Strategy

Selected as a Financial Times Best Book of 2013

In Strategy: A History, Sir Lawrence Freedman, one of the world's leading authorities on war and international politics, captures the vast history of strategic thinking, in a consistently engaging and insightful account of how strategy came to pervade every aspect of our lives.

The range of Freedman's narrative is extraordinary, moving from the surprisingly advanced strategy practiced in primate groups, to the opposing strategies of Achilles and Odysseus in The Iliad, the strategic advice of Sun Tzu and Machiavelli, the great military innovations of Baron Henri de Jomini and Carl von Clausewitz, the grounding of revolutionary strategy in class struggles by Marx, the insights into corporate strategy found in Peter Drucker and Alfred Sloan, and the contributions of the leading social scientists working on strategy today. The core issue at the heart of strategy, the author notes, is whether it is possible to manipulate and shape our environment rather than simply become the victim of forces beyond one's control. Time and again, Freedman demonstrates that the inherent unpredictability of this environment-subject to chance events, the efforts of opponents, the missteps of friends-provides strategy with its challenge and its drama. Armies or corporations or nations rarely move from one predictable state of affairs to another, but instead feel their way through a series of states, each one not quite what was anticipated, requiring a reappraisal of the original strategy, including its ultimate objective. Thus the picture of strategy that emerges in this book is one that is fluid and flexible, governed by the starting point, not the end point.

A brilliant overview of the most prominent strategic theories in history, from David's use of deception against Goliath, to the modern use of game theory in economics, this masterful volume sums up a lifetime of reflection on strategy.

Training within Industry (TWI) program and describes how it can influence and alter one’s understanding of work standardization. Work standardization is the key to eliminating human errors from manufacturing and service processes. Work standardization is not just the creation of job instructions―it is a comprehensive approach in which employees are formally trained and their skills in the area of work improvement are developed by kaizen sessions. With poor instructions, though, the effectiveness of these two key activities in the work standardization process is practically impossible to achieve.

The book introduces you to 41 rules for standard work instruction (SWI) preparation. Following these rules will ensure that the instructions in your company are ideally suited to train operators and improve work. The author developed these rules based on his professional experience and practice within the TWI program in more than 120 manufacturing and service enterprises, while creating thousands of SWIs. These rules are a clear set of signposts that will help you develop a correct SWI on the first attempt without any unnecessary correction of errors. The quality of SWIs significantly affects how on-the-job training sessions are run, as well as how work analysis with respect to improvement is conducted.

Are you just playing—or playing to win?Strategy is not complex. But it is hard. It’s hard because it forces people and organizations to make specific choices about their future—something that doesn’t happen in most companies.Now two of today’s best-known business thinkers get to the heart of...

“I am hard pressed to think of another book that can match the combination of practical insights and reading enjoyment.”―Steven Levitt Game theory means rigorous strategic thinking. It’s the art of anticipating your opponent’s next moves, knowing full well that your rival is trying to do t...

An account of the rise and fall of Enron, written by award-winning Fortune investigative reporters, draws on a wide range of sources while revealing the contributions of lesser-known participants in the scandal. 400,000 first printing. First serial, Fortune.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERIf you want to build a better future, you must believe in secrets.The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singul...