Business is Simple: Until Academics and Consultants Make it Complicated

Business is Simple until academics and consultants make it complicated. That holds true for many organizations until they intend to take the next step and grow. This is when businesses become prey to consultants small and large, or owners and managers get lost while reading semi-academic self-help books and articles about business management. Eventually a team gathers to coin a strategy and in the best case they meander and discuss in more or less cumbersome ways how their organization should tackle future challenges. In most cases the result is people stumbling through a maze of unrelated business terms and coming up with fuzzy, warm, and meaningless strategies.

This book builds on the author's 35-year business background, and 17-year experience as a trainer for post-graduate strategic management seminars catering to senior and middle management executives. It provides a concise and simple roadmap to corporate strategy and discusses which business administration tools work, and most importantly which ones to avoid. Business is Simple is built around an eight-step flowchart, spiced with numerous real-life examples about organizations of all sizes and, while very structured, it is written in a refreshing and inspiring way.

Business is Simple is a pragmatic business book written by an entrepreneur and business executive for fellow entrepreneurs and business executives. It's base is solid theory, but its core message is the "how to" that traditional theory tends not to cover.

According to über-guru Gary Hamel, the key thing to remember is hat successful strategies are always the result of lucky foresight. The author adds in Business is Simple that Foresight comes from analysis and good judgment, yet luck comes from being in-place and ready when opportunity knocks. Business is Simple is the toolbox to business strategies that really work.
Website: bizissimple.com

Bullet List of What Books Covers:

• Pragmatic strategizing: Timeless rules of business
• What really works: And what doesn't
• Bad Strategies: It starts at the top
• Good Strategies: A step ahead of competition, yet always top of mind of customers
• The Strategy Process: Eight steps to success
• Business Definition: In what business are you in?
• Differentiation: About "blue oceans" and cut throat business as usual
• Goal: Find a realistic goal for the business
• Future Identity: The "vision" thing, but much more tangible
• Portfolio: Your current competitive position determines how far you can go
• Strategic Risk: Biggest risk - your own organization!
• Putting it all Together: Strategy on one page!
• Functional Strategies: The new marketing mix
• Strategy Implementation: Getting it done