3 THE TOP 15 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT BOOKS

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ROBYN FORMAN (/U/MG56V8/)
2YEARSAGO

Looking to gain an edge over your competition? The best place to start is by implementing a management
strategy that will handle your hiring, marketing, and technological needs. While there are plenty of online
resources available, many of which are free, theres nothing quite like opening up a book to help you gain
new strategic insights and tactics (https://www.startupgrind.com/blog/business-growth-strategies/) for your
upcoming strategic management campaign.

To help narrow down the choices, we've put together a list of 15 strategic management books to help you
gain the much-needed competitive edge in this highly competitiveworld.

Here are theBest Strategy Books for Entrepreneurs and

Here are theBest Strategy Books for Entrepreneurs and
Managers

1.Business Strategy: Managing Uncertainty, Opportunity, and Enterprise

(http://www.amazon.com/Business-Strategy-Uncertainty-Opportunity-Enterprise/dp/0199686548) by
J.C. Spender

Before entering the academic world, J.C. Spender was an account manager and special products planner
for Rolls Royce and IBM, as well as a merchant banker working with Silicon Valley. Spender takes his years
of experience and blends that with case studies and theories to develop a new understanding of strategy.

Review: "Business managers usually say more than they intend, so employees often interpret strategies
differently and go in different directions. Spender re-examines strategizing under conditions of uncertainty,
showing entrepreneurs construct special language to shape what others note and act on. He provides
managers and consultants with a structured practice for value-creation." -- Andrew H. Van de Ven,
University of Minnesota

2.Return On Influence: The Revolutionary Power of Klout, Social Scoring, and Influence Marketing
(http://www.amazon.com/Return-On-Influence-Revolutionary-Marketing/dp/0071791094) by Mark
Schaefer
As a marketing veteran, author, founder, and Executive Director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, Mark
Schaefer has helped businesses develop their influence and authority in their respective businesses. In this
groundbreaking book, Schaefer interviewed over 50 experts an provides explanation on how to use social
and to build brand awareness and boost sales.

Review: "I could not stop reading this book. Mark Schaefer demystifies the power of influence in this
insider's guide to combining content strategy with network interactions to create social conversations that
move markets." -- Ardath Albee, author of eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale

3.Tilt: Shifting Your Strategy from Products to Customers

(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1422187179/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?
pf_rd_p=1944687722&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-
1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1625271743&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1MQD3JRMA8NTJ33FWSCT)
by Niraj Dawar
Niraj Dawar is Professor of Marketing at the Ivey Business School, Canada, and has appeared in
publications like Harvard Business Review, the M.I.T. Sloan Management Review, and the Financial Times.
With Tilt, he helps businesses achieve a competitive edge by designing strategies around customer
interactions.

Review: Tilt challenges us to place customers at the heart of strategy. With product cycles shortening and
product costs shrinking, this book brings to life a deeper understanding of how strategy can be made more
powerful. A must-read. -- Arkadi Kuhlmann, CEO, ZenBanx Inc; former Chairman and CEO, ING Direct

4.Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the
Competition Irrelevant (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1625274491/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?
pf_rd_p=1944687522&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-
1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1596590688&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=14GZK5BFP90P30YH4DDT)by
W. Chan Kim

Chan Kim and Rene Mauborgne are both Professors of Strategy at INSEAD, as well as Co-Directors of the
INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute.Their best-selling book argues you should be focus on creating
unique market opportunities, as opposed to constantly battling the competition.

Review: This breakthrough book is essential for any strategist or entrepreneur who wants to move out of
intensively competitive, shark-infested waters and into an opportunity filled, open ocean. Business
Insider

5.Fewer, Bigger, Bolder: From Mindless Expansion to Focused (http://www.amazon.com/Fewer-Bigger-

Bolder-Mindless-Expansion/dp/1480586870) by Sanjay Khosla

While as President of Kraft Foods developing markets, Sanjay Khosla increased revenue growth from $5
billion to $16 billion during a six-year period. Khosla shares his experience, as well as case studies from
companies like Cisco and Spirit, to develop a seven-step model to increase profit growth.

