Best Business Strategy Books - But Do You Agree?

My Best Marketing Books blog post seems very popular so I have decided to repeat it with what I consider to be the Best Business Strategy Books.

While I have read a lot of business strategy books, I haven't reviewed that many yet on my blogs so there won't be as many links to detailed reviews as I would like.

Business strategy is the big picture that pulls all the individual people activities in a business together so that the whole creates something of value that is worth much more than the individual parts - that is effectively the definition of profit. 

What Do You Think Are The Best Business Strategy Books?

The great things about blogs are that you can leave comments so I would love to hear about your recommendations or thoughts on what you think are the best books on business strategy. .
While I have a preference for competitive strategy, I will be delighted if you recommend corporate strategy books as well.

Or perhaps you disagree with my nominations for best business strategy books. If so let me know although if you are writing detailed comments about a particular book, I would prefer you to write it on the individual book review. That way your comment is most relevant and adds most value to other readers.

I have added affiliate links through to Amazon so that you can see what others think about these strategy books.  

Best Business Strategy Book Nomination 1 - Competitive and Corporate Strategy by Cliff Bowman and David Faulkner

This is my favourite business strategy book since it combines academic rigour and new approaches to strategy development which are extremely practical.

This is the strategy book I refer to most, has had a major impact on my thinking and which I would give up last.

Sadly the book is not in current print but if you see a second hand copy, no matter whether you have an academic leaning or you need to develop a winning strategy for a real business, I urge you to grab it with both hands.

If you are lucky, Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk may have a copy.

For more details see my review of the Competitive and Corporate Strategy book

While I have a favourite strategy book, the remaining nominations are not in any order.

Best Business Strategy Book Nomination 2 - Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter

If you have read any strategy books or had any strategy training then I am sure that you will have been introduced to Michael Porter's ideas on generic strategies and his Five Forces model.

But you may not have read the underlying works by Michael Porter.

"Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors" is the book that started it all and very much made Michael Porter's name as THE strategy guru that others have to knock off the top spot.

While I won't say that it is an easy read, I do see Competitive Strategy as a must read for any serious student of business strategy as you miss so much richness relying on ten or twenty page summaries of Porter's ideas.

You can get a copy from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

If you would like more details, see my Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter book review.

My focus on competitive strategy means that I can't ignore the merits of...

Best Business Strategy Book Nomination 3 - Competitive Advantage by Michael Porter

In 1985, five years after Competitive Strategy, Michael Porter came out with another ground breaking book which introduced the world to the value chain - "Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance".

This is a hard read but I find that I can trace so many of the more recent developments in business strategy including the resource and capability based strategy theories back to Competitive Advantage.

The value chain has been criticised for being focused on manufacturing but have some imagination and see how your business can be split into primary activities and processes which add value to customers and support activities which create cost and make the business work but don't create direct value.

The labels don't matter, the concept and looking at how each can be managed for a differentiation advantage of cost advantage is an essential concept.

My review of Competitive Advantage is on my Differentiate Your Business blog.

You can get a copy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

Best Business Strategy Books Nomination 4 - Contemporary Strategy Analysis by Robert Grant

This was my core textbook for my MBA strategy course and I thought it was a terrific summary of all the aspects of competitive strategy and corporate strategy.

While I had been a student of strategy for many years, the nice thing about the MBA course in 1997 was that it forced me to stretch outside of my main interests - which at that stage was how to create competitive advantage in mature and declining industries.

Yes it is a text book and it reads as one so there are no practical guides but the book is well written and recommended for anyone who wants to gain a broad overview of the strategy field.

I haven't written my review of Contemporary Strategy Analysis yet and I should buy the latest edition.

You can buy this strategy book from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk 

I am running out of time so I will just list a few other books that I believe need to be included in the list of best strategy books.

Best Business Strategy Book Nomination 5 - Managing Customer Value by Bradley Gale

An excellent guide for getting into the nitty gritty of building a differentiation strategy.

See my book review of Managing Customer Value

Available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

Best Business Strategy Book Nomination 6 - The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge

First written in 1990, the revised edition of The Fifth Discipline was delivered to me this morning.

I started re-reading this classic book which introduced the concept of the learning organisation - an amazing concept which created some of the most boring knock-offs by consultants and software suppliers - and then discovered that there was a new edition.

While The Fifth Discipline may not be an obvious book on strategy it is a real eye-opener for how your business works internally and how it links to the external environment.

My review should appear quite soon.

You can buy the book from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

I have more strategy books to add to this list.

What Do You Think Are The Best Business Strategy Books?

If you are interested in business strategy, then I will be interested in reading your recommendations.

I think the world of strategy has gone quiet in recent years or at least little has made an impression on me.

Comments

[Bryan Duggan]

The best and clearest business strategy book I have read is The Foundations of Corporate Success by John Kay of the London Business School. Much more concise and accessible than Michael Porter and liberally illustrated with graphic examples. Sadly he has not updated it so the example businesses and comparisons are now totally out of date - or do not even exist anymore! Nonetheless it remains the most accessible and valuable business book going.
Bryan D
UK

[Paul Simister]

I agree Bryan, The Foundations of Corporate Success by John Kay is a terrific book and one I haven't read for about 10 years. I must dig out my copy because I liked the focus on game theory.