SWOTed by strategy models? Crunched by analysis? Strategy doesn't have to be this way. Strategy is really all about being different. Thinking about it shouldn't make you reach for the snooze button, but in the world of strategy everybody has become so serious. If that gets us better strategies, fine. But it doesn't; we get worse ones--predictable, generic, uninspiring, dull. Strategy doesn't only have to position; it also has to inspire. So an uninspiring strategy is really no strategy at all. The most interesting and most successful companies are not boring. They have novel, creative, inspiring, sometimes even playful strategies. By taking the whole strategy business less seriously, they end up with more serious results--and have some fun in the bargain. Strategy Bites Back invites you to encounter a diverse and unlikely set of voices with something sharp to say about strategy --- from Michael Porter and Peter Drucker to Coco Channel's little black dress . Taken together these perspectives will provide you with new and dramatically different angles from which to attack the world of strategy. * Strategy as the Little Black Dress * Forecasting Whoops * Management and Magic * The Soft Underbelly of Hard Data * Jack Welch on Planning * The Seven Deadly Sins of Strategic Planning * Strategy from the Grassroots * Strategy One Step at a Time * Strategy and the Art of Seduction * and many more antidotes to dull strategy making and blunt business strategies. This book is for everyone involved with strategy -- manager, CEO, consultant, professor, student -- who wants to see strategy more broadly, more deeply and more playfully. Strategy with a difference starts here, and why not have a good time reading a strategy book for a change?

Henry Mintzberg's views are a breath of fresh air which can only encourage the good guys. The Observer One of the most original minds in management. Fast Company A refreshing antidote to the footnote-laden tomes that usually make up the field. Meaty enough to be serious yet also pleasantly entertaining Harvard Business School, Working Knowledge This is a naughty book, a really cheeky little brat of a book which ought to be spanked soundly and sent to bed without any supper. Except that, if you did that, you would be missing out on a delightful, entertaining smorgasbord of advice, insights, red herrings and jokes that together make up a classic text for business leaders. Business Voice Director 2005 a fun read A tasty smorgasbord of writings on strategy' Guardian, 2005 a mine full of nuggets' The Edge, 2005 If you think strategy is boring and best avoided, think again. Strategy Bites Back will not only change your view on strategy, it will inspire and challenge you too ..The authors offer some excellent insights This true gem of a book should sit proudly on any strategist's bookshelf.'

Henry Mintzberg Henry Mintzberg normally bites back on issues of management, organization, and corporate social irresponsibility (i.e., shareholder value), as well as management education and strategy. (Managers not MBAs, with Berrett-Koehler in the US and Financial Times Prentice Hall in Europe was his last book.) He managed to get a PhD in management at MIT and has slipped about 130 articles past unsuspecting editors. He is the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University. Bruce Ahlstrand Bruce Ahlstrand likes to prospect for strategy gems in unlikely places - from the game of Texas Hold'em to the Greek tragedies. He is devoted to developing new and creative ways of teaching business strategy and has never met a case study that he liked. He has a D.Phil. from Oxford University and a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics. Bruce is the author of The Quest for Productivity (Cambridge University Press) and co-author of Human Resource Management in the Multi-Divisional Company (Oxford University Press). He is a professor of management at Trent University in Ontario, Canada. Joseph Lampel Joe Lampel began his career believing that strategy is the answer, but has recently concluded that it may be the answer to the wrong question. He first began to suspect this terrible truth during the long journey that produced the Strategy Safari. Further research, and numerous publications in journals that are well received in polite academic society, only served to confirm this belief. Joe was awarded a PhD in management by McGill University for good behavior. He subsequently spent seven years at Stern School, NYU, trying to break into showbusiness. He currently resides at Cass Business School, City University London, an institution that happily accommodates his quest to find the answer to strategy's unanswerable questions. Henry, Bruce and Joe are also the authors of the bestselling Strategy Safari (Financial Times Prentice Hall).