forces (from existing competitors, new entrants, customers, suppliers, substitution). This article has had an extensive impact on the field of strategy and is still a starting point for strategic management at any MBA-course. 'What is Strategy?' was published in 1996 and is, in my opinion, a reply to all the critics of his frameworks and models. The 1985-article 'How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage', Porter and co-author Victor Millar write how information technology influences competition. The current impact of Internet and e-commerce provide excellent examples for this article. In the 1993-article 'End-Game Strategies for Declining Industries', Porter lines up with Kathryn Rudie Harrigan to discuss the last stage/final phase of a industry. This articles is largely based on Harrigan's 1980 book 'Strategies for Declining Businesses' and is a chapter in Porter's 1980-book 'Competitive Strategy'. Part I is finalised with the magnificent 'From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy'. This article is truly a classic and discusses the radical rethinking of corporate strategy. "Corporate strategy is what makes the corporate whole add up to more than the sum of its business parts." This article is the basis of his book 'Competitive Advantage'.

In Part II, Porter kicks off with 'The Competitive Advantage of Nartions', which is also one of the titles of his books. In this 1990-article Porter argues that in a world of increasingly global competition, nations have become more, not less, important. In 'Clusters and Competition' (1998), Porter expands on the theme and discusses the new economics of competition - clusters. "A Cluster is a geographically proximate group of interconnected companies and associated institutions in particular fields, linked by commonalities and complementarities." Examples are the Italian fashion industry, the California Wine cluster, Silicon Valley's venture capital industry, and Massachusetts IT industry. In the next article, 'How Global Companies Win Out' (1992), Porter, Thomas Hout and Eileen Rudden discuss what a global industry is and how global companies can win out. In the next article, 'Competing Across Locations' (1995), returns on this subject and provides additional insights on global strategy, including a general framework.

Part III includes the latest works of Porter. Porter discusses environmental regulation and competition ('Green and Competitive', 1995), with a great case study of the Dutch flower industry, and the impact of these regulations on competition and industries. In the next article ('The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City', 1995), Porter introduces the economic distress of America's inner cities, whereby "the real need - and the real opportunity - is to create wealth" . In the 1990s, Porter also turned more towards government institutions. He discusses the American health care ('Making Competition in Health Care Work', 1994) and, the according to Porter, America's failing capital investment system ('Capital Disadvantage', 1992).

The advantage of this book is that it provides the a quick insight into the ideas and essential points of Porter's books 'Competitive Strategy', 'Competitive Advantage', and 'Competitive Advantage of Nations'. Part I and Part II are now essentials in the field of strategy and competition with fantastic frameworks and models. Part III are Porter's latest articles and discuss the connection between social issues and competition. A great book that is good to read (simple US-English).

Summary of 20 years competition, 13 May 1999
This book is a summary of the various articles and books which Michael Porter has written in conjunction with his research assistants. It is slightly disappointing if you have read Competitive Strategy, Competitive Advantage and Competitive Advantage of Nations before. Tip for MBA-students: It provides you with a good summary of Porter's articles and books. His first book is still the best, the others build on that initial research. Experienced Harvard Business Review (HBR) readers will view this as a biography of 20 years of Porter in HBR. Go for his first book first.

What about the net, Michael?, 27 Apr 1999
I'm a great fan of Porter's works, but was disappointed that something published in 1998 wasn't updated to the impact of the internet on competition. The net is the greatest inflection point in competitive activity in business history, IMO. Not only is the impact great on nearly all aspects of Porter's 5 forces, but changes are happening blazingly fast. To be sure many of MP's concepts help one predict and understand Dell's cleaning of Compaq's clock and many other happenings, but none of this is dealt with explicitly. How tough would it have been to update, or even just add a blurb at the end of chapter's like "How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage". But no, it's the same as when it was written in mid-1985...a lifetime ago in terms of information technology. $35.95 should entitle the reader to bit of updating, but the internet doesn't appear in the index and I only saw the word once in the text of one article. Had the book and articles had a bit of an update, I would definitely give it 5 stars...and for those who haven't read Porter's articles I would highly recommend it. But for those expecting a 1998 book should carry a more recent perspective, it's a bit of a disappointment.

As important now as ever.., 01 Oct 2004
It's been a number of years since Hamel co-wrote this seminal work, and its essence has been re-worked frequently, both by him and others. Indeed, it's a testament to its importance and relevance that it forms the backbone of so much of today's 'accepted wisdom'.

However, neither nostalgia or originality are the reasons to buy this book - rather it's simply that it's so well written - each argument is clear, progressing through why competitive strategy is not quite as mechanical as Porter would have us believe, and then illustrating how this has been achieved by well-known companies.

The result is a compelling and convincing read, which has stood the test of time - if you're looking for a framework for understanding how to compete with other firms, grab a copy.

Few would not profit from this book, 13 Jul 2004
Few companies that began the 1980s as industry leaders ended the decade with their leadership in tact and undiminished. Many household name companies saw their success eroded or destroyed by tides of technological, demographic and regulatory change and order-of-magnitude productivity gains made by nontraditional competitors. "Do you really have a global strategy", the first HBR article by Hamel and Prahalad, developed the theme that small companies could prevail against larger, richer companies by inventing new ways of doing more with less. Differences in resource effectiveness could not be explained by efficiency, labor or capital, but by amazingly ambitious goals that stretched beyond typical strategic plans, raising the question how such incredible goals could get past the credibility test and be made tangible and real to employees? Frequently the small challengers rewrote the rules of engagement; flexibility and speed were built atop supplier-management advantage, built atop quality advantages. Companies made commitments to particular skill areas a decade in advance of specific end-product markets. How did executives select which capabilities to build for the future? Some managers were foresightful, others imagined and gave birth to entirely new products and services. These managers created new competitive space while laggard companies protected the past rather than creating the future. Existing theory throws little light on what it takes to fundamentally reshape an industry and the gap provoked this book in which the goal is to enlarge the concept of the industry and not just the organization. Being incrementally better is not enough because a company that cannot imagine the future won't be around to enjoy it. This book is about strategy and how to think by drawing on the experience of companies that have overcome resource disadvantages to build positions of global leadership. It is about companies that escaped the curse of success to rebuild industry leadership a second or third time. It has been written for companies that believe that the best way to win is to rewrite the rules; it is for those who are not afraid to challenge orthodoxy, for those who prefer to build rather than cut, for those committed to making a difference and staking out the future first.

We need to ask ourselves eight questions:
- does senior management have a clear and broadly shared understanding of how the industry may be different in ten years time? Is management's view of the future clearly reflected in short-term priorities?
- How influential is my company in setting the new rules of competition within the industry? Is it regularly defining new ways of doing business and setting new standards of customer satisfaction?
- Is senior management fully alert to the dangers posed by new, unconventional rivals? Are potential threats to the current business model widely understood? Do senior executives possess a keen sense of urgency about the need to reinvent the current business model?
- Is my company pursuing growth and new business development with as much passion as it is pursuing operational efficiency and downsizing? Do we have a clear view of where the next revenue growth will come from?
- What percentage of our improvement efforts focuses on creating advantages new to the industry, and what percentage focuses on merely catching up to our competitors? Are competitors as eager to benchmark us, as we are to benchmark them?
- What is driving our improvement and transformation agenda - our own view of future opportunities or the actions of our competitors? Is our transformation agenda mostly offensive or defensive?
- Am I more of a maintenance engineer keeping today's business humming along or an architect imagining tomorrow's businesses? Do I devote more energy to prolonging the past than I do to creating the future?
- What is the balance between hope and anxiety in my company; between confidence in our ability to find and exploit opportunities for growth and new business development and concern about our ability to maintain competitiveness in our traditional businesses; between a sense of opportunity and a sense of vulnerability, both corporate and personal?