Review: A breakthrough blueprint for growth, this book is about the transformational payback that comes
from investment in your workforce. -- Tony Vernon, CEO, Kraft Foods Group, Inc.

6.Hiring for Attitude: A Revolutionary Approach to Recruiting and Selecting People with Both
Tremendous Skills and Superb Attitude (http://www.amazon.com/Hiring-Attitude-Revolutionary-
Recruiting-Tremendous/dp/007178585X) by Mark Murphy

Mark Murphy is the founder and CEO of Leadership IQ and author of the bestselling books Hundred
Percenters and HARD Goals. With Hiring for Attitude, Murphy uses research from Leadership IQ to discover
why 46% of new hires fail within their first year and a half. Murphy then provides case studies and tests so
that you can hire the people with the right attitude.
Review: Success in business starts with finding great talent that will thrive within your company culture.
Hiring for Attitude combines valuable insights with relatable examples, giving you the tools to recruit the
right talent for your organization and reduce your risk of mishires. -- Brent Rasmussen, President of
CareerBuilder North America

7.The Plugged-In Manager: Get in Tune with Your People, Technology, and Organization to Thrive
(http://www.amazon.com/The-Plugged-In-Manager-Technology-Organization/dp/0470903554) by Terri
L. Griffith
Terri Griffith, Ph.D., Chair of the Management Department at Santa Clara University's Leavey School of
Business, has relied on technology and organization to help accomplish tasks and goals. With the Plugged-
In Manager, Griffith argues that managers must not only embrace technology, they must also be plugged-in
with people. She profiles leaders such as Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com to prove this point.

Review: "Want to help your organization kick ass in the marketplace? Read this book. It will prepare you to
manage for this century, when most management books prepare you to lead in the last one." -- Nilofer
Merchant, behavioral strategist; and author, The New How

8.The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business
Environment (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/strategy-focused-organization-robert-s-
kaplan/1100625896?ean=9781422163559)by Robert Kaplan and David Norton
In their Balanced Scorecard, Kaplan and Norton unveiled their revolutionary "performance management
system". For their follow-up, Kaplan and Norton researched over 200 companies who had implemented the
Balanced Scorecard. By using this technique, these companies were able to create strategy-focused
organizations.

Review: Kaplan and Norton chronicle the long-overdue shift from management 'by the numbers' to a
performance management process that places well-articulated, knowledge-based strategies at the center
of every employee's activities. Given the pace of change in the new economy, strategy-focused processes
that are measurable, repeatable, and supported by superior information are the only true sources of
sustainable competitive advantage. Organizations that ignore this reality do so at their own risk. -- James
H. Goodnight, President & CEO, SAS

9. Strategy Safari: A Guided Tour Through The Wilds of Strategic Management

(http://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Safari-Through-Strategic-Management/dp/0743270576) by Henry
Mintzberg, Joseph Lampel and Bruce Ahlstrand
These three colleagues deliver an extensive and entertaining history of strategic management that traces its
evolution throughout the years - mainly the ten schools of strategy from the last forty years. This
international bestseller combines these various schools of thought and creates a straightforward guide in
how-to form a strategy.

Review: "Read the book. Let Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand, and Joseph Lampel guide you on an
enlightening and entertaining excursion through the field of strategy making." -- Lawrence Bennigson,
Senior Fellow of the Executive Development Center of the Harvard Business School

10.Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World (http://www.amazon.com/Accelerate-

Building-Strategic-Agility-Faster-Moving/dp/1625271743) by John P. Kotter
John P. Kotter, the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School, is a
globally recognized authority in leadership and change. In this 2014 book, Kotter presents his case for a new
dual operating system network that can help organizations handle strategic challenges and change with
the times.

Review: A Top Shelf Best Business Book pick of the Year: Strategy -- strategy+business magazine

11. The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World
(http://www.amazon.com/Lords-Strategy-Intellectual-History-Corporate-ebook/dp/B004OC072G) by
Walter Kiechel
The editorial director of Harvard Business Publishing and the managing editor at Fortune magazine, as well
as the author of Office Hours: A Guide to the Managerial Life, Walter Kiechel III shares the extraordinary
story of the four men who invented corporate strategy (Bruce Henderson, founder of Boston Consulting
Group; Bill Bain, creator of Bain & Company; Fred Gluck, longtime Managing Director of McKinsey &
Company; and Michael Porter, Harvard Business School professor).

