Author Description

Thanks for picking up the second edition Strategy: Theory, Practice, Implementation! In the crowded market for strategy textbooks, we appreciate that you have identified with our aim of helping students to think, communicate, and act like strategists. Our approach to writing this book has emerged from our shared experiences in teaching, consulting, researching and leading strategy work in different settings. In particular, we noticed a gap between the formal theoretical approaches to strategy typically taught at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and the practices and processes of strategy adopted by organizational practitioners. It may be that those we were working with had internalized previously studied theoretical frameworks, or that through practice and experience they have developed an ability to think strategically without making an explicit reference to theoretical constructs in their work. Our feeling, though, was that there was a missing 'middle-ground' in which the realities of addressing strategic issues and opportunities could be connected with the theories that can help frame, explain, and resolve strategy challenges in an effective way. Responding to strategic problems, issues, and opportunities always involves decision-making