These are not rhetorical questions. We are told to get a pencil and rate our company because these questions go unanswered in many cases. Such questions challenge the assumption that top management is in control or even that their knowledge and experience may be irrelevant or wrong-headed for the future. The urgent drives out the important and the future goes largely unexplored; the capacity to act is considered to be more important than the capacity to imagine. A capacity to invent new industries and to reinvent old ones is a prerequisite for getting to the future first and a precondition for staying out in front. Gaining an understanding of how to accomplish this most difficult task is the central mission of this book.

What must we do to ensure that the industry evolves in a way that is maximally advantageous for us? What skills and capabilities must we begin building now if we are to occupy the industry high ground in the future? How should we organize for opportunities that may not fit neatly within the boundaries of current business units and divisions? The answers are to be found in this book. Armed with this information, a company can create a pro-active agenda for organizational transformation and can control its own destiny by controlling the destiny of its own industry. No company can escape the need to reskill its people, reshape its product portfolio, redesign its processes, and redirect its resources. There is not one future but hundreds; there can be as many prizes as runners; imagination is the only limiting factor. In no way does the success of one preordain the failure of another. What distinguishes leaders from laggards, and greatness form mediocrity is the ability to imagine what could be. If your senior management did not do well on the eight questions, then your company may not be around a decade from now. There are few who would not profit from reading this book.

Great Up-Date on Peter Drucker's Strategy Model, 30 May 2004
I am a corporate strategy consultant who works mostly with FORTUNE 200 companies. Strategic thinking has gone in and out of fashion in such companies several times in the last 40 years. With this book, Hamel and Prahalad have raised the value of strategic thinking in the current context in an effective way.

This book is clearly designed with the large company in mind, where the need to envision, communicate about, and organize for the future is most difficult. By breaking down strategic thinking into the elements described here, the authors make strategic thinking easier for those who have little experience.

Interestingly enough, many companies have "banned" strategic thinking in favor of more tactically-oriented programs that produce near-term cost reductions. Our firm did a survey of the most successful CEOs, and they reported that they felt that better strategies had the most potential to most improve their companies. These same CEOs also reported that they understood little about how to create better strategies. In such companies, COMPETING FOR THE FUTURE can provide an excellent balance.

A good book to read in conjunction with this one is Peter Drucker's, MANAGEMENT, which provides the intellectual heritage for many of these ideas. For people who need more detail than Drucker normally provides, COMPETING FOR THE FUTURE will be the more helpful book.

Concise, accessible and easy to apply, 23 Oct 2001
This is a very well written business book for practical application to a wide range of business scenarios - veyr readable style, well structured, and with useful illustrations and examples.

EXCELLENT FOR MANAGEMENT STUDENTS. Useful for revision., 09 Aug 2000
I began to read the first page and found it very difficult to put the book down. HAMEL AND PRAHALAD go into great depth about the WHY! OF A SITUATION> THIS BOOK HELPED ME ACHIEVE AN EXCELLENT GRADE IN MY MANAGement exams of May 2000. THERE IS PHILOSOPHY BEHIND BUSINESS WHich has laid dormant for many years but HAMEL AND PRAHALAD HAVE RESEArched their work and have given us a gift of a catalyst for learning and applying more knowledge into our world of Making a success of our goals.

Insightful!, 20 Jun 2005
Remember when you were a youthful entrepreneur operating a neighborhood lemonade stand? If author Michael E. Porter had walked up to buy a cup of punch from you, he probably would have asked about your business strategy. While you poured, he would have questioned what made your lemonade different from anyone else's. If he liked your lemonade, he'd no doubt give you suggestions on how to earn millions competing in the global marketplace. Ah, if only you had listened... The author, America's dean of competition, has spent two decades asking seminal questions such as, "What is competition? What are its effects? How can society benefit?" The Harvard Business Review previously published 11 of the 13 articles collected in this book. In the two new essays, Porter serves up invaluable concepts. His take on the growing importance of location, despite rising globalization, is a tour de force. Oddly, Porter sees no inconsistency in encouraging "productive competition" in the health care industry while advocating universal health care. For Porter, competition is the ingredient that turns lemons into lemonade. We recommend his latest book to any corporate strategist who seeks ideas on becoming more competitive, starting in your own neighborhood.

Great, clear frameworks on competition, 01 Mar 2003
Michael E. Porter is a Harvard Business School professor and a leading authority on competition. This book consists of three parts - Competition and Strategy: Core Concepts, The Competitiveness of Locations, and Competitive Solutions to Societal Problems - and each of these parts consists of 4-to-5 Harvard Business Review articles which were published between 1979 and 1998. "The study of competition, in its full richness, has preoccupied me for two decades."

In Part I, the five HBR articles outline Porter's strategic concepts. "I have sought to capture the complexity of what actually happens in companies and industries in a way that both advances theory and brings theory to life for practitioners. My goal has been to develop both rigorous and useful frameworks for understanding competition that effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice." In the 1979-article 'How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy', Porter introduces the monumental five competitive forces (from existing competitors, new entrants, customers, suppliers, substitution). This article has had an extensive impact on the field of strategy and is still a starting point for strategic management at any MBA-course. 'What is Strategy?' was published in 1996 and is, in my opinion, a reply to all the critics of his frameworks and models. The 1985-article 'How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage', Porter and co-author Victor Millar write how information technology influences competition. The current impact of Internet and e-commerce provide excellent examples for this article. In the 1993-article 'End-Game Strategies for Declining Industries', Porter lines up with Kathryn Rudie Harrigan to discuss the last stage/final phase of a industry. This articles is largely based on Harrigan's 1980 book 'Strategies for Declining Businesses' and is a chapter in Porter's 1980-book 'Competitive Strategy'. Part I is finalised with the magnificent 'From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy'. This article is truly a classic and discusses the radical rethinking of corporate strategy. "Corporate strategy is what makes the corporate whole add up to more than the sum of its business parts." This article is the basis of his book 'Competitive Advantage'.

In Part II, Porter kicks off with 'The Competitive Advantage of Nartions', which is also one of the titles of his books. In this 1990-article Porter argues that in a world of increasingly global competition, nations have become more, not less, important. In 'Clusters and Competition' (1998), Porter expands on the theme and discusses the new economics of competition - clusters. "A Cluster is a geographically proximate group of interconnected companies and associated institutions in particular fields, linked by commonalities and complementarities." Examples are the Italian fashion industry, the California Wine cluster, Silicon Valley's venture capital industry, and Massachusetts IT industry. In the next article, 'How Global Companies Win Out' (1992), Porter, Thomas Hout and Eileen Rudden discuss what a global industry is and how global companies can win out. In the next article, 'Competing Across Locations' (1995), returns on this subject and provides additional insights on global strategy, including a general framework.

