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20 Essential Strategy Analysis & Planning Books for Success

Discover the best books on strategy! Explore top titles offering insights into strategic thinking and planning for success.
Today, I want to share with you a list of "20 must-read books on strategy analysis and planning". 

Don't make excuses for your ignorance. If you do not have the basic knowledge of corporate strategic management, then start by reading well!  

This article only discusses the best books on corporate strategic analysis and planning.

Some people lean over a table with financial charts, documents, and glasses, discussing strategy & planning in a meeting.

Top Reads on Strategy & Planning for Success

Discover the best books on strategy. Our top picks include essential reads for mastering strategic thinking and planning.

1. Contemporary Strategy Analysis


Contemporary Strategy Analysis by Robert M. Grant



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Contemporary Strategy Analysis by Robert M. Grant

Last year, I read a copy of "Contemporary Strategy Analysis", which literally opened a new door for me.

From there I learned about Porter's Five Forces, Barriers to Entry, and Vertical Integration, and later expanded into some game theory.

This knowledge has given me a different dimension in looking at some things.

For example, why do some industries look extremely profitable, but there are no potential entrants.

Why did Nokia develop well, but suddenly Apple fell to the ground.

This time, reading "Contemporary Strategy Analysis" obviously requires less effort.

There is a lot of duplication with Contemporary Strategy Analysis.

After all, when it comes to strategy, you cannot fail to mention competition, and you cannot fail to mention the Five Forces Model and Game Theory.

The author's purpose in writing this book is to enable managers and students to acquire management concepts, skills, and skills so that they can make better strategic decisions.

In terms of content, it is mainly described from the basic framework of strategic analysis.

What is a strategy?

Strategy is the method to achieve the goal, mainly divided into two elements: the company and the industrial environment.

It can also be understood as both internal and external.

To facilitate understanding, we take "people" as an example to make a brief summary and explanation.

For a person to develop well, in addition to his own cultivation, it is also very important to utilize the external environment.

Part of its Goals and Values

You need to be clear about your development goals, whether you want to make a lot of money family happiness, or something else.

Goals and values are consistent and mutually supportive. Because your values ​​are money first, your goal is to get more money.

Resources and Capabilities

Take stock of the resources you have, both tangible and intangible. Tangible resources may include houses, money, cars, and looks.

There are more intangible resources, your connections, your knowledge, your cultivation, your sense of humor.

And resources are not the same as capabilities.
Ability is what you have, such as communication ability, and professional ability.

These abilities may allow you to have more resources, and some of your resources can be converted into your abilities.

External environment

The analysis of the external environment is mainly carried out using the five forces model.

Competitor

There will be various competitors on your way to your goal.

Do you have a competitive advantage that will set you apart?

I think that competitive advantage actually mainly comes from its own part, whether your resources and capabilities are scarce, difficult to replicate, different, and so on.

Although the cost advantage may be another. And I see cost advantage as a part of your resource.

For example, your family's economic conditions are relatively good, you don't need to rent a house, and you can take advantage of the cost advantage when competing for a job.

Customer

You can treat your business as your customer, and it pays you to provide professional service.

How much money is given to you depends on your competitiveness.

If the customer has a lot of candidates, it will bargain, which means it has the right to bargain.

When your competitiveness is strong enough, the bargaining power of customers will be weakened.

Write at the end:

This book is very thick, and I feel very tired after reading it.

Because there is a lot of content, I want to pick some commonly used knowledge points to summarize.

After all, many things are my imagination and understanding, and I have never really participated in the strategy formulation and evaluation of a company.

The main purpose of reading this kind of book is to expand my horizons and knowledge.

In this book, I also saw some content related to the business I am doing, such as enterprise knowledge management, the meaning of inertial processes, and so on.


2. Blue Ocean Strategy


Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne


Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne 

Blue Ocean Strategy was co-authored by two INSEAD professors of strategic management, Kim and Mauborgne. It is one of the most popular management bestsellers at the moment. 

"Blue Ocean Strategy" is a book I read on the subway. Since I have had to take the subway to different places all day recently, I have a lot of time to read a book. Now I read the travel magazine "Blog". 

