Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/47623
bookshelf GOOD STRATEGY, BAD STRATEGY AUTHOR: Richard P. Rumelt PUBLISHER: Crown Business, US$28 RUMELT'S BLUNT, smart, and well-written book lays it all out in the introduction: "Good strategy honestly acknowledges the challenges being faced and provides an approach to over- coming them." Bad strategy, by contrast, "covers up its failure to guide by embracing the lan- guage of broad goals, ambition, vision, and values." The rest of the book fills in the details. Executives can craft good strategies by being unexpected, by coordinating actions and resources, by reframing their situations, and by responding quickly to windows of opportunity. They create bad ones by setting stretch goals without identifying fundamental problems and ways to deal with them. Rumelt, a professor at UCLA, offers examples of good and bad strategists who range from Steve Jobs to CEOs at struggling firms to military leaders. His conclusion: "More than charisma and vision, we must demand good strategy." DESIGNING FOR GROWTH AUTHORS: Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie PUBLISHER: Columbia University Press, US$29.95 "WHAT WOULD BE different if managers thought more like designers?" ask Liedtka, a profes- sor at the University of Virginia, and Ogilvie, CEO of the Peer Insight consultancy. New products wouldn't just be functional, they'd be delightful, more like the Golden Gate Bridge than the San Francisco Bay one. While the authors acknowledge the importance of the businessperson's cold analysis and ingrained skepti- cism, they believe designers add value to any conversation about new products. They present the idea generation process in four stages—"What is? What if? What wows? And what works?"—and insist that managers should keep 82 November/December 2011 BizEd absolutely open minds as they move from identifying problems to brainstorming solutions. They write, "If we start by accepting all the things that don't allow us to do something better, our designs for tomorrow will inevitably look a lot like those for today." PROACTIVE LAW FOR MANAGERS AUTHORS: George Siedel and Helena Haapio PUBLISHER: Gower Publishing Company, US$79.95 MOST MANAGERS only think about legal matters during times of stress and conflict, but with a little knowledge and preparation, they can use the law to obtain competitive advantage. Siedel of the University of Michigan and Haapio, affiliated with Finnish firm Lexpert Ltd., note that legal issues touch all aspects of doing business, from making sales to writing contracts to conforming with laws and regulations. They urge managers to follow a four-step plan: understand the law; learn from legal problems; develop strategies to prevent future problems; and think about the big picture. They emphasize that the globalization of business has greatly complicated the legal environment, and they draw on both European and American cases to make their points. The overrid- ing message is for managers to look ahead: While most legal research focuses on failures in the past, they write, proactive law aims for success in the future. CREDIBILITY AUTHORS: James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner PUBLISHER: Jossey-Bass, US$27.95 OVER THE PAST 20 years, the authors have asked more than 100,000 people, "What do you look for and admire in a leader, someone whose direction you would willingly follow?" Across all continents, demographics, and decades, respondents list the same