Part III includes the latest works of Porter. Porter discusses environmental regulation and competition ('Green and Competitive', 1995), with a great case study of the Dutch flower industry, and the impact of these regulations on competition and industries. In the next article ('The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City', 1995), Porter introduces the economic distress of America's inner cities, whereby "the real need - and the real opportunity - is to create wealth" . In the 1990s, Porter also turned more towards government institutions. He discusses the American health care ('Making Competition in Health Care Work', 1994) and, the according to Porter, America's failing capital investment system ('Capital Disadvantage', 1992).

The advantage of this book is that it provides the a quick insight into the ideas and essential points of Porter's books 'Competitive Strategy', 'Competitive Advantage', and 'Competitive Advantage of Nations'. Part I and Part II are now essentials in the field of strategy and competition with fantastic frameworks and models. Part III are Porter's latest articles and discuss the connection between social issues and competition. A great book that is good to read (simple business US-English).

Great, clear frameworks on competition, 30 Nov 2001
Michael E. Porter is a Harvard Business School professor and a leading authority on competition. This book consists of three parts - Competition and Strategy: Core Concepts, The Competitiveness of Locations, and Competitive Solutions to Societal Problems - and each of these parts consists of 4-to-5 Harvard Business Review articles which were published between 1979 and 1998. "The study of competition, in its full richness, has preoccupied me for two decades."

In Part I, the five HBR articles outline Porter's strategic concepts. "I have sought to capture the complexity of what actually happens in companies and industries in a way that both advances theory and brings theory to life for practitioners. My goal has been to develop both rigorous and useful frameworks for understanding competition that effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice." In the 1979-article 'How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy', Porter introduces the monumental five competitive forces (from existing competitors, new entrants, customers, suppliers, substitution). This article has had an extensive impact on the field of strategy and is still a starting point for strategic management at any MBA-course. 'What is Strategy?' was published in 1996 and is, in my opinion, a reply to all the critics of his frameworks and models. The 1985-article 'How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage', Porter and co-author Victor Millar write how information technology influences competition. The current impact of Internet and e-commerce provide excellent examples for this article. In the 1993-article 'End-Game Strategies for Declining Industries', Porter lines up with Kathryn Rudie Harrigan to discuss the last stage/final phase of a industry. This articles is largely based on Harrigan's 1980 book 'Strategies for Declining Businesses' and is a chapter in Porter's 1980-book 'Competitive Strategy'. Part I is finalised with the magnificent 'From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy'. This article is truly a classic and discusses the radical rethinking of corporate strategy. "Corporate strategy is what makes the corporate whole add up to more than the sum of its business parts." This article is the basis of his book 'Competitive Advantage'.

In Part II, Porter kicks off with 'The Competitive Advantage of Nartions', which is also one of the titles of his books. In this 1990-article Porter argues that in a world of increasingly global competition, nations have become more, not less, important. In 'Clusters and Competition' (1998), Porter expands on the theme and discusses the new economics of competition - clusters. "A Cluster is a geographically proximate group of interconnected companies and associated institutions in particular fields, linked by commonalities and complementarities." Examples are the Italian fashion industry, the California Wine cluster, Silicon Valley's venture capital industry, and Massachusetts IT industry. In the next article, 'How Global Companies Win Out' (1992), Porter, Thomas Hout and Eileen Rudden discuss what a global industry is and how global companies can win out. In the next article, 'Competing Across Locations' (1995), returns on this subject and provides additional insights on global strategy, including a general framework.

Part III includes the latest works of Porter. Porter discusses environmental regulation and competition ('Green and Competitive', 1995), with a great case study of the Dutch flower industry, and the impact of these regulations on competition and industries. In the next article ('The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City', 1995), Porter introduces the economic distress of America's inner cities, whereby "the real need - and the real opportunity - is to create wealth" . In the 1990s, Porter also turned more towards government institutions. He discusses the American health care ('Making Competition in Health Care Work', 1994) and, the according to Porter, America's failing capital investment system ('Capital Disadvantage', 1992).

The advantage of this book is that it provides the a quick insight into the ideas and essential points of Porter's books 'Competitive Strategy', 'Competitive Advantage', and 'Competitive Advantage of Nations'. Part I and Part II are now essentials in the field of strategy and competition with fantastic frameworks and models. Part III are Porter's latest articles and discuss the connection between social issues and competition. A great book that is good to read (simple US-English).

Summary of 20 years competition, 13 May 1999
This book is a summary of the various articles and books which Michael Porter has written in conjunction with his research assistants. It is slightly disappointing if you have read Competitive Strategy, Competitive Advantage and Competitive Advantage of Nations before. Tip for MBA-students: It provides you with a good summary of Porter's articles and books. His first book is still the best, the others build on that initial research. Experienced Harvard Business Review (HBR) readers will view this as a biography of 20 years of Porter in HBR. Go for his first book first.

What about the net, Michael?, 27 Apr 1999
I'm a great fan of Porter's works, but was disappointed that something published in 1998 wasn't updated to the impact of the internet on competition. The net is the greatest inflection point in competitive activity in business history, IMO. Not only is the impact great on nearly all aspects of Porter's 5 forces, but changes are happening blazingly fast. To be sure many of MP's concepts help one predict and understand Dell's cleaning of Compaq's clock and many other happenings, but none of this is dealt with explicitly. How tough would it have been to update, or even just add a blurb at the end of chapter's like "How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage". But no, it's the same as when it was written in mid-1985...a lifetime ago in terms of information technology. $35.95 should entitle the reader to bit of updating, but the internet doesn't appear in the index and I only saw the word once in the text of one article. Had the book and articles had a bit of an update, I would definitely give it 5 stars...and for those who haven't read Porter's articles I would highly recommend it. But for those expecting a 1998 book should carry a more recent perspective, it's a bit of a disappointment.

A "Gee Whiz" Overstatement of the Impact of Analytics and the Potential of ERP Analytics, 13 Nov 2007
I saw my first application of advanced mathematics to a strategic business problem in 1970. Since then, I've seen hundreds of such applications. In over 95 percent of the cases, those charged with making decisions didn't want to rely on the math, didn't understand the math, and stopped using the math within a few years. Ten years later, no one even knows that the math was ever used.

There's a second problem: A lot of the advanced math looked better than it was. Nice graphs suggested certainty where the numbers and assumptions shouldn't have permitted such impressions to be formed.

Beyond that, a lot of the data being used had no predictive value . . . a particular problem with correlation-based conclusions and time series.

Finally, the mathematicians often solved the wrong problem.

Have there been a few places where advanced math has made a lot of difference? Sure, especially where real time decision making would overload an organization. Load management in airlines, logistical optimization in supply chains, and in providing alerts that service is needed.

The most valuable applications that I've seen came in places where proprietary data added new perspectives that no one else could imagine. These advantages came from new ways of gathering data . . . not just compiling all transactions into large data bases. In fact, the best math solutions I've seen for strategy wouldn't strain any body's calculator to solve. Typically, these are done on personal computers anyway because the graphical choices are better for presenting what's been learned.