Reading books on the subway is more casual, but it is also very interesting because you can be like no one else, you don't have to worry about what others think of you, you don't have to look at others, and you don't have to think about whether you have a chance to jump off the track, the only bad thing is that you occasionally sit pass the stop.

In fact, many of the sayings about the blue ocean strategy can be applied in many places. For example, who knows that creating a blue ocean is much better than being in a red ocean, and who does not know the strategic significance of creating a blue ocean. 

However, the book uses a large number of cases to explain The strategic height of the blue ocean, in fact, in the book, there is no systematic explanation of how to create a blue ocean for an enterprise.

Most of the meaning of this book, I think, is to change your mind about how to get the most possible profit in the most unlikely places, and occupy the market that no one wants to occupy. This is also the case. 

This book does not teach you how to create a blue ocean. Most of it is about how to change people's concepts, the thinking of superiors and subordinates, and even the "interpersonal" that people are good at. relationship” is also described at length.

The deepest impression of the book is the analysis of competitors and the estimation of its own strength, and then to find out the blue ocean, those charts, to see their strengths and weaknesses at a glance.

Most of the time, you can't get the sword of Shangfang just by reading a book. Most of the good books are just to trigger your thinking, especially management books. It is enough to trigger your thinking. 

You can't expect to pass a book. The book can guide the enterprise, or take the case in the book to change the working state that you have always been in.

A book that can bring you systematic thinking and straighten out previously cluttered thoughts is enough. This is a good book.


3. Good Strategy Bad Strategy


Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt




Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters by Richard Rumelt 

The book was recommended in class, but to be honest I don't think it's a good book. . . A large part of the reason should be attributed to the fact that the teacher made a wonderful summary of the first chapter of this well-written book in class, which caused me to be very disappointed after reading the content after reading with full expectations.

The biggest problem is the case. There are relatively few business cases, and many cases come from war and history. I once wondered if I was reading a book on the study of success. The author Rumelt was also called a "strategist among strategists". Thinking like this is more like success learned. . .

In addition to the small number of cases, more importantly, the descriptions of the cases in this book are too sloppy compared to those used in class. It is obvious that the information has been deliberately filtered, and the author often only states part of the facts of the case to prove his point. 

Without being able to see the full picture of the case, it is difficult for readers to experience the real confusion as a decision-maker, let alone think about the causes and consequences behind various business decisions.

For example, in the case of Global Crossing Corporation, in my opinion, the industrial structure is not the core of the problem, because according to the author's description, the growth expectation of downstream demand is the key basis for supporting the stock price to rise. 

If the author really predicted at that time that the growth of submarine cable data transmission would be much lower than that of land transmission, and the price drop of servers would cause most Internet companies to place servers around the world without the need for submarine cables, 

then I must say It is impossible to make such a conclusion that is diametrically opposed to the consensus of the market as he said, at least it cannot be obtained by doing some bullshit five forces analysis, which requires a very deep understanding of the industry and insight.

The discussion of the financial crisis broke me even more. The view that the financial crisis was only attributed to herd mentality left me scratching my head. If I refer to Dalio's explanation of the economic cycle, I would feel that the author's discussion is too thin and ignores it. 

Most of the other reasons are more important. This way of interpreting the financial crisis is very similar to the documentary "Steal Yourself" made by the leftist virgins. To speak from the standpoint of the masses, only part of the facts are told. Unscrupulously looking for evidence, why do I get angrier the more I say it. Forget it. . .

In general, the positioning of this book should be a public reading. As a business school student, reading this book will not be enjoyable, and the inspiration is really limited.

Of course, it may also be that I have too little experience to realize the real wisdom behind this book. If this is the case, I hope that I can grow up quickly, find out how naive I am at this time, and find that the content in the book is so useful, and I will be slapped in the face earlier.


4. Playing to Win


Playing to Win by A.G. Lafley & Roger L. Martin


Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works by A.G. Lafley & Roger L. Martin

Businesses deliver unique value by "carefully choosing a range of different activities", this is what Porter said in his book "Competitive Strategy", and AG is also the author of "Playing to Win", it can be said that from the practice level, which confirms this theory.

