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The Mind Of The Strategist: The Art of Japanese Business (平装)
by Kenichi Ohmae
| Category:
Japanese business culture, Strategy & Competition, Cross-cultural communication |
| Market price: ¥ 198.00
MSL price:
¥ 178.00
[ Shop incentives ]
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Standing out with balanced perspective on strategic questioning and thinking, this book is an essential reading for all managers. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 7 items |
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Journal of Marketing (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-05 00:00>
In many ways, Ohmae can be considered the modern reincarnation of a much older guru, Adam Smith. |
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Michael E. Porter, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, USA
<2007-11-05 00:00>
A fascinating window into the mind of one of Japan's premier strategists…full of ideas about how to improve strategic thinking.
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Elijah Chingosho (MSL quote), Kenya
<2007-11-05 00:00>
This is an interesting book that posits the idea that effective business strategies emanate from the state of mind. Kenichi Ohmae explains the thought processes behind Japan's successful strategic thinking. The author methodically and in simple English discusses what strategic thinking entails and concepts behind it. He reinforces the message with practical examples for its application.
The book shows that it is only through the effective integrating the three C's in a strategic triangle namely the Customer, Competitor, and Company can sustained competitive advantage exist.
Although the book is now 25 years since publication, the ideas it teaches are still applicable and relevant. However, it may benefit from a revision since, at the time it was written, it was fashionable to try to discover the secrets of Japanese success, but the aura and magic of Japan is no longer as it used to be. Anyway, the book does not say much about Japanese Business. The revision could just be to remove "The Art of Japanese Business" from the title. However, the author's main message that successful business strategies do not result from rigorous analysis but from a particular state of mind is still as valid as it ever was.
For those looking for a more modern book on Strategic thinking, I recommend the book "Strategic Thinking: A Step-By-Step Approach to Strategy, Second Edition" by Simon Wooten and Terry Horne. |
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M. McDonald (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-05 00:00>
Ohmae's signature work has always been on my list of things to read, but I never quite got around to it. Boy was I missing something. Ohmae's book is marketed as a look at japanease business, but it is really the Mind of a McKinsey strategist. I am not sure how Ohmae was able to publish this book, but it is a defacto methodology for formulating strategy and it exposes the key tools and frameworks used by McKinsey.
The book is extremely well written and conversational in tone making complex ideas seem straight forward - not simple but certainly understandable.
The book covers all aspects of stragtegy from how you shape the problem, conduct the analysis and make decisions. This is a must read for all general managers particularly if your company is hiring outside consultants to do stratgegy.
Now one might think that a book written more than 20 years ago would be outdated and less relevant. This is definately not the case, by focusing on the process, tools and how you apply them Ohmae has written a timeless book that stands up well in the pre and post internet world.
So this is highly recommended, in fact most highly recommended. |
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B.Sudhakar Shenoy (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-05 00:00>
Last week I received an identical request from two sources to recommend a good book on business strategy. One is a first year MBA student and another a senior executive in a large multinational. Without hesitation, I recommended this book.
Strategy has been a subject matter of interest to Business and Military than to any other profession. In both these cases it is a about doing something differently to gain advantage over the adversary either in the battlefield or in the marketplace. Strategy is not just a piece of paper or a corporate manual but a state of the mind to win against all odds. So many books and theories have been written on this subject and still it continues to be a topic that cannot be defined as an exact science. If there is one topic that can be listed as the most important for any MBA program, undoubtedly it is Business Strategy.
Another reason for revisiting this book is that in the last decade, we have been overloaded with concepts of digitization and technology as the main drivers of business. We have seen technologies that are excellent but have failed miserably in the marketplace. Technocrats have failed to convert bits and bytes into bucks. In the quest for technical excellence, strategy has taken a back seat. We need to fill this vacuum of strategic thinking.
But then the problem is to have a strategy to understand and apply this vital topic ! It is here that this book is one among the best I have come across till date.