Can more advanced math be employed for strategy and operations? Sure. But the failure rate will be high, the cost will be enormous, and many managements won't engage.

People like Gary Loveman are unusual: Most executives don't appreciate and pay attention to analytics while running a large company. They prefer accounting reports instead. That's not going to change very fast except among start-ups by mathematically literate leaders.

What's really going to happen is that the off-the-shelf business intelligence software companies are going to make progress in selling their offerings to those who want and can use better data and analysis. But I suspect it will take another generation before you'll see much company-wide use of analytics.

You'll notice that I didn't discuss this book very much so far. Why? It doesn't reveal much of anything other than what you read in business periodicals and press releases by various vendors who want to sell offerings related to analytics. I recommend you skip the book. It won't tell you what you need to know. You would do better to spend a few hours with someone who understands analytics discussing what might be done to improve your performance.

I've read and appreciated a number of excellent books by Thomas H. Davenport in the past, so I'm surprised this book turned out to be so over optimistic based on so little evidence . . . and stated awareness of the problems. I can only conclude that this book is intended to sell services related to analytics rather than to give people an objective sense of what they are up against.

Ultimately, there's another problem with this book: If you use analytics to fine tune the current business model, you'll steal time, money, and effort from the more important task of creating an improved business model. The authors fail to make a distinction between business-model-optimizing analytics and analytics for business-model improvement. The former runs the risk of making companies less flexible and less able to compete.

The Balanced Scorecard approach, by comparison, is a healthier way to go by encouraging quantification of what needs to be done and tracking of how you are doing. From that discipline, you define the areas where innovation is needed . . . including analytics. Hiving off analytics as a separate subject simply creates the potential for misuse of a potentially valuable discipline.


Competitive analytics is a winning company culture., 08 Nov 2007
This excellent book explains exactly what competitive analytics are and what you need to know to implement them. Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris divide it into two sections. The first five chapters constitute a handy guide to analytics: how high performance companies use them (and why underperforming companies do not), how to become a true analytic competitor, and how to use analytics to assess external and internal company processes. The second section gives you a roadmap to analytical competition: Why analysts are crucial to your success, the ins and outs of technology, and some thoughts about the future. The authors use many examples of true analytic competitors, such as Harrah's Entertainment, Google, Progressive Insurance and Amazon, to illustrate their message. We find that this interesting book is written in clear language for the general reader, but is sophisticated enough to engage those with more expertise.

Great for beginners, 02 Nov 2007
This book gives a nice overview of companies strategies.

It was very helpfull to me when I started exploring the world of analytics.
Too bad the reading ends too soon.



Becoming an analytic competitor, 06 Jul 2007
Tom and Jeanne have written an excellent new book (building on a paper they wrote some time ago) about what they call "analytic competitors", that is to say companies that use their analytic prowess not just to enhance their operations but as their lead competitive differentiator. The book discusses a number of these analytic competitors and gives an overview of how analytics can be used in different areas of the business and how you can move up the analytic sophistication scale.

The book has two parts - one on the nature of analytical competition and one on building an analytic competency. The first describes an analytical competitor and how this approach can be used in both internal and external processes. The second lays out a roadmap for becoming an analytical competitor, how to manage analytical people, a quick overview of a business intelligence architecture and some predictions for the future.

They define an analytical competitor as an organization that uses analytics extensively and systematically to outthink and outexecute the competition. The analytics are in support of a strategic distinctive competency and they argue, persuasively, that without a distinctive capability you cannot be an analytic competitor.

The book outlines what they call four pillars of analytical competition- a distinctiive capability, enterprise-wide analytics, senior management commitment and large scale ambition. They lay out 5 stages of analytic competition from "analytically impaired" to "analytic competitor". The importance of experimentation is made clear and the book repeatedly emphasizes the need for companies and executives to be willing to run the business "by the numbers".

The book is full of stories about how companies compete analytically and this is one of the book's strengths. It also has a great list of questions to ask about a new initiative and outlines a number of ways to get a competitive advantage from your data. Regardless of the competitive approach, the need for analytical executives to be willing to act on the results of analyses is made clear. The book ends with a great list of changes coming.

This is a very interesting book both for those interested in competing on analytics and those interested simply in making more use of their data.

How to become an "analytical competitor", 22 May 2007

This book is a brilliant development of core concepts in an article co-authored by Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris that originally appeared in the Harvard Business Review. In it and now in this book, they explain how to become an analytical competitor: "an organization that uses analytics extensively and systematically to outthink and outexecute the competition" through support of a strategic, distinctive capability (e.g. Netflix and Wal-Mart), taking an enterprise-level approach to and management of analytics (e.g. Harrah's Entertainment and RBC Financial Group), sustaining a commitment to analytics by senior management (e.g. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, and Rich Fairbank, founder and CEO of Capital One), and having large-scale ambition (i.e. the aforementioned companies as well as others "bet their future success on analytics-based strategies"), with senior executive commitment "perhaps the most important because it can make the others possible." Davenport and Harris classify companies within five stages of analytical competition:

Stage 1: analytically impaired ("flying blind")
Stage 2: Localized analytics (isolated, fragmented, disconnected, inconsistent, etc.)
Stage 3: Analytical aspirations (sees need, begins to explore options)
Stage 4: Analytical companies (enterprise-wide perspective, eager to innovate and differentiate)

Stage 5: Analytical competitors (analytics are the primary driver of performance and value)

Obviously, the challenge is to become a Stage 5 organization but an even greater challenge is to remain one. According to Davenport and Harris, companies that successfully compete on analytics have analytical capabilities that are difficult to duplicate, unique, adaptable to many situations, better than the competition, and renewable. By design and when utilized, those capabilities must also be able to accommodate all manner of changes within the given competitive marketplace. In some circumstances, in heavily regulated industries or when the analytics support an obsolete business model (e.g. large U.S. airlines such as American and United), analytics are not enough. Still another challenge is to identify those internal applications of business analytics that are clearly strategic and involve competitive advantage.

For me, some of the most valuable material is provided in Chapter 8 as Davenport and Harris explain how to align a robust technical environment with business strategies when incorporating analytics and other business intelligence (BI) technologies into their overall IT architecture. That is, a Stage 5 organization has "a full-fledged analytical architecture that is enterprise-wide, fully automated and integrated into processes, and highly sophisticated." Effective management of data requires correct answers to questions such as these:

1. Which data are needed to compete on analytics?
2. Where can these data be obtained?
3. How much are needed?
4. How can the data be made more accurate and valuable for analysis?
5. What rules and processes are needed to manage data from their creation through their retirement?

Here's another question which at least a few of those who read this review may be asking: Why make such a substantial investment in what it takes to become - and then remain -- a Stage 5 organization? Davenport and Harris provide an answer in the book's final paragraph: "analytical competitors will continue to find ways to outperform their competitors. They'll get the best customers and charge them exactly the price that the customer is willing to pay for their product and service. They'll have the most efficient and effective marketing campaigns and promotions. Their customer service will excel, and their customers will be loyal in return. Their supply chains will be ultraefficient, and they'll have neither excess inventory nor stock-outs. They'll have the best people or the best players in the industry, and the employees will be evaluated and compensated based on their specific contributions. They'll understand what nonfinancial processes and factors drive their financial performance, and they'll be able to predict and diagnose problems before they become too problematic. They will make a lot of money, win a lot of games, or solve the world's most pressing problems. They will continue to lead us into the future."