Many people have heard of Procter & Gamble and at the same time, as a company. I have worked for more than 6 years, and I have a good understanding of its culture and strategy. After resigning from Procter & Gamble and starting the road of entrepreneurship, reading this book again, the feeling is very different!

The most direct feeling is Entrepreneurship, foreshadowing!

The book cites many examples of the practice process of P&G's brand, giving people a real feeling. Behind every brand is a series of "choices"!

In the book, the core point of view is how to make corresponding strategies that meet the goals through corresponding methods.

In terms of specific operations, 5 questions can help open the mind:
  • What is the vision?
  • How is the market positioned?
  • How can we win?
  • What ability must be?
  • How does the management system match?
This thought process, and the approach to supporting strategy, are the sources of differences between companies.

How to control this rhythm and make the right choice is a process of constantly scrutinizing these five questions.

Generally speaking, this book is suitable for those who are doing business or products and want to make products into big brands but feel that they have encountered some bottlenecks. The method itself, regardless of the enterprise, but in stages.


5. The Art of Strategy 


The Art of Strategy by Avinash K. Dixit and Barry J. Nalebuff


The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist's Guide to Success in Business and Life by Avinash K. Dixit and Barry J. Nalebuff

The essential difference between science and art is that the content of science can be learned systematically and logically, while the cultivation of strategic art can only be carried out by relying on examples, experience, and practice”; “Game theory as a discipline is far from complete, (So) a lot of strategic thinking is still an art.” 

By nature, people tend to be self-centered, focusing only on their own understanding and their own needs. But the art of strategy requires, not to be self-centered, to understand what others stand, think, and value, and use that understanding to guide action.”

Sailing provides a great opportunity to observe an interesting counter-example to the “follow the leader” strategy. The sailing boats that lead in performance usually copy the strategy of following the boats. If a trailing boat changes course, the leading boat will do the same. 

In fact, even when the trailing boat adopts an apparently inferior strategy, the leading boat will do so. Why? Because sailing is not the same as dancing in a ballroom, where it's useless to get close, only to win at the end. If you are ahead, the surest way to stay ahead is to see what others do and do what you do.

Obviously, you shouldn't gamble with these poker champions, but when should you gamble? Groucho Marx once said that he rejected any club that accepted him as a member. By the same token, you may be reluctant to accept bets offered by others. 

Even if you win an auction, you should be worried about it. Because the fact that you are the highest bidder means that others don't think the item is worth the price you paid for it. Winning an auction only to find yourself overbid is a phenomenon known as the winner's curse.


6. Competitive Strategy


Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors by Michael E. Porter

Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors by Michael E. Porter 

Porter is said to have planned to go out to work when he was in school, but one of his teachers discouraged him, believing that working in actual business would waste his talent. So, with his 3 great books. Porter is a major in Industrial Economics.

Speaking of this gossip, it shows two points. Porter has never been engaged in the actual work of enterprise management. His professional background is in industrial economics, and the research focus of industrial economics in that era (1970-1980) was monopoly and pricing.

Porter's genius lies in his use of the research results of economics to construct an analytical framework for analyzing and understanding the competitive business strategy of enterprises, which is very powerful, groundbreaking, and at the same time has obvious simplicity. 

So Porter's theory has become the favorite of consultants. Without this, how do attract clients? Of course, analysts also have tools like swot\pets\position\benchmarking.

But how do business operators and managers apply Porter's theory? In fact, it only provides a framework for analysis, and there is no way to actually apply it. 

For example, in Porter's low-cost strategy, the key is not whether the strategy is effective, but how to reduce costs as much as possible while maintaining the quality of products and services. 

And this is not something that can be solved by reading Potter's book. From the actual case of enterprises, Porter's theory has been born for nearly 30 years, but which great enterprise is built according to Porter's theory?

As a lover of strategic theory, you should read Porter's book, and as a business owner, it is good to read it, or not to read it. A theory is a theory, nothing more.


7. The Balanced Scorecard


The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton


The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton  

Here is the book by the recognized architects of the Balanced Scorecard that shows how managers can use this revolutionary tool to mobilize their people to fulfill the company's mission. 