Review: [Kiechels] The Lords of Strategy is a clear, deft and cogent portrait of what the author calls the
most powerful business idea of the past half-century --The Wall Street Journal

12.Breaking the Fear Barrier: How Fear Destroys Companies From the Inside Out and What to Do About
It (http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Fear-Barrier-Destroys-Companies/dp/1595620540)by Tom Rieger
Rieger, a Senior Practice Expert with Gallup Inc., has the experience and talent to break down barriers so a
business can succeed. In Breaking the Fear Barrier, Rieger, illustrates through research how fear can be
destructive and how you can control and tackle that fear.

Review: These may seem like insurmountable obstacles, but Rieger maintains that because these barriers
were built internally, they can be destroyed internally. He offers solid tactics for how anyone can root out
fear in their organizations and establish a culture of confidence, engagement, and long-term success. --
Matthew E. May Strategic Facilitation & Ideation, MatthewEMay.com

13.Harvesting Intangible Assets: Uncover Hidden Revenue in Your Company's Intellectual Property
(http://www.amazon.com/Harvesting-Intangible-Assets-Companys-Intellectual/dp/0814416993) by
Andrew J. Sherman
As a partner at Jones Day, Andrew J. Sherman has worked with international companies in various stages of
development. With this thought-provoking book, Sherman shares his own experiences and examples from
companies like Google on how to convert intellectual property into revenue.

Review: You will come away with a much better practical sense of how intangibles fit into business
strategy and how to develop that strategy.Sherman has made a strong contribution towards helping
business develop strategies utilizing their intangibles. The book should be widely read. --The Intangible
Economy

14. Good to Great: Why So (http://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-

Others/dp/0066620996?
ie=UTF8&n=283155&ref_=dp_proddesc_0&s=books&showDetailProductDesc=1#iframe-wrapper)me
Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't (http://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-
Others/dp/0066620996?
ie=UTF8&n=283155&ref_=dp_proddesc_0&s=books&showDetailProductDesc=1#iframe-wrapper) by Jim
Collins

Bestselling author Jim Collins provides the seven characteristics that it takes for a business to become
successful after examining each and every one of the 1,400 companies included in the Fortune 500 since
1965 - which he narrows down to 11 to discuss in Good to Great.

Review:"Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology,
innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly
great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think
and act in a disciplined manner. -- Harry C. Edwards, Amazon.com

15. The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist's Guide to Success in Business and Life
(http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Strategy-Theorists-Business/dp/0393337170) by Avinash K. Dixit and
Barry J. Nalebuff
These two professors, and game strategy theorists, use case studies from pop culture, history and sports to
prove how individual and business interactions can use game components as a part of their strategy.
Reviews: "It is an easy read and is written in a lively tone-which is not something I particularly recall from my
lectures in the 1980s. Long live economics!" John Burns, The Times Higher Education

"Unlike most of the ranks of management advice books which pad out bookshop business sections, here is
one which is rigorous, fun and extremely useful all at the same time." -- The Economist

Any we missed? Let us know in the comments!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

3
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Robyn Forman (/u/mg56v8/)

Comments

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JOHNNY CASH (/U/MCPXFB/)
AMONTHAGO
(/BLOG/15-STRATEGIC-MANAGEMENT-BOOKS/#COMMENT-2867)

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MARSHA KELLY (/U/MZWQGY/)
22DAYSAGO
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(/BLOG/15-STRATEGIC-MANAGEMENT-BOOKS/#COMMENT-2889)

Thanks for compiling this list of great business books. Many I had not read. In fact I just bought . Tilt:
Shifting Your Strategy from Products to Customers by Niraj Dawar. It had been on my list. Your point that
customer-focus can be a stand out strategy in competitive industries answered my need today.
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TONY HULK (/U/M859B6/)
6DAYSAGO
(/BLOG/15-STRATEGIC-MANAGEMENT-BOOKS/#COMMENT-2926)

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