As important now as ever.., 01 Oct 2004
It's been a number of years since Hamel co-wrote this seminal work, and its essence has been re-worked frequently, both by him and others. Indeed, it's a testament to its importance and relevance that it forms the backbone of so much of today's 'accepted wisdom'.

However, neither nostalgia or originality are the reasons to buy this book - rather it's simply that it's so well written - each argument is clear, progressing through why competitive strategy is not quite as mechanical as Porter would have us believe, and then illustrating how this has been achieved by well-known companies.

The result is a compelling and convincing read, which has stood the test of time - if you're looking for a framework for understanding how to compete with other firms, grab a copy.

Few would not profit from this book, 13 Jul 2004
Few companies that began the 1980s as industry leaders ended the decade with their leadership in tact and undiminished. Many household name companies saw their success eroded or destroyed by tides of technological, demographic and regulatory change and order-of-magnitude productivity gains made by nontraditional competitors. "Do you really have a global strategy", the first HBR article by Hamel and Prahalad, developed the theme that small companies could prevail against larger, richer companies by inventing new ways of doing more with less. Differences in resource effectiveness could not be explained by efficiency, labor or capital, but by amazingly ambitious goals that stretched beyond typical strategic plans, raising the question how such incredible goals could get past the credibility test and be made tangible and real to employees? Frequently the small challengers rewrote the rules of engagement; flexibility and speed were built atop supplier-management advantage, built atop quality advantages. Companies made commitments to particular skill areas a decade in advance of specific end-product markets. How did executives select which capabilities to build for the future? Some managers were foresightful, others imagined and gave birth to entirely new products and services. These managers created new competitive space while laggard companies protected the past rather than creating the future. Existing theory throws little light on what it takes to fundamentally reshape an industry and the gap provoked this book in which the goal is to enlarge the concept of the industry and not just the organization. Being incrementally better is not enough because a company that cannot imagine the future won't be around to enjoy it. This book is about strategy and how to think by drawing on the experience of companies that have overcome resource disadvantages to build positions of global leadership. It is about companies that escaped the curse of success to rebuild industry leadership a second or third time. It has been written for companies that believe that the best way to win is to rewrite the rules; it is for those who are not afraid to challenge orthodoxy, for those who prefer to build rather than cut, for those committed to making a difference and staking out the future first.

We need to ask ourselves eight questions:
- does senior management have a clear and broadly shared understanding of how the industry may be different in ten years time? Is management's view of the future clearly reflected in short-term priorities?
- How influential is my company in setting the new rules of competition within the industry? Is it regularly defining new ways of doing business and setting new standards of customer satisfaction?
- Is senior management fully alert to the dangers posed by new, unconventional rivals? Are potential threats to the current business model widely understood? Do senior executives possess a keen sense of urgency about the need to reinvent the current business model?
- Is my company pursuing growth and new business development with as much passion as it is pursuing operational efficiency and downsizing? Do we have a clear view of where the next revenue growth will come from?
- What percentage of our improvement efforts focuses on creating advantages new to the industry, and what percentage focuses on merely catching up to our competitors? Are competitors as eager to benchmark us, as we are to benchmark them?
- What is driving our improvement and transformation agenda - our own view of future opportunities or the actions of our competitors? Is our transformation agenda mostly offensive or defensive?
- Am I more of a maintenance engineer keeping today's business humming along or an architect imagining tomorrow's businesses? Do I devote more energy to prolonging the past than I do to creating the future?
- What is the balance between hope and anxiety in my company; between confidence in our ability to find and exploit opportunities for growth and new business development and concern about our ability to maintain competitiveness in our traditional businesses; between a sense of opportunity and a sense of vulnerability, both corporate and personal?

These are not rhetorical questions. We are told to get a pencil and rate our company because these questions go unanswered in many cases. Such questions challenge the assumption that top management is in control or even that their knowledge and experience may be irrelevant or wrong-headed for the future. The urgent drives out the important and the future goes largely unexplored; the capacity to act is considered to be more important than the capacity to imagine. A capacity to invent new industries and to reinvent old ones is a prerequisite for getting to the future first and a precondition for staying out in front. Gaining an understanding of how to accomplish this most difficult task is the central mission of this book.

What must we do to ensure that the industry evolves in a way that is maximally advantageous for us? What skills and capabilities must we begin building now if we are to occupy the industry high ground in the future? How should we organize for opportunities that may not fit neatly within the boundaries of current business units and divisions? The answers are to be found in this book. Armed with this information, a company can create a pro-active agenda for organizational transformation and can control its own destiny by controlling the destiny of its own industry. No company can escape the need to reskill its people, reshape its product portfolio, redesign its processes, and redirect its resources. There is not one future but hundreds; there can be as many prizes as runners; imagination is the only limiting factor. In no way does the success of one preordain the failure of another. What distinguishes leaders from laggards, and greatness form mediocrity is the ability to imagine what could be. If your senior management did not do well on the eight questions, then your company may not be around a decade from now. There are few who would not profit from reading this book.

Great Up-Date on Peter Drucker's Strategy Model, 30 May 2004
I am a corporate strategy consultant who works mostly with FORTUNE 200 companies. Strategic thinking has gone in and out of fashion in such companies several times in the last 40 years. With this book, Hamel and Prahalad have raised the value of strategic thinking in the current context in an effective way.

This book is clearly designed with the large company in mind, where the need to envision, communicate about, and organize for the future is most difficult. By breaking down strategic thinking into the elements described here, the authors make strategic thinking easier for those who have little experience.

Interestingly enough, many companies have "banned" strategic thinking in favor of more tactically-oriented programs that produce near-term cost reductions. Our firm did a survey of the most successful CEOs, and they reported that they felt that better strategies had the most potential to most improve their companies. These same CEOs also reported that they understood little about how to create better strategies. In such companies, COMPETING FOR THE FUTURE can provide an excellent balance.

A good book to read in conjunction with this one is Peter Drucker's, MANAGEMENT, which provides the intellectual heritage for many of these ideas. For people who need more detail than Drucker normally provides, COMPETING FOR THE FUTURE will be the more helpful book.

Concise, accessible and easy to apply, 23 Oct 2001
This is a very well written business book for practical application to a wide range of business scenarios - veyr readable style, well structured, and with useful illustrations and examples.

EXCELLENT FOR MANAGEMENT STUDENTS. Useful for revision., 09 Aug 2000
I began to read the first page and found it very difficult to put the book down. HAMEL AND PRAHALAD go into great depth about the WHY! OF A SITUATION> THIS BOOK HELPED ME ACHIEVE AN EXCELLENT GRADE IN MY MANAGement exams of May 2000. THERE IS PHILOSOPHY BEHIND BUSINESS WHich has laid dormant for many years but HAMEL AND PRAHALAD HAVE RESEArched their work and have given us a gift of a catalyst for learning and applying more knowledge into our world of Making a success of our goals.