More than just a measurement system, the Balanced Scorecard is a management system that can channel the energies, abilities, and specific knowledge held by people throughout the organization toward achieving long-term strategic goals.

Kaplan and Norton demonstrate how senior executives in industries such as banking, oil, insurance, and retailing are using the Balanced Scorecard both to guide current performance and to target future performance. 

They show how to use measures in four categories-financial performance, customer knowledge, internal business processes, and learning and growth to align individual, organizational, and cross-departmental initiatives and to identify entirely new processes for meeting customer and shareholder objectives.

The authors also reveal how to use the Balanced Scorecard as a robust learning system for testing, gaining feedback on, and updating the organization's strategy. Finally, they walk through the steps that managers in any company can use to build their own Balanced Scorecard.

The Balanced Scorecard provides the management system for companies to invest in long-term customers, employees, new product development, and systems rather than managing the bottom line to pump up short-term earnings. It will change the way you measure and manage your business.


8. The Strategy Book


The Strategy Book: How to think and act strategically to deliver outstanding results by Max Mckeown


The Strategy Book: How to Think and act strategically to deliver outstanding results by Max Mckeown 

"This book will help readers tackle the really important challenges they face both in developing strategies and putting them into action" Consulting Magazine Strategy is about shaping the future. 

Thinking strategically is what separates good managers and great leaders. Learn the fundamentals about how to create a winning strategy and lead your team to deliver it. 

From understanding what strategy can do for you, to creating a strategy and engaging others with strategy, this book offers practical guidance and expert tips. It is peppered with punchy, memorable examples from real leaders winning (and losing) with real-world strategies.   

Strategy is simple, but simple is complex. The Third Edition includes updated examples and a new set of practical future-focused tools including the Quick Strategy Canvas and the Big Picture. 

These will help any manager, regardless of experience, to better develop their inner strategic potential for outstanding results in our ever-changing world.

People who wanted to shape the future have created our present. With over 7 billion fellow humans sharing our planet, things are not going to slow down or get simpler. 

At the heart of the strategy is the mind of the individual strategist, and by nurturing your ability to see the big picture you can get better at adapting successfully. You can get better at shaping events to get to somewhere better. Using available means to desirable ends.

Expectations keep shifting, new competitors keep appearing, rules change and then change again, technologies disrupt, and then politics shake up the nature of the landscape in which you compete, work, and live. Being more strategic is about our thinking both competitors and limitations.

Strategy is not a solo sport. The Strategy Book focuses on how you can create powerful strategies with other people to deliver success together in a competitive world. 

It answers the following questions:
  • What do we know about strategy?
  • What can creative strategy do for you?
  • How can you create winning strategies?
  • How to think and act strategically?
  • How can you engage people with strategy?
  • How do you avoid pitfalls and screw-ups?
It can be read as a whole or you can dip into the easy-to-read, bite-size sections as and when you need to deal with a particular issue. The structure has been specially designed to make sections quick and easy to use – you’ll find yourself referring to them again and again.


9. Strategy Maps


Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton

Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton

A book that feels good. After reading it, I have a little more understanding of the Balanced Scorecard.

After that, I bought a few books about the Balanced Scorecard. I feel that the research on this technology is still in its infancy. Although it has applications, it still requires a certain amount of research and exploration to really implement it well.

The book is still relatively conceptual. Of course, there are still many examples. To effectively apply the content to daily work, still requires certain attainments and learning.

Strategy map, describing how the organization creates value, and the Balanced Scorecard as its specific operational level. The strategy map provides a visual framework that integrates the goals of the four levels of the enterprise into a balanced scorecard. 

Objectives and metrics for the operations management process, building superior supplier relationships and reducing the total cost of procuring goods and services/producing existing products and services for today's customers/delivering products to customers/managing operational and business risk.

Account management processes provide organizations with the ability to select, acquire, retain, and grow their business with target customers. 

High-level goals and metrics for the innovation process, identifying opportunities for new products and services/managing the R&D portfolio/designing and developing new products and services/and launching new products and services. 

