Chapter 1: What is Business Strategy?.- Chapter 2: Strategy Making and Implementing.-Chapter 3: The I/O Model.- Chapter 4: The Resource - Based View.- Chapter 5: The Third Leg of Strategy.- Chapter 6: Blue Ocean versus Red Ocean
Concluding Thoughts.
Lourdesamy Iruthayasamy is President/Chief Executive of Asia College of Technology. He has been involved in education for more than 50 years. He received his professional teaching certification in England, from the University of Birmingham. Subsequently, he completed his degree at the University of Malaya in 1963 and his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh in 1972. He was Education Officer in the Malaysian Ministry of Education for several years, his last appointment being Deputy Chief Education Officer of Penang. Dr. Lourdesamy joined the University of Malaya (UM) after his Ph.D. as a lecturer in the Faculty of Economics and Administration. He left UM to become a consultant to various national and international bodies, including the World Bank. Subsequently, he returned to education—this time to private education—as Director of Vanto Academy. Then, in PJ Community College, which he founded, he was a pioneer in bringing American education to Malaysia. He went on to establish Pacific Institute of Technology, which operates today as Asia College of Technology.
This book cuts through the strategy verbiage to get to the fundamentals of business strategy—its meaning, formulation, and implementation. Challenges to understanding strategy are examined, including institutions and national culture. Strategy theories are not just explained but assessed in terms of their validity, limitations, and applicability across countries, cultures, and organisations. The thinking and works of major strategists like Ohmae, Mintzberg, Porter, Rumelt, Barney, Prahalad, Hamel, Peng, Kim, and Mauborgne are reviewed in the context of strategic thinking, strategy formulation, and strategy implementation. The confusion and consensus in strategy are highlighted.
While not prescriptive in terms of telling the corporate leader how to formulate strategy, for there is no one best strategy or one best way to formulate strategy, the book does identify broad approaches to corporate strategy formulation and implementation and the underlying principles. To this extent, corporate leaders and students and instructors of business and management will find the book informative and instructive.