Insightful!, 20 Jun 2005
Remember when you were a youthful entrepreneur operating a neighborhood lemonade stand? If author Michael E. Porter had walked up to buy a cup of punch from you, he probably would have asked about your business strategy. While you poured, he would have questioned what made your lemonade different from anyone else's. If he liked your lemonade, he'd no doubt give you suggestions on how to earn millions competing in the global marketplace. Ah, if only you had listened... The author, America's dean of competition, has spent two decades asking seminal questions such as, "What is competition? What are its effects? How can society benefit?" The Harvard Business Review previously published 11 of the 13 articles collected in this book. In the two new essays, Porter serves up invaluable concepts. His take on the growing importance of location, despite rising globalization, is a tour de force. Oddly, Porter sees no inconsistency in encouraging "productive competition" in the health care industry while advocating universal health care. For Porter, competition is the ingredient that turns lemons into lemonade. We recommend his latest book to any corporate strategist who seeks ideas on becoming more competitive, starting in your own neighborhood.

Great, clear frameworks on competition, 01 Mar 2003
Michael E. Porter is a Harvard Business School professor and a leading authority on competition. This book consists of three parts - Competition and Strategy: Core Concepts, The Competitiveness of Locations, and Competitive Solutions to Societal Problems - and each of these parts consists of 4-to-5 Harvard Business Review articles which were published between 1979 and 1998. "The study of competition, in its full richness, has preoccupied me for two decades."

In Part I, the five HBR articles outline Porter's strategic concepts. "I have sought to capture the complexity of what actually happens in companies and industries in a way that both advances theory and brings theory to life for practitioners. My goal has been to develop both rigorous and useful frameworks for understanding competition that effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice." In the 1979-article 'How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy', Porter introduces the monumental five competitive forces (from existing competitors, new entrants, customers, suppliers, substitution). This article has had an extensive impact on the field of strategy and is still a starting point for strategic management at any MBA-course. 'What is Strategy?' was published in 1996 and is, in my opinion, a reply to all the critics of his frameworks and models. The 1985-article 'How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage', Porter and co-author Victor Millar write how information technology influences competition. The current impact of Internet and e-commerce provide excellent examples for this article. In the 1993-article 'End-Game Strategies for Declining Industries', Porter lines up with Kathryn Rudie Harrigan to discuss the last stage/final phase of a industry. This articles is largely based on Harrigan's 1980 book 'Strategies for Declining Businesses' and is a chapter in Porter's 1980-book 'Competitive Strategy'. Part I is finalised with the magnificent 'From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy'. This article is truly a classic and discusses the radical rethinking of corporate strategy. "Corporate strategy is what makes the corporate whole add up to more than the sum of its business parts." This article is the basis of his book 'Competitive Advantage'.

In Part II, Porter kicks off with 'The Competitive Advantage of Nartions', which is also one of the titles of his books. In this 1990-article Porter argues that in a world of increasingly global competition, nations have become more, not less, important. In 'Clusters and Competition' (1998), Porter expands on the theme and discusses the new economics of competition - clusters. "A Cluster is a geographically proximate group of interconnected companies and associated institutions in particular fields, linked by commonalities and complementarities." Examples are the Italian fashion industry, the California Wine cluster, Silicon Valley's venture capital industry, and Massachusetts IT industry. In the next article, 'How Global Companies Win Out' (1992), Porter, Thomas Hout and Eileen Rudden discuss what a global industry is and how global companies can win out. In the next article, 'Competing Across Locations' (1995), returns on this subject and provides additional insights on global strategy, including a general framework.

Part III includes the latest works of Porter. Porter discusses environmental regulation and competition ('Green and Competitive', 1995), with a great case study of the Dutch flower industry, and the impact of these regulations on competition and industries. In the next article ('The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City', 1995), Porter introduces the economic distress of America's inner cities, whereby "the real need - and the real opportunity - is to create wealth" . In the 1990s, Porter also turned more towards government institutions. He discusses the American health care ('Making Competition in Health Care Work', 1994) and, the according to Porter, America's failing capital investment system ('Capital Disadvantage', 1992).

The advantage of this book is that it provides the a quick insight into the ideas and essential points of Porter's books 'Competitive Strategy', 'Competitive Advantage', and 'Competitive Advantage of Nations'. Part I and Part II are now essentials in the field of strategy and competition with fantastic frameworks and models. Part III are Porter's latest articles and discuss the connection between social issues and competition. A great book that is good to read (simple business US-English).

Great, clear frameworks on competition, 30 Nov 2001
Michael E. Porter is a Harvard Business School professor and a leading authority on competition. This book consists of three parts - Competition and Strategy: Core Concepts, The Competitiveness of Locations, and Competitive Solutions to Societal Problems - and each of these parts consists of 4-to-5 Harvard Business Review articles which were published between 1979 and 1998. "The study of competition, in its full richness, has preoccupied me for two decades."

In Part I, the five HBR articles outline Porter's strategic concepts. "I have sought to capture the complexity of what actually happens in companies and industries in a way that both advances theory and brings theory to life for practitioners. My goal has been to develop both rigorous and useful frameworks for understanding competition that effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice." In the 1979-article 'How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy', Porter introduces the monumental five competitive forces (from existing competitors, new entrants, customers, suppliers, substitution). This article has had an extensive impact on the field of strategy and is still a starting point for strategic management at any MBA-course. 'What is Strategy?' was published in 1996 and is, in my opinion, a reply to all the critics of his frameworks and models. The 1985-article 'How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage', Porter and co-author Victor Millar write how information technology influences competition. The current impact of Internet and e-commerce provide excellent examples for this article. In the 1993-article 'End-Game Strategies for Declining Industries', Porter lines up with Kathryn Rudie Harrigan to discuss the last stage/final phase of a industry. This articles is largely based on Harrigan's 1980 book 'Strategies for Declining Businesses' and is a chapter in Porter's 1980-book 'Competitive Strategy'. Part I is finalised with the magnificent 'From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy'. This article is truly a classic and discusses the radical rethinking of corporate strategy. "Corporate strategy is what makes the corporate whole add up to more than the sum of its business parts." This article is the basis of his book 'Competitive Advantage'.

In Part II, Porter kicks off with 'The Competitive Advantage of Nartions', which is also one of the titles of his books. In this 1990-article Porter argues that in a world of increasingly global competition, nations have become more, not less, important. In 'Clusters and Competition' (1998), Porter expands on the theme and discusses the new economics of competition - clusters. "A Cluster is a geographically proximate group of interconnected companies and associated institutions in particular fields, linked by commonalities and complementarities." Examples are the Italian fashion industry, the California Wine cluster, Silicon Valley's venture capital industry, and Massachusetts IT industry. In the next article, 'How Global Companies Win Out' (1992), Porter, Thomas Hout and Eileen Rudden discuss what a global industry is and how global companies can win out. In the next article, 'Competing Across Locations' (1995), returns on this subject and provides additional insights on global strategy, including a general framework.