Regulatory and social processes and goal setting have a huge impact on enhancing employee attractiveness, customer value propositions, and financial performance awards. 

Intangibles, human capital, information capital, and organizational capital (culture, leadership, alignment, teamwork) all have to match the strategy map. 

A strategy map is just a static representation of a strategy, used as a dynamic management tool, setting target values to add time and speed dimensions.

There are still some gains from reading this book, such as the book's analysis of intangible assets (human capital, information capital, and organizational capital, by the way, which also exposes the author's superficial understanding of these three things) and the "Strategy of Intangible Assets". readiness".


10. Corporate Strategy


Corporate Strategy: Tools for Analysis and Decision-Making by Phanish Puranam and Bart Vanneste


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Corporate Strategy: Tools for Analysis and Decision-Making by Phanish Puranam and Bart Vanneste 

Many companies are not single businesses but a collection of businesses with one or more levels of corporate management. Written for managers, advisors, and students aspiring to these roles, this book is a guide to decision-making in the domain of corporate strategy. 

It arms readers with research-based tools needed to make good corporate strategy decisions and to assess the soundness of the corporate strategy decisions of others. 

Readers will learn how to do the analysis for answering questions such as 'Should we pursue an alliance or an acquisition to grow?', 'How much should we integrate this acquisition?' and 'Should we divest this business?'. 

The book draws on the authors' wealth of research and teaching experience at INSEAD, London Business School, and University College London. 

A range of learning aids, including easy-to-comprehend examples, decision templates, and FAQs, are provided in the book and on a rich companion website.


11. The Hard Thing About Hard Things


The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz


The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz 

After reading the whole book, I reviewed the content of the whole book and found that I had misread the original intention of the book before, so I came to the following wrong evaluation that deviated from the author's purpose. 

This book should be a management book, and to be precise, it is entrepreneurship. management skills and details in the development process of a large-scale company. 

From this point of view, it is highly recommended that entrepreneurs whose company products are on the right track read this book. 

Although the domestic and foreign environments are different, most of the techniques solve common human problems and have little to do with the environment.

The text of the whole book is relatively simple and the content is relatively popular. In the book, the author of the first three chapters mainly tells about his personal entrepreneurial experience, which is very exciting and exciting. 

Especially for the hardships of the entrepreneurial process, and the descriptions and opinions of the biographical management books on the market, I very much agree and feel deeply. 

The author puts forward: "This book is not to teach entrepreneurs how to do the right thing, but to teach you how to recover from a dilapidated situation in the face of adversity." 

This sentence also summarizes the content of the back of the book very well, and the following chapters basically Each of the above is a chapter on a major theme, and each major theme gives its own advice and experience on smaller issues. 

The content of each article is very independent and self-contained. The conclusions of these articles are derived from the author's entrepreneurial experience, which is the story told in the first three chapters, so after reading the first three, you can read any topic at will without being affected by the order.

The author divides entrepreneurship into "prosperity" and "adversity". Different situations have different requirements for CEOs and different ways of dealing with problems. 

However, I personally think that it is not enough to divide entrepreneurial companies in this way because He doesn't make a good distinction between startups that have direction and those that don't. 

The experience in the book is mostly the difficulties encountered by companies that are moving towards their goals, but there is no suggestion for companies without direction. 

This is related to the author's personal experience. The company where the author works has basically not lost its direction. 

However, I personally think that for a start-up enterprise, the first thing to do is to create a product that meets market demand. 

Only with such a product can the company develop, compete in the market, and experience the difficulties and pains the author mentioned. , 

These difficulties and pains are not encountered by every entrepreneur, and not every entrepreneur can be fortunate enough to endure them. 

His troubles are troubles in the process of growing up, not to say that these troubles are easy to solve, but I have not encountered these troubles so far, so there is not much resonance.

     In addition, a large part of the content in the book belongs to human resources issues. I personally think that a large part of the content belongs to common sense issues in human resources, such as: whether to recruit employees of a friend's company, why we need one-on-one conversations, etc. 

Wait. If you want to learn this content, you can look at professional books on human resources, which are more thorough and have more skills than this one. 

