The Boston Consulting Group on Strategy: Classic Concepts and New Perspectives

by Carl W. Stern (Editor), Michael S. Deimler (Editor)

A collection of the best thinking from one of the most innovative management consulting firms in the world For more than forty years, The Boston Consulting Group has been shaping strategic thinking in business. The Boston Consulting Group on Strategy offers a broad and up-to-date selection of the firm's best ideas on strategy with fresh ideas, insights, and practical lessons for managers, executives, and entrepreneurs in every industry. Here's a sampling of the provocative thinking you'll find "You have to be the scientist of your own life and be astonished four what is, what always has been, what once was, and what could be." "The majority of products in most companies are cash traps . . . .[They] are not only worthless, but a perpetual drain on corporate resources." "Use more debt than your competition or get out of the business." "When information flows freely, reputation, more than reciprocity,becomes the basis for trust." "As a strategic weapon, time is the equivalent of money, productivity,quality, even innovation." "When brands become business systems, brand management becomes far too important to leave to the marketing department." "The winning organization of the future will look more like a collection ofjazz ensembles than a symphony orchestra." "Most of our organizations today derive from a model whose original purpose was to control creativity." "Rather than being an obstacle, uncertainty is the very engine of transformation in a business, a continuous source of new opportunities." "IP assets lack clear property lines. Every bit of intellectual property you can own comes with connections to other valuable innovations."

Genres: Business, Management, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Buisness

432 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The +:
- A good read.
- Nice language.
- Clear ideas.

The -:
- Most consultants write as if idiots would read them.
This leads them to produce bland, oversimplified texts that I probably would have appreciated earlier.
Way earlier.
Maybe in kindergarten.
- This would have read nice in a blog. But then again, I'm prety sure that the authors congratulated themselves on nailing the ideas as clearly as possible.
Yes, they are clear and simple. Too simple.
~70% of this is self-evident and does not require reading about in a book. And that's me being gratious. In reality, the % is closer to 95-99%.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting a lot from this book, and was rather disappointed given those high expectations. Not a bad read by any means, but also a lot of rehashed older content and/or management fad material simply rebound in one book. If you've never been exposed to any of it before, it's probably more valuable than it would be otherwise.

[Joe Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly traditional MBA strategy topics with some great golden nuggets on intuition, analysis (conclusions vs decisions), systems application, and values in strategic vision, “to not only execute, but to think.”
The objective of strategic vision is to “change the way we see things and not the things themselves.”Strategic vision’s development is “located in the world of thought, and not in the world of action.”

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview of strategy thought progression from the 1960s forward. Looking back on many articles contained in this collection, I was impressed with the prescience these thinkers displayed.

Highly recommended.

[Scott Wozniak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a collection of essays from The Boston Consulting Group (one of the largest and most prestigious business consulting firms in the world). These articles are from the 1960's to the 2010's, so there are some interesting examples of predictions that came true, like Amazon's strategy for growth being discussed back when they only sold books.

The biggest drawback is that this book has all of the corporate speak ("leveraging the synergistic forces of human capital to improve our market position...) that we now mock. It can be rough to read at times. The minor challenge for this book is that it's almost exclusively focused on manufacturing conglomerates (a company that owns multiple businesses that all make a physical product in factories).

But if you're able to translate the overly complicated language into ideas that make sense to you and your situation, then there are actually a lot of really useful insights.

[Sergey Dudko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wise executives capitalize on anomalies. They dig into them and look for ways to exploit them, asking: What’s really going on? How can we learn from this?
Define the problem and do the first analysis lightly
Cost of value added declines approximately 20 to 30 percent each time accumulated experience is doubled
Any competitor with less than one-quarter the share of the largest competitor cannot be an effective competitor
If you cannot be a leader, cash out quickly. Reinvest. Concentrate
All products eventually become either cash cows or pets
Reported profit is only a signal. Cash is all that counts
Avoiding price competition by moving into higher-margin products is called margin retreat. It leads to inevitable extinction
Organizations that are able to substitute trust for contracts gain more than they lose in bargaining power
Don’t rely on asking customers what they want. They almost never really know. What they can do is articulate their dissatisfactions

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bunch of now dated yet still relevant essays on business which targeted the executives of the largest companies in the world. It really shows why companies hire these consultants. At the very least they'll bring you the new ideas that you're unlikely to find within.

I'm glad I read it, but this was a book that I had to put away for a year before mustering up the interest to finish the second half.

[Christopher Struck · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's amazing to me how perceptive and enduring the "perspectives" of BCG are throughout the last 50 or so years. While the "Social Commentary" section is a lackluster end to the text, this combined work of the Firm's selected research on prevailing business topics and thoughts on competitive strategy are absolutely fundamental. Worth keeping on hand.

[Yvette · Rating 5 out of 5]

well written. very good book to take a look at the history and theory

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

OODA - observation, orientation, decision, action

[Greg Hutchins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dense and a bit outdated, but still has some interesting perspectives and insights into growing/managing businesses and overall business strategy that is still applicable and helpful.

[Alexander Krastev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Curious to find out how some concepts from half a century ago can be considered in the current business situations and adapted to smaller enterprises.

[Igor Tkachenko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Messy, over-broad, little if no nothing about things, that was introduced at the beginning.
I haven't rate with one start, only because people, that inexperienced and know nothing about business could get some kind of system with this book.

[Stacey Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compendium of "Perspectives" on business strategy written by The Boston Consulting Group over the past 30 years. Also includes articles published in Harvard Business Review.

[Robert Grossman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concepts and point of view expressed are very important from a historical perspective. Today, there are some better places to get the actual material.

[Lori Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read book on strategic frameworks for knowledge workers and entrepreneurs.

[Cam Patterson]

audio book was a bit dry.....but there's some good stuff in it so I'll be going through it twice (I need to figure out how to take notes from an audio book while driving)