Part III includes the latest works of Porter. Porter discusses environmental regulation and competition ('Green and Competitive', 1995), with a great case study of the Dutch flower industry, and the impact of these regulations on competition and industries. In the next article ('The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City', 1995), Porter introduces the economic distress of America's inner cities, whereby "the real need - and the real opportunity - is to create wealth" . In the 1990s, Porter also turned more towards government institutions. He discusses the American health care ('Making Competition in Health Care Work', 1994) and, the according to Porter, America's failing capital investment system ('Capital Disadvantage', 1992).

The advantage of this book is that it provides the a quick insight into the ideas and essential points of Porter's books 'Competitive Strategy', 'Competitive Advantage', and 'Competitive Advantage of Nations'. Part I and Part II are now essentials in the field of strategy and competition with fantastic frameworks and models. Part III are Porter's latest articles and discuss the connection between social issues and competition. A great book that is good to read (simple US-English).

Summary of 20 years competition, 13 May 1999
This book is a summary of the various articles and books which Michael Porter has written in conjunction with his research assistants. It is slightly disappointing if you have read Competitive Strategy, Competitive Advantage and Competitive Advantage of Nations before. Tip for MBA-students: It provides you with a good summary of Porter's articles and books. His first book is still the best, the others build on that initial research. Experienced Harvard Business Review (HBR) readers will view this as a biography of 20 years of Porter in HBR. Go for his first book first.

What about the net, Michael?, 27 Apr 1999
I'm a great fan of Porter's works, but was disappointed that something published in 1998 wasn't updated to the impact of the internet on competition. The net is the greatest inflection point in competitive activity in business history, IMO. Not only is the impact great on nearly all aspects of Porter's 5 forces, but changes are happening blazingly fast. To be sure many of MP's concepts help one predict and understand Dell's cleaning of Compaq's clock and many other happenings, but none of this is dealt with explicitly. How tough would it have been to update, or even just add a blurb at the end of chapter's like "How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage". But no, it's the same as when it was written in mid-1985...a lifetime ago in terms of information technology. $35.95 should entitle the reader to bit of updating, but the internet doesn't appear in the index and I only saw the word once in the text of one article. Had the book and articles had a bit of an update, I would definitely give it 5 stars...and for those who haven't read Porter's articles I would highly recommend it. But for those expecting a 1998 book should carry a more recent perspective, it's a bit of a disappointment.

A "Gee Whiz" Overstatement of the Impact of Analytics and the Potential of ERP Analytics, 13 Nov 2007
I saw my first application of advanced mathematics to a strategic business problem in 1970. Since then, I've seen hundreds of such applications. In over 95 percent of the cases, those charged with making decisions didn't want to rely on the math, didn't understand the math, and stopped using the math within a few years. Ten years later, no one even knows that the math was ever used.

There's a second problem: A lot of the advanced math looked better than it was. Nice graphs suggested certainty where the numbers and assumptions shouldn't have permitted such impressions to be formed.

Beyond that, a lot of the data being used had no predictive value . . . a particular problem with correlation-based conclusions and time series.

Finally, the mathematicians often solved the wrong problem.

Have there been a few places where advanced math has made a lot of difference? Sure, especially where real time decision making would overload an organization. Load management in airlines, logistical optimization in supply chains, and in providing alerts that service is needed.

The most valuable applications that I've seen came in places where proprietary data added new perspectives that no one else could imagine. These advantages came from new ways of gathering data . . . not just compiling all transactions into large data bases. In fact, the best math solutions I've seen for strategy wouldn't strain any body's calculator to solve. Typically, these are done on personal computers anyway because the graphical choices are better for presenting what's been learned.

Can more advanced math be employed for strategy and operations? Sure. But the failure rate will be high, the cost will be enormous, and many managements won't engage.

People like Gary Loveman are unusual: Most executives don't appreciate and pay attention to analytics while running a large company. They prefer accounting reports instead. That's not going to change very fast except among start-ups by mathematically literate leaders.

What's really going to happen is that the off-the-shelf business intelligence software companies are going to make progress in selling their offerings to those who want and can use better data and analysis. But I suspect it will take another generation before you'll see much company-wide use of analytics.

You'll notice that I didn't discuss this book very much so far. Why? It doesn't reveal much of anything other than what you read in business periodicals and press releases by various vendors who want to sell offerings related to analytics. I recommend you skip the book. It won't tell you what you need to know. You would do better to spend a few hours with someone who understands analytics discussing what might be done to improve your performance.

I've read and appreciated a number of excellent books by Thomas H. Davenport in the past, so I'm surprised this book turned out to be so over optimistic based on so little evidence . . . and stated awareness of the problems. I can only conclude that this book is intended to sell services related to analytics rather than to give people an objective sense of what they are up against.

Ultimately, there's another problem with this book: If you use analytics to fine tune the current business model, you'll steal time, money, and effort from the more important task of creating an improved business model. The authors fail to make a distinction between business-model-optimizing analytics and analytics for business-model improvement. The former runs the risk of making companies less flexible and less able to compete.

The Balanced Scorecard approach, by comparison, is a healthier way to go by encouraging quantification of what needs to be done and tracking of how you are doing. From that discipline, you define the areas where innovation is needed . . . including analytics. Hiving off analytics as a separate subject simply creates the potential for misuse of a potentially valuable discipline.


Competitive analytics is a winning company culture., 08 Nov 2007
This excellent book explains exactly what competitive analytics are and what you need to know to implement them. Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris divide it into two sections. The first five chapters constitute a handy guide to analytics: how high performance companies use them (and why underperforming companies do not), how to become a true analytic competitor, and how to use analytics to assess external and internal company processes. The second section gives you a roadmap to analytical competition: Why analysts are crucial to your success, the ins and outs of technology, and some thoughts about the future. The authors use many examples of true analytic competitors, such as Harrah's Entertainment, Google, Progressive Insurance and Amazon, to illustrate their message. We find that this interesting book is written in clear language for the general reader, but is sophisticated enough to engage those with more expertise.

Great for beginners, 02 Nov 2007
This book gives a nice overview of companies strategies.

It was very helpfull to me when I started exploring the world of analytics.
Too bad the reading ends too soon.



Becoming an analytic competitor, 06 Jul 2007
Tom and Jeanne have written an excellent new book (building on a paper they wrote some time ago) about what they call "analytic competitors", that is to say companies that use their analytic prowess not just to enhance their operations but as their lead competitive differentiator. The book discusses a number of these analytic competitors and gives an overview of how analytics can be used in different areas of the business and how you can move up the analytic sophistication scale.

The book has two parts - one on the nature of analytical competition and one on building an analytic competency. The first describes an analytical competitor and how this approach can be used in both internal and external processes. The second lays out a roadmap for becoming an analytical competitor, how to manage analytical people, a quick overview of a business intelligence architecture and some predictions for the future.

They define an analytical competitor as an organization that uses analytics extensively and systematically to outthink and outexecute the competition. The analytics are in support of a strategic distinctive competency and they argue, persuasively, that without a distinctive capability you cannot be an analytic competitor.