Strategy is a combination of elastic thinking and application of analytical method. Omahe explains this well and warns that strategy is not just somebody's spark of genius but a process that needs rigorous effort and continuos refinement. He brings in the framework of listing the concrete phenomena, grouping, abstraction and determination of approach that are actionable and practical. The three Cs' of the strategic triangle - Corporation, Customer and Competitor are at the core of this book. Each C is discussed in detail with excellent illustrations and case studies.
If you need to read an executive summary, I recommend Chapter 7 - The Secret of Strategic Vision. In this chapter one paragraph in my opinion contains the essence of strategic thinking.
"Strategic thinking in business must break out of the limited scope of vision that entraps deer on the highway. It must be backed by the daily use of imagination and by constant training in logical thought process. Success must be summoned; it will not come unbidden and unplanned. Top management and its corporate planners cannot base their day-to-day work on blind optimism and apply strategic thinking only when confronted by unexpected obstacles. They must develop the habit of thinking strategically, and must do it as a matter of course. Ideally, they must approach it with real enthusiasm as a stimulating mental exercise."
The book was first published in 1982. Hence some of the assumptions on key economic trends under "Modern Strategic Realities" have undergone major corrections. However, the framework for strategic thinking still holds good. Though the examples are mostly from Japanese companies, Omahe concludes the book by pointing out that " Creativity, mental productivity and the power of strategic insight know no national boundaries. Fortunately for all of us, they are universal." |
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Donald Mitchell (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-05 00:00>
I have over 30 years of experience with strategic thinking as a consultant and planner. I constantly find that people have totally different concepts of what strategy is all about. Each tends to be either too focused in one area, or incomplete in some aspects. As a result, people logically arrive at some pretty bad strategic conclusions. Typically, this involves a strategy that the organization cannot execute well or which the competitors will quickly negate.
What I like about this simple book is that it nicely summarizes the case for a balanced perspective of customer, competitor and your own company. Although most American companies will believe that they do this, the American approach is much more superficial and incomplete than the Japanese one. For example, if a Japanese company wants to add a new product, the evaluation looks heavily at how well the customer will be able to use the product and how effectively the company will be able to provide it in the context of probable competitive offerings. An American analysis will feature financial analysis of a forecast that is often based on little more than spreadsheet doodling.
The weakness of the Japanese model is that they typically look too little at the business environment (notice how often they buy American businesses and properties at the top of the market for inflated prices), and are relatively insensitive to financial implications. In fast moving technology markets, the Japanese consensus-building process also tends to slow down time to market.
Clearly, there is no perfect model for strategic thinking that fits all situations. A major weakness of many efforts is to assume that the future can be precisely forecast. That is patently wrong. Typically, the relative importance of the elements considered needs to be adjusted to fit the circumstnace. That seems to be an art rather than a science at this point. Although this book has its limitations (as suggested above), it is a valuable perspective on strategy thinking that will be helpful to most American business people if they think about the concepts in a more thorough way.
To balance the perspective here, I suggest you also read Profit Patterns to get a sense of how circumstances play a role in profitability.
Good thinking! May this book help you overcome any stalled thinking you have about not doing your home work in thinking about outperforming competitors to provide benefits that matter a lot to customers. |
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Ali Alwattari (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-05 00:00>
The way you think in the lab and the office really can directly impact innovation. Even though this book was written about business, I have learned how to reapply its lessons to innovation - specifically Kenichi helps to define and measure success and define the "deliverables" or "outputs" that innovation has to produce in order to become a reality. Kenichi has a clear description of the biggest factors (the 3 C's) impacting your success in business - the company, the competition,and the customer/consumer. If you look at innovation in this context, Kenichi is actually also helping us innovators define "what success looks like": the product/technology the company makes, how technically different or better it is than competitive benchmarks or alternatives in the marketplace, and whether conusmers like it and want it. On the projects I have worked on, advised others on, or simply observed the ones that make consistently hit at least all 3 of these deliverables and often additional deliverables to. Those that fall short of all 3 consistently fail. Hope this helps scientists, managers, entrepreneurs, and anyone with a creative or problem solving mind. |
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1 Total 1 pages 7 items |
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