From time to time I will provide some book recommendations. I will rate the books using amazon's scale of one to five stars. I will mostly rate books four (very good) or five stars (masterpiece), because there is a selection bias; I will mainly highlight books that I think you should read. I am going to put links to amazon on my book recommendations.
First out is a new book by Lafley (former CEO P&G) and Martin (former dean Rotman Business School) called Playing to Win, which I am contrasting with Porter's classic Competitive Strategy. Both books focus on the most important component of strategy; namely business-unit strategy. The most striking observation is how little has changed in terms of content between 1980 and 2013, but how much has changed in terms of the look and feel of a business book.
Competitive Strategy. Porter's book is incredibly dense and totally lacks verbosity. In one or two chapters, he will treat material that today would be extended into a whole book. It is impossible to read Porter's book on an airplane; you have to read it in your study. In contrast, the Lafler & Martin book is clearly a designed product of 2013. It covers much less materiel, the language is easier, difficult sections are put in an appendix, and there are lots of examples. Personally, I prefer the denser style, but it has probably been proven by a market researcher that the modern style sells more.
Playing to Win. In terms of content, Lafler & Martin are taking some ideas from the book by Porter and updating them. One such idea is that there is only room for one company with a low cost strategy in any given industry. If a company focuses on low cost as a strategy, it must ensure that it has the lowest cost. Otherwise it will encounter a very inhospitable environment. What I find comforting with Lafler & Martin is that so many ideas in Porter have been vindicated. Well, if they actually would provide more details their argument would be stronger. In much of the modern, trendy business strategy literature, Porter's work is seen as being obsolete. Lafler & Martin does not try to invent something novel for its own sake; they just review what they consider useful practices. And if it is good enough for P&G maybe it is good enough for everyone!
Recommendation. Anyone who is serious about business strategy, should have Porter's book on his shelf. It is an absolute classic that deserves rereading. Porter has one chapter on technological change and that is still interesting material. It is not the definitive reading on that particular subject but still insightful. Porter also has one chapter of generalised features of industries when they mature. This is a very insightful chapter and is totally relevant today. In Porter you find all his knowledge and thinking thrown in; that makes to book incredibly rich and useful. You should also by Lafler & Martin for the modern streamlined version of strategy as practised by a leading multinational company.
Porter's book gets five stars (masterpiece) and Lafler & Martin gets four stars (very good). Buy both, but if you only buy one, let my earlier comment on the style of the books guide you.
No comments:
Post a Comment