Books I had reading

1.   Innovator's Solution

From Publishers Weekly
Christensen (The Innovator's Dilemma) analyzes the strategies that allow corporations to successfully grow new businesses and outpace the other players in the marketplace. Christensen's earlier book examined how focusing on profits can destroy even well-run corporations, while this book focuses on companies expanding by being "disruptors" who are able to outpace their entrenched competition. The authors (Christensen is a professor at Harvard Business School and Raynor, a director at Deloitte Research) examine the nine business decisions integral to growth, including product development, organizational structure, financing and key customer base. They cite such companies as IBM, AT&T, Sony, Microsoft and others to illustrate their points. Generally, the writing is clear and specific. For example, in discussing whether a company has the resources necessary for growth, the authors say, "In order to be confident that managers have developed the skills required to succeed at a new assignment, one should examine the sorts of problems they have wrestled with in the past. It is not as important that managers have succeeded with the problem as it is for them to have wrestled with it and developed the skills and intuition for how to meet the challenge successfully the next time around"; they then provide a real-life example of a software company. Similar important strategies give readers insights that they can use in their own workplaces. People looking for quick fixes may find the charts, diagrams and extensive footnotes daunting, but readers familiar with more technical business management tomes will find this one both stimulating and beneficial.

The following list summarizes the questions addressed in the book.

·        Chapter 1: The Growth Imperative   (Listen to Chapter 1 in mp3 format)

·        Chapter 2: How can we beat our most powerful competitors? What strategies will result in the competitors killing us, and what courses of action could actually give us the upper hand?

·        Chapter 3: What products should we develop? Which improvements over previous products will customers enthusiastically reward with premium prices, and which will they greet with indifference?

·        Chapter 4: Which initial customers will constitute the most viable foundation upon which to build a successful business?

·        Chapter 5: Which activities required to design, produce, sell, and distribute our product should our company do internally, and which should we rely upon our partners and suppliers to provide?

·        Chapter 6: How can we be sure that we maintain strong competitive advantages that yield attractive profits? How can we tell when commoditization is going to occur, and what can we do to keep earning attractive returns?

·        Chapter 7: What is the best organizational structure for this venture? What organizational unit(s) and which managers should contribute to and be responsible for its success?

·        Chapter 8: How do we get the details of a winning strategy right? When is flexibility important, and when will flexibility cause us to fail?

·        Chapter 9: Whose investment capital will help us succeed, and whose capital might be the kiss of death? What sources of money will help us most at different stages of our development?

·        Chapter 10: What role should the CEO play in sustaining the growth of the business? When should CEOs keep their hands off the new business, and when should they become involved?

(Source: The Innovator’s Solution, Harvard Business School Press, 2003)

2.       Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant

BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY provides a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant. In this frame-changing book, Kim and Mauborgne present a proven analytical framework and the tools for successfully creating and capturing blue oceans. Examining a wide range of strategic moves across a host of industries, BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY highlights the six principles that every company can use to successfully formulate and execute blue ocean strategies. The six principles show how to reconstruct market boundaries, focus on the big picture, reach beyond existing demand, get the strategic sequence right, overcome organizational hurdles, and build execution into strategy. Upending traditional thinking about strategy, this landmark book charts a bold new path to winning the future.

       (Source: Blue Ocean Strategy, Harvard Business School Press, 2005)

3.         The Toyota Way : 14 Management Principles From The World's Greatest Manufacturer

Book Description (Listen to Principle 1 in mp3 format)
How to speed up business processes, improve quality, and cut costs in any industry In factories around the world, Toyota consistently makes the highest-quality cars with the fewest defects of any competing manufacturer, while using fewer man-hours, less on-hand inventory, and half the floor space of its competitors. The Toyota Way is the first book for a general audience that explains the management principles and business philosophy behind Toyota's worldwide reputation for quality and reliability. Complete with profiles of organizations that have successfully adopted Toyota's principles, this book shows managers in every industry how to improve business processes by: Eliminating wasted time and resources Building quality into workplace systems Finding low-cost but reliable alternatives to expensive new technology Producing in small quantities Turning every employee into a qualitycontrol inspector

             (Source: The Toyota Way, Mcgraw-Hill, 2005)

4.         The 8th Habit : From Effectiveness to Greatness

Being effective as individuals and organizations is no longer merely an option -- survival in today's world requires it. But in order to thrive, innovate, excel, and lead in what Covey calls the new Knowledge Worker Age, we must build on and move beyond effectiveness. The call of this new era in human history is for greatness; it's for fulfillment, passionate execution, and significant contribution. Accessing the higher levels of human genius and motivation in today's new reality requires a sea change in thinking: a new mind-set, a new skill-set, a new tool-set -- in short, a whole new habit. The crucial challenge of our world today is this: to find our voice and inspire others to find theirs. It is what Covey calls the 8th Habit.

Books I am reading

1.         The Project Management Tool Kit : 100 Tips and Techniques for Getting the Job Done Right

Based on approaches used by successful project managers in many fields, this guide offers step-by-step methodologies for managing every conceivable project step, from cost estimating and budgeting, to quality assurance and control, and more.

2.         Project Risk Management Guidelines: Managing Risk in Large Projects and Complex Procurements

This book describes philosophies, principles, practices and techniques for managing risk in projects and procurements, with a particular focus on complex or large-scale activities. The authors cover the basics of risk management in the context of project management, and outline a step-by-step approach. They then extend this approach into specialised areas of procurement (including tender evaluation, outsourcing and Public-Private Partnerships), introducing technical risk assessment tools and processes for environmental risk management. Finally they consider quantitative methods and the way they can be used in large projects. International case studies are included throughout.

Read excerpt chapter

3.         Creating and dominating new markets

• the definition of a new market;
• important resources you need to cerate and dominate new markets;
• the role of customers in creating new markets;
• what new markets are available;
• different strategies to manage the risk; and
• how to dominate new markets once you have created them.

4.         Marketing Genius

Marketing Genius explores the attributes of genius, and how the intelligence of Einstein, the creativity of Picasso and success of Buffett can be applied to the marketing challenges of today.

The intelligence of a marketing genius

Albert Einstein was a genius, redefining the laws of physics not through his rigorous mathematical derivations, which only resulted in many pages of complex algebra, but through hypothesis and creativity that imagined “what if” and then used his numeric skills to prove that E=mc2.

The creativity of a marketing genius

Pablo Picasso was a genius, challenging the impressionist conventions of his time. Having patiently absorbed the work of Manet and Toulouse-Lautrec, he combined his Spanish passion and visual talents to define the new art form of Cubism, and become a rare legend in his own lifetime.