Not only that, many of the human resources suggestions in the book, due to different national conditions and characteristics, many of them are difficult to follow and realize. If someone wants to practice, they must try to think dialectically.


12. Value Proposition Design


Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want by Alexander Osterwalder


Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want by Alexander Osterwalder 

I first learned about this book from "New Generation of Business Models". Value proposition design can be said to be a derivation of the business model canvas, but it no longer focuses on the abstract business model positioning but on a methodology on how to practice.

We all know that value is based on products and customers, but actually achieving product-market fit is an important challenge. 

I think the future of companies, especially Internet startups, will depend on how well they understand their customers and whether they agree with your value proposition. 

"Value Proposition Design" provides many paradigms and tools to help entrepreneurs gain insight into customers, how to get out of the office to understand customers' backgrounds, needs, and pain points through interaction with customers, and how to design value propositions that fit the market and customers, and how to integrate value Advocate for integration into a broader business model, and last and foremost is how to test these assumptions.

For a startup, product-market positioning is especially important. It is easy for founders to fall into their own vision and ignore the actual needs of customers. 

This is also one of the most important reasons for startup failure. As a founder, a customer-oriented product development process and framework are required to form a customer->product-oriented corporate culture in the enterprise. 

I believe that using the business model canvas as a strategic tool, the customer development process as the product design route, and agile development as the product development process can greatly reduce the business risk of start-ups and create products that delight and amaze customers.


13. Competing On Analytics


Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning; With a New Introduction by Thomas Davenport



Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning; With a New Introduction by Thomas Davenport 

In fact, this book comes from a paper by the author in "Harvard Business Week", because it is well received, So the author also pushed the boat out of this book. 

The most important readers of this book, as well as the readers with the most bibliography, should be practitioners of enterprise management software. 

Whether it is consulting or implementation, even pure software development engineers will be very rewarded.

  This book has almost become a must-read for CIOs in the United States. It was among the best-selling books in the business category in 2007. 

It describes a data-driven concept, in fact, the essence is fact-based decision-making and process improvement, rather than using some descriptive registration. 

This book indeed talks about organizational structure, business processes, and other management issues.

In fact, look closely
  1. This book was written in 2009. At that time, the competitiveness and marketing methods of j data analysis were far less flexible and huge databases than now, but the concepts mentioned by many authors in the book have also been verified. , it can be said that the author sees further than most people in the prediction of ideas and trends, which is also a kind of author's advocacy of "enterprise competitiveness under data analysis".
  2. In this book, I think the author hopes that the management personnel will pay more attention to it, so it is more for the people who are more acceptable to the management personnel, and there are very few introductions in the implementation and actual operation. Less, so far.
  3. Combining the above two points, in the words of high force, "The Tao has been made clear, and we will discuss it later in the surgery."


14. Strategy Mapping For Learning Organizations


Strategy Mapping for Learning Organizations: Building Agility into Your Balanced Scorecard by Phil Jones


Strategy Mapping for Learning Organizations: Building Agility into Your Balanced Scorecard by Phil Jones 

How can we ensure our strategy will succeed, especially in changing and uncertain times? 

The answer, as explained in "Strategy Mapping for Learning Organizations", is to become a more responsive organization - one that captures its strategy in strategy maps learns from that strategy, and can adapt to deliver results. 

For anyone involved in managing strategy and performance, applying the powerful strategy mapping techniques will move your balanced scorecard from an operational tool to one of strategy and change. 

It will help you capture, communicate, and manage your strategy more effectively. However, strategy can no longer be simply a top-down, annual process. It needs to be more iterative, emergent, and involving. Many agile organizations have adopted rolling plans and budgets. 

Bringing greater agility into the wider strategy and performance management processes requires the tools and techniques described in "Strategy Mapping for Learning Organizations". 

Phil Jones provides a detailed guide to developing, rolling out, and managing modern strategy maps and scorecards, building agility and learning. His book incorporates the latest strategic thinking and models. 

It places the balanced scorecard in a wider governance context that includes the management of risk and environmental and social responsibility. Fully illustrated with examples from many different organizations, this book will help you deliver your strategy better.


