Business Strategy: A Guide to Effective Decision-Making

by Jeremy Kourdi

Powerful new forces are reshaping the business world and the role of the manager in making effective strategic choices is increasingly demanding. This book shows today's manager how to create and sustain a dynamic, profitable business with techniques to support effective decisions. It evaluates the tools, tactics, and techniques for making profit-boosting decisions. Moreover, it contains insights into effective strategic decisions--what worked and why, what failed and why.

Genres: Business, Management, Nonfiction, Business Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Economics

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Jeremy Kourdi is a freelance writer and business consultant, and has worked extensively in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He is the author of eight business books and many articles. Until August 2001 he was Senior Vice President with the Economist Group, and continues to do consultancy work with them. Other clients include Apter International, IMD in Lausanne and Strathclyde University Graduate Business School.

Reviews

[Colin]

Occasional top-up of my business studies course at the OU. I can't pretend it was enthraling but it makes me feel like it's still fresh in my head.

[Shuan]

Good overview of what’s business strategy

Many good points and coverage of the entire concept. Makes me want to learn even more about business strategy. But not an enjoyable read. Felt like reading somebody’s flashcards.

[Sharon Ravindran]

The book is an excellent choice if you want to understand the importance of strategy and what questions one should consider when making a big strategic decision. The cases presented in the book allows the reader to connect theory to real-life examples.

[Dean Marquis]

This is is a very comprehensive manuscript, maybe a bit too comprehensive. The Last Chapter, ( Making Strategic Decisions) should in my humble opinion be the First Chapter. An example of a stakeholder map would have been helpful. I think A Summary at the back with a Flow Chart demonstrating the Decision Making Process would have been a good idea.

[Travis Buell]

The is the most comprehensive book I’ve read on strategy & execution. It summarizes the work of numerous other experts in various business fields.

[Palash Kulshrestha]

diluted concoction of points from multiple books and sources. not as concentrated at michael e porter.

[Jeff Pavlick]

Well constructed; however, if one has read a few books about business, you’ll already be incredibly familiar with 95% of this book.

[Vincent]

This is an excellent introduction to strategic thinking, ideal for both entrepreneurs and managers. It distills complex concepts into practical insights, using real-world examples to illustrate key principles. This book serves as a valuable resource for anyone seeking to understand and implement sound business strategies.

[Seemy]

It’s not that this book is necessarily bad - but it was more a textbook vs book. Hence the low rating. Not what I’d expect from a book - so didn’t really enjoy it even if ok material

While useful - seemed more like reference material - case studies and especially other book references were useful for deeper specific business strategy learning — but other than that it reminded me learning about business in college and university — just boring and fluff at times too

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[KC]

**I read this for school, so my review may not be an accurate reflection of your experience.**

I had read previous Economist publishings and genuinely enjoyed them, however, this one was a poor choice. As mentioned, I read this for a course at college since or was our textbook, but it was not written to general business people. I often encountered entire chapters which had little to no applicable lessons for someone who isn't in a higher up position within a business.
If you were an entrepreneur or an executive with influencing power, the book may be more valuable.
There were definitely some valuable nuggets of knowledge for general practices, and advice to think upon, but I was definitely struggling to find some of the applications of the lessons from the book of value to a non-executive business person.
3 stars, granted that I was not the targeted audience.

[Cheyanne Lee]

Rather than being a guide to effective decision making (as per the title), the book goes out of its way to be as comprehensive as possible. This book by no means confers any skills or additional knowledge on how to make decisions under uncertainty, with most of its statements very generic and applicable to many situations. The manager reading this in question will inevitably have to figure it out himself (no silver bullet here sorry).

It does however, have its own merits. The comprehensiveness of the book means that it is useful as a checklist whenever the manager reading this finds himself/herself in a spot, using the book as a reference guide by flipping to the relevant section when necessary.

[L]

A comprehensive guide to strategy with many classic ideas. I would have rated this a 4 if it weren't for the outdated facts for a 2015 book. There wasa case for "hotmail" campaign for a free email address and 2 case studies about the success of Sears. None of the info is very in depth so it's more of an exploratory book.

[Ben]

Excellent quick reference guide

[Ruben Yesin]

Toolkit

It is a guide of stategy tools that guide you due to develop it but it also presents pitfalls or possible bias.

[yyyy]

Very helpful in understanding the basic business strategies.

[Dennis Chow]

A comprehensive overview of business operations and business dynamics. Great book!