Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This provocative book by a Japanese executive shows that the keys to business success in the West are the proven techniques of the Far East successful strategic planning & its conservative execution. Strategy in the classic military sense is deploying your forces to achieve a competitive advantage. Concentrating on the thought processes behind Japan's successful strategic thinking, this book describes what strategic thinking is & presents concepts & concrete examples for its application. Only by integrating the three C's in a strategic triangle Customer, Competitor, & Company can sustained competitive advantage exist. Business managers at all levels can benefit from this 'how to think about it' guide by developing profitable & creative strategies.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (p. 1)
• Part 1 The Art of Strategic Thinking (p. 9)
• 1. Analysis: The Starting Point (p. 11)
• 2. Four Routes to Strategic Advantage (p. 36)
• 3. Focusing on Key Factors (p. 42)
• 4. Building on Relative Superiority (p. 50)
• 5. Pursuing Aggressive Initiatives (p. 57)
• 6. Exploiting Strategic Degrees of Freedom (p. 62)
• 7. The Secret of Strategic Vision (p. 76)
• Part 2 Building Successful Strategies (p. 89)
• 8. The Strategic Triangle (p. 91)
• 9. Customer-Based Strategies (p. 99)
• 10. Corporate-Based Strategies (p. 110)
• 11. Competitor-Based Strategies (p. 126)
• 12. Corporate Strategy (p. 136)
• Part 3 Modern Strategic Realities (p. 163)
• 13. Understanding the Economic Environment (p. 165)
• 14. Coping with Strategic Change (p. 189)
• 15. Japan: Myths and Realities (p. 215)
• 16. Foresighted Decision Making (p. 242)
• 17. A Strategic Success Formula? (p. 269)
• Index (p. 279)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Kirkus Book Review

Samurai-style business strategies (he says it himself)--with some striking marketplace applications. Ohmae is an MIT-trained Japanese management guru, head of the Tokyo office of McKinsey & Co., and the book is adapted from a Japanese original; it has the requisite recipe-for-success--""the combination of analytical method and mental elasticity that I call strategic thinking""--but it rests, intrinsically and more interestingly, on two precepts: gaining competitive superiority (lacking competition, you need improvements not strategy) and putting customer interests first. (Corporate freebooters who run myriad businesses ""very much alike""--the prewar Japanese zaibatsu, current US conglomerates--seldom ""sustain a profitable leadership position."") In Part I, ""The Art of Strategic Thinking,"" Ohmae explains how to identify the key factors for success in each industry--by dissecting the market, by discovering what distinguishes winners from losers; and how to build on relative superority (quality, service), or challenge prevailing assumptions (an electric blanket to sleep on, a camera with a built-in flash), or exploit ""strategic degrees of freedom"" (instead of road-bound cars, bucking public transport, ""helicopterlike vehicles""?). Part II, ""Building Successful Strategies,"" focuses on ""the three C's"": the customer, the corporation, the competition. Studying ""the fine shades of consumer wants"" can lead to the introduction of new products (in Japan, costly-but-clean electric space heaters, in lieu of cheap-but-dirty kerosene) or the reallocation of resources (say, from group to individual sales). As for the corporation, it ""does not have to have a clear lead in every function from sourcing to servicing. If it can gain a decisive edge in one key function, it will eventually be able to pull ahead. . . in other functions"": witness the overall Japanese advance from an edge in production technology, in the '60s, to preeminence in quality control and product design, to today's leadership in basic research and direct marketing. (Or, read how the US instant-film competition could be wiped out--by ""really speedy printing service."") There is much, much more--on international trends, on Japanese hyperdynamism, on the needful ""will to cope with criticism, hostility, and even derision."" Ohmae, an eclectic in the Peter Drucker vein, is instructive on every level. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Kenichi Ohmae--a business strategist of international renown--provides a compelling account of the reasons why certain companies dominate the global business arena. The book is packed with keen insights into their business thinking processes and planning techniques, why they work, and how companies can benefit from focusing on the three essential elements of any strategic plan: company, customer, and competition.
Replete with numerous illustrative case histories of strategic thinking in action, Ohmae's classic work continues to inspire managers at all levels to new heights of bold, imaginative strategic thinking.