15. The New HR Analytics


The New HR Analytics: Predicting the Economic Value of Your Company's Human Capital Investments by Jac FITZ-ENZ


The New HR Analytics: Predicting the Economic Value of Your Company's Human Capital Investments by Jac FITZ-ENZ 

In his landmark book, "The ROI of Human Capital", Jac Fitz-ENZ presented a system of powerful metrics for quantifying the contributions of individual employees to a company's bottom line. 

"The New HR Analytics" is another such quantum leap, revealing how to predict the value of future human capital investments. Using Fitz-ENZ's proprietary analytic model, readers learn how to measure and evaluate past and current returns. 

By combining those results with focused business intelligence and applying the exclusive analytical tools in the book. 

Brimming with real-world examples and input from thirty top HR practitioners and thought leaders, this groundbreaking book ushers in a new era in human resources and human capital management.

How to assess the value of HR seems to be becoming a trend, but unfortunately, unlike finance, the value of assets can be accurately measured, but it is difficult for people.

This book generally provides some ideas and methods, but there is still a distance from practical application. For me, it's still a bit tiring to read. Most of the content is a discussion on a specific topic. It is more suitable for experts who have a certain understanding and practice of HR to read.


16. Making Strategy


Making Strategy: Mapping Out Strategic Success by Fran Ackermann  and Colin Eden



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Making Strategy: Mapping Out Strategic Success by Fran Ackermann  and Colin Eden

This book approaches strategy-making in a way that is designed to assist most organizations in developing strategies appropriate to their size, purpose, and resources. 

It provides a much-needed guide to the strategy-making process by elaborating the key concepts and theories of strategic management; illustrating through case vignettes the issues inherent in the process of strategy-making; and providing extensive and detailed practical guidelines on the methods, techniques, and tools employed in the case vignettes. 

Key themes explored are the crucial significance of political feasibility; the role of participation; emphasis on stakeholder management; thinking about alternative futures within the overall process of strategy-making; and using computer support for strategy-making, organizational learning, and strategy-delivery.


17. Beyond Performance Management


Beyond Performance Management by Jeremy Hope and Steve Player


Beyond Performance Management: Why, When, and How to Use 40 Tools and Best Practices for Superior Business Performance by Jeremy Hope and Steve Player

There’s a bewildering array of management tools out there. And they all promise to help you excel at the toughest parts of your job: defining your organization’s strategic direction, managing customers and costs, and boosting workforce performance.

But just 30 percent of these tools deliver as intended. Why? As Jeremy Hope and Steve Player reveal in Beyond Performance Management, while many tools are sound, in theory, they’re misused by most organizations. 

For example, executives buy and implement a tool without first asking, “What problem are we trying to solve?” And they use tools to command and control frontline teams, not empower them—a serious and costly mistake.

In this eminently useful, clear-eyed book, the authors critically review dozens of well-known management tools—from mission statements, balanced scorecards, and rolling forecasts to key performance indicators, Six Sigma, and performance appraisals. 

They explain how to select the right tools for your organization, how to implement them correctly, and how to extract maximum value from each.

Brimming with rigorous analysis and solid advice, Beyond Performance Management helps you swiftly gauge the value of each management tool, as well as navigate the increasingly crowded field of offerings—so the tools you select deliver fully on their promise.


18. Strategic Performance Management


Strategic Performance Management by Bernard Marr and Dina Gray


Strategic Performance Management by Bernard Marr and Dina Gray

This book is about strategic performance management for the Twenty-First Century organization. In a practical step-by-step approach, it navigates readers through the identification, measurement, and management of the strategic value drivers to enable superior performance. 

Using many real-life case examples this book outlines how organizations can visualize their value creation, design relevant and meaningful performance indicators to assess performance, and then use them to extract real management insights and improve everyday strategic decision-making as well as organizational learning.

A key focus of the book is the important issue of creating value from intangible assets. Much has been written about the importance of intangible assets such as knowledge, skills, relationships, culture, practices, routines, and intellectual property as levers for organizational success. However, little has been published that tells managers how to do that.

This book moves beyond just raising awareness and provides practical tools and templates, gathered from many extensive case studies with world-leading organizations.

