Binding: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Amazon Remainders Account
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: 2005-08-18
Publisher: Amazon Remainders Account
Studio: Amazon Remainders Account

Since 1980, Michael Porter’s classic Competitive Strategy has provided the methodology that most big companies use for strategic analysis. But now, distinguished Columbia Business School professor Bruce Greenwald offers a bold new theory of competition—a theory that is far simpler than Porter’s and much easier for strategic planners to apply in the real world.

Porter identified a complex five-force model for studying competition in any market. But Greenwald argues that there is only one essential factor in determining competitive advantages: how easy it is for competitors to enter or expand in a given market. If a company can erect strong barriers to entry—through customer captivity, lower production costs, or economies of scale—it can manage these advantages, anticipate competitors’ moves, or achieve stability through bargaining and cooperation.

Greenwald draws on game theory to explain what you should do if barriers to entry are strong, weak, or nonexistent. He covers a wide range of examples, from retail to telecommunications to auction houses. And his lessons can be applied whether your business is dominated by a single huge player, a handful of roughly equal players, or no one at all.

Competition Demystified will give executives and strategic planners an indispensable new way to exploit competitive advantage and achieve exceptional profits. It is destined to become a management classic.

Customer Rating:
Summary: A fresh, clear, practical, and compelling approach to understanding the substance of Corporate Strategy
Comment: Every business student studies Corporate Strategy at one point or another. There are a huge number of books, articles, and prayers associated with this subject. Some classes become so complex that students sink from the weight of detail. Other classes are so superficial that the student walks away with what amounts to one of those tiny Swiss Army Knives with a blade, scissors, nail file, toothpick, and tweezers. Good luck with that!

If you are one of those that wants to get a handle on Corporate Strategy in a clear and usable way, this terrific book is for you. Bruce Greenwald teaches a very popular course on the subject at the Columbia Business School and offers this book to business practitioners and students alike. My own view is that he has given us a real gift. It isn't that I reject Porter, in fact I am a huge fan, but this gives us another approach to the subject and its complexities.

The book has 18 well organized chapters. If you have had a course on strategy you will recognize the topics and the progression. However, this book handles these topics in such insightful ways that you will find yourself nodding your head and seeing something familiar but for the first time. By that I mean, you will see something you already know with fresh and deeper insight so that it becomes new and more useful to you.

I also like the way Greewald (and Judd Kahn) use the examples from the business world. They aren't the typical b-school studies written to teach some key points. Sure, the stories provided here are used to illustrate specific points, but their real world complexities are shown and the ups and downs of the companies (see the story on Compaq, for example) are frankly shown. I enjoy that because too many books use the state of companies near the date of their publication to illustrate good or bad companies and managers. In fact, all companies have their ups and downs. Yes, bad executive management can destroy a company, but a company can have a great CEO and a good strategy and still have something go against them that puts real pressure on the company and its model.

The authors also use charts, tables, and graphs very effectively to make their points more clear rather than as eye candy. Too many texts insist on more graphics than necessary to hold the interest of students. For me, those books are cluttered. Here, the graphics add to the information we get from the text.

I think this is a book every business person will want on their shelf and will refer to again and again. The stories will stick in your memory and serve as exemplars or cautionary tales (or both).

Recommended!

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

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Customer Rating:
Summary: review
Comment: This book is great, detailed qualitative analysis regarding case studies of today's large organizations. This book sheds light on the authors Value Investing book (released later) relating special attention to his theories on quantitative analysis based on Columbia Business School theories. This is like a George Harrison album adding the Graham and Buffet books being the full on Beatle collection.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: An excellent and interesting book
Comment: I bought this book after seeing that it was one of two textbooks for Columbia University's Security Analysis course. (The other textbook is the 1988 edition of Security Analysis.) Apparently the author of Competition Demystified, Bruce Greenwald, used to teach the class. The course readings from this book were pages 1-77, 160-181, 220-238, and 322-363.

The book is primarily about how investors can identify, and how businesses can establish & defend, a sustainable competitive advantage (i.e. a wide economic moat). Greenwald and Kahn obviously come from the Graham/Buffett style of investing.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Good opening, followed by boring "already knew" business examples
Comment: Reading the begining of this book I was totally blown away by this book. It was intresting to read about the concept of barriers of entry and local dominance that the writers has their own thoughts about. This is new stuff (diffrent from Micahel Porter) but not enough to write a whole book. So what is followed is already famous examples of competitive wars between famous companies that has taken place. The writers try to prove their theories but in reality, I dont buy it. Wanna learn more about strategy, go for the military books. Or go for Co-ompetition, thats a better book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A guide to becoming a strategist
Comment: My two key takeaways from reading Greenwald's well-argued and counterintuitive premise are:
1. There are but a few fundamental sources of competitive advantage
2. Most companies can tap these sources at a local level (not a national or international level)

These show that the front-line manager - the regional coordinator of retail chain or the country manager of service firm - has the power (and the obligation) to pursue local competitive advantages. Greenwald provides a simple, intuitive method for helping such "front-line strategists" seek out a competitive edge.

I recommend this highly for anyone who aspires to be a strategist.

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