The book outlines what they call four pillars of analytical competition- a distinctiive capability, enterprise-wide analytics, senior management commitment and large scale ambition. They lay out 5 stages of analytic competition from "analytically impaired" to "analytic competitor". The importance of experimentation is made clear and the book repeatedly emphasizes the need for companies and executives to be willing to run the business "by the numbers".

The book is full of stories about how companies compete analytically and this is one of the book's strengths. It also has a great list of questions to ask about a new initiative and outlines a number of ways to get a competitive advantage from your data. Regardless of the competitive approach, the need for analytical executives to be willing to act on the results of analyses is made clear. The book ends with a great list of changes coming.

This is a very interesting book both for those interested in competing on analytics and those interested simply in making more use of their data.

How to become an "analytical competitor", 22 May 2007

This book is a brilliant development of core concepts in an article co-authored by Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris that originally appeared in the Harvard Business Review. In it and now in this book, they explain how to become an analytical competitor: "an organization that uses analytics extensively and systematically to outthink and outexecute the competition" through support of a strategic, distinctive capability (e.g. Netflix and Wal-Mart), taking an enterprise-level approach to and management of analytics (e.g. Harrah's Entertainment and RBC Financial Group), sustaining a commitment to analytics by senior management (e.g. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, and Rich Fairbank, founder and CEO of Capital One), and having large-scale ambition (i.e. the aforementioned companies as well as others "bet their future success on analytics-based strategies"), with senior executive commitment "perhaps the most important because it can make the others possible." Davenport and Harris classify companies within five stages of analytical competition:

Stage 1: analytically impaired ("flying blind")
Stage 2: Localized analytics (isolated, fragmented, disconnected, inconsistent, etc.)
Stage 3: Analytical aspirations (sees need, begins to explore options)
Stage 4: Analytical companies (enterprise-wide perspective, eager to innovate and differentiate)

Stage 5: Analytical competitors (analytics are the primary driver of performance and value)

Obviously, the challenge is to become a Stage 5 organization but an even greater challenge is to remain one. According to Davenport and Harris, companies that successfully compete on analytics have analytical capabilities that are difficult to duplicate, unique, adaptable to many situations, better than the competition, and renewable. By design and when utilized, those capabilities must also be able to accommodate all manner of changes within the given competitive marketplace. In some circumstances, in heavily regulated industries or when the analytics support an obsolete business model (e.g. large U.S. airlines such as American and United), analytics are not enough. Still another challenge is to identify those internal applications of business analytics that are clearly strategic and involve competitive advantage.

For me, some of the most valuable material is provided in Chapter 8 as Davenport and Harris explain how to align a robust technical environment with business strategies when incorporating analytics and other business intelligence (BI) technologies into their overall IT architecture. That is, a Stage 5 organization has "a full-fledged analytical architecture that is enterprise-wide, fully automated and integrated into processes, and highly sophisticated." Effective management of data requires correct answers to questions such as these:

1. Which data are needed to compete on analytics?
2. Where can these data be obtained?
3. How much are needed?
4. How can the data be made more accurate and valuable for analysis?
5. What rules and processes are needed to manage data from their creation through their retirement?

Here's another question which at least a few of those who read this review may be asking: Why make such a substantial investment in what it takes to become - and then remain -- a Stage 5 organization? Davenport and Harris provide an answer in the book's final paragraph: "analytical competitors will continue to find ways to outperform their competitors. They'll get the best customers and charge them exactly the price that the customer is willing to pay for their product and service. They'll have the most efficient and effective marketing campaigns and promotions. Their customer service will excel, and their customers will be loyal in return. Their supply chains will be ultraefficient, and they'll have neither excess inventory nor stock-outs. They'll have the best people or the best players in the industry, and the employees will be evaluated and compensated based on their specific contributions. They'll understand what nonfinancial processes and factors drive their financial performance, and they'll be able to predict and diagnose problems before they become too problematic. They will make a lot of money, win a lot of games, or solve the world's most pressing problems. They will continue to lead us into the future."

Fundamental guidebook for managing change, 10 Jan 2008
Institutional change can be scary, but this Harvard Business Essentials entry does a solid job of demystifying it. The book provides immediately applicable conceptual tools, from broad theoretical frameworks to specific tables and checklists you can use during the change process. It pushes readers to take action, but only action they have planned, tested and researched. Its suggestions have all been shown to work in many situations. The book's brevity makes it easy to use, but it also means that a number of complex issues are only sketched out, leaving the reader to figure out how to best apply them. We, therefore, recommend this competent starting text to managers who are just beginning to think about guiding change, and to experienced change managers who can extrapolate its ideas and will welcome it as a focused reference.

Invaluable "Essentials", 26 Sep 2005
This is one of several paperbacks in the "Essentials" series, each of which offers "cutting edge" thinking on a major business subject. Mike Beer served as the adviser to Richard Luecke while he wrote this volume. Brief information about both is provided. There are seven chapters following an Introduction in which Luecke observes that "Accepting the necessity and inevitability of change enables [all companies and their decision-makers] to see times of transition not as threats but as opportunities -- opportunities for reinventing the company and its culture." Indicators include a merger, acquisition, or divestiture; the launch of a new product or service; a new leader; or a new technology. "In this book you will learn how to manage change constructively, and how to help your company, division, and people deal with the upheavals of change. You'll also learn practical things you can do to make change initiatives more successful and less painful for the people you manage."

Each of the seven chapters (which are arranged in a logical sequence) focuses on a separate but related component of effective management of change and transition. For example, in Chapter 2, Luecke explains why leaders must be respected and effective for change to happen, the role of motivation in change-readiness, the importance of a nonhierarchical culture in implementing change, and then offers several "tips" on how to become "change ready." To me, one of the most valuable chapters is the sixth (in which Luecke examines the four stages of reaction to change (i.e. shock, defensive retreat, acknowledgment, and acceptance and adaptation), how individuals can help themselves navigate change, how managers can help employees cope with change, and alternative ways for managers to think about change registers.

At the conclusion of each of the seven chapters, Luecke offers an especially useful "Summing Up" section which facilitates a periodic review of key points. I also appreciate the provision of Appendix A ("Useful Implementation Tools") and Appendix B ("How to Choose and Work with Consultants"), both of which provide basic but sound information to supplement material covered in the previous chapters.

Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Jim O'Toole's Leading Change, William Bridges' Transitions and Managing Transitions and Jon Katzenbach's Real Change Leaders, all of which are available in paperback editions.

When new-car developers at Ford Motor Company wanted to learn why the original Taurus design team was so successful, no-one could tell them. No-one remembered or had recorded what made that effort so special; the knowledge gained in the Taurus project was lost forever. Indeed, the most valuable asset in any company is probably also its most elusive and difficult to manage: knowledge. Authors Thomas H Davenport and Laurence Prusak assert that learning how to identify, manage and foster knowledge is vital for companies who hope to compete in today's fast-moving global economy.

Working Knowledge examines how knowledge can be nurtured in organisations. Building trust throughout a company is the key to creating a knowledge-orientated corporate culture, a positive environment in which employees are encouraged to make decisions that are efficient, productive and innovative. The book includes numerous examples of successful knowledge projects at companies such as British Petroleum, 3M, Mobil Oil and Hewlett-Packard. Concise and clearly written,