Book Review: Business Strategy by Jeremy Kourdi

The book Business Strategy-A Guide to Taking Your Business Forward by Jeremy Kourdi offers insight into understanding, developing and implementing strategy.  Each of these aspects is important for overcoming market difficulties that challenge and create difficulties for businesses. It is the ability of leaders to develop strategy and then implement that strategy in ways that are more likely to raise the success of an organization. 

The author provides a definition of strategy as it, “…is the plans, choices and decisions used to guide a company to greater profitability and success”. Strong strategies create higher levels of outputs while poor strategies often fail in their ability to meet defined goals. Such strategies should be well thought out and the alternatives should be weighed.

Henri Fayol, who established the classical school of management around 1910, developed some general management activities that fit within five sections: planning, organizing, commanding, co-coordinating and controlling:

-Planning: Understanding the organization and developing plans of action that leads to a stronger future.

-Organizing: Organizing includes the pulling together of resources to make the plan successful. 

-Commanding: Commanding can be seen as leading people through giving them appropriate direction to make the plan work. Leaders can make things happen.

-Coordinating: Coordinating involves ensuring that all people efforts, factors, and resources are put together in the most beneficial manner. 

-Controlling: Controlling entails ensuring that the process is moving along properly and is adjusted when necessary. It is possible to use feedback mechanisms, re-evaluation of strategy and other aspects in this area.

The book also discusses strategic innovation. According to the Talent foundation there are five catalysts for strategic innovation that include the following:

-Consciousness: Everyone knows the strategy and believes they can follow it. 

-Multiplicity: Groups have a wide varied of skills, backgrounds, experiences, and ideas.

-Connectivity: People have positive trusting relationships with each other. 

-Accessibility: People have access to each other and the resources they need to make their parts successful.

-Consistency:  There is a strong commitment to innovation regardless of the situation.

The book not only provides strong consideration of strategy and innovation but also provides a number of case examples for readers visualize this information. Business students and managers would find the book beneficial for their understanding. It can be a touch dry in its reading but that is what business books are by their nature. The author provides a number of references for those who are interested in additional information. 

Kourdi, J. (2009). Business strategy-a guide to taking your business forward. London, UK: Profile Books LTD. ISBN: 978 1 84668 124 0

Price: $22.00

Pages: 233

You purchase the book HERE