The key issues the book addresses are:
  • How do we identify the strategic value drives, especially the intangibles, in our organizations?
  • How do we understand their strategic value using powerful mapping tools?
  • How do we then measure the business performance?
  • How do we use performance indicators to improve decision-making and organizational learning?
  • How do we align performance reviews and risk management with our strategy?
Well-grounded in theory and packed with case studies from around the world, this book will function as a guide for managers as well as a reference work for students and researchers. 

The tools described in this book are not only suitable for leading international corporations but have been designed to be equally appropriate for not-for-profit organizations, central and local government institutions, small and medium-sized businesses, and even departments and business units. 

The ideas, tools, and templates provided allow managers to apply them straight away and transform the way they manage strategic performance at all levels of their organization.


19. The Intelligent Company


The Intelligent Company: Five Steps to Success with Evidence-Based Management by Bernard Marr


The Intelligent Company: Five Steps to Success with Evidence-Based Management by Bernard Marr 

Today's most successful companies are Intelligent Companies that use the best available data to inform their decision-making. 

This is called Evidence-Based Management and is one of the fastest-growing business trends of our times. Intelligent Companies bring together tools such as Business Intelligence, Analytics, Key Performance Indicators, Balanced Scorecards, Management Reporting, and Strategic Decision Making to generate real competitive advantages.

As information and data volumes grow at explosive rates, the challenges of managing this information are turning into a losing battle for most companies and they end up drowning in data while thirsting for insights. This is made worse by the severe skills shortage in analytics, data presentation, and communication.

This latest book by best-selling management expert Bernard Marr will equip you with a set of powerful skills that are vital for successful managers now and in the future. Increase your market value by gaining essential skills that are in high demand but in short supply.

Loaded with practical step-by-step guidance, simple tools, and real-life examples of how leading organizations such as Google, Coca-Cola, Capital One, Saatchi & Saatchi, Tesco, Yahoo, as well as Government Departments and Agencies, have put the principles into practice.

The five steps to more intelligent decision-making are:
  • Step 1: More intelligent strategies – by identifying strategic priorities and agreeing on your real information needs
  • Step 2: More intelligent data – by creating relevant and meaningful performance indicators and qualitative management information linked back to your strategic information needs
  • Step 3: More intelligent insights – by using good evidence to test and prove ideas and by analyzing the data to gain robust and reliable insights
  • Step 4: More intelligent communication – by creating informative and engaging management information packs and dashboards that provide the essential information, packaged in an easy-to-read way
  • Step 5: More intelligent decision-making – by fostering an evidence-based culture of turning information into actionable knowledge and real decisions


20. The Innovator's Dilemma


The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business by Clayton M. Christensen


The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business by Clayton M. Christensen 

The logic of this book: Some large companies cannot successfully take advantage of disruptive technological changes, not because they are unconscious, have insufficient technical capabilities, do not develop relevant products, do not have suitable talents, and do not invest resources; but because: 
  1. The goal is still locked in the present There is a market, and new technologies are still used to meet the needs of existing users and compete for a share of the existing market, resulting in the illusion of "no market" for new products -- the market for disruptive new products is often different from existing products, and it is necessary to wait or excavation. (Similar to "category theory") 
  2. Involve new products within the framework of the existing growth rate -- the market for new products must be small in the initial stage, and it is not appropriate to use the old operating model or target the overall growth rate. 

Opinions put forward in the book

a. Establish a relatively independent team
  1. Moderate size - appropriate amount of resources invested, which can not only ensure development but also have a limited impact on the overall growth rate; 
  2. Team "autonomy" - the operation of disruptive products Different from the original product; 

b. Take equity/acquisition of small companies

How to run this new business: Data shows that forecasts for disruptive products are often inaccurate, in part because forecasts are based on existing conditions. 

The time and scale of disruptive products are unpredictable. So rather than "operation", it is more about "learning" and "trial and error". 

As for whether to be a pioneer company or a latecomer, the book points out that each has its advantages and disadvantages, and there is no conclusion.
"Disruptive technology should be framed as a marketing challenge, not a technological one."
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