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Summary : Emphasising that firms face uncertainties and unknowns, this book argues that the core of strategic thinking and processes rests on the organization and its leaders developing newly imagined solutions to the opportunities that these uncertainties open up. It presents new approaches for managers, consultants, strategy teachers and students. What is strategy? For many it is the application of a theory, model or framework. This book develops a different creative approach. Emphasizing that firms face uncertainties and unknowns (knowledge gaps) this book argues that the core of strategic thinking and processes rests on the organization's leaders developing newly imagined solutions to the opportunities that these uncertainties open up. Drawing on a wide range of ideas from strategy, economics, entrepreneurship and philosophy, this book stresses the importance of judgment in strategy, and argues that a key element of the entrepreneur and executive's task is to engage chosen uncertainties, develop a language to express and explain the firm's particular business model for dealing with these, and thus create innovation and value. In an accessible and engaging style, this book introduces these ideas, and reviews the strategy tools currently available from consultants and academics. This book stresses the uncertainties or knowledge absences that pervade business and make effective strategizing both necessary and valuable. This book also outlines a structured practice that managers and consultants might chose to follow, not a theory.

Content :
List of figures
List of acronyms
Introduction to strategic work, language, and value. Introduction ; What does "strategic" mean? ; Intention and context ; Data difficulties ; People-based difficulties ; Four paradigms of strategic work and talk ; Corporate strategy's beginnings ; Convergence of practitioner and academic inputs ; Methodological questions ; Consultants' inputs ; Academics' inputs ; Talk and communication ; Historical methods ; Profit and growth ; Summary
Strategic analysis : consulting tools. On method ; Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) ; Learning and the experience curve ; Life cycle ; What is going on here? ; Break-even ; Porter's 5-force analysis and economic rents versus Chandler's "fit" approach ; Ansoff's strategy matrix ; BCG and some other matrices ; Organizational change ; Knowledge and k-flow ; Scenario planning ; Culture stakeholders ; Triple bottom line and the theory of sustainable society ; The balanced scorecard ; Goldratt's theory of constraints ; Summary
Strategic analysis : academic models. On the academics' method and questions ; Value-chain and team production ; Principal-agent theory ; Transaction cost economics ; Horizontal and vertical integration ; Penrose on the growth of the firm ; Resource- and capabilities-based views ; Evolution and self-regulation ; Entrepreneurship theory ; Strategy-as-practice ; Summary
Building language and the business model. On this chapter's method ; The strategic task ; Mise en place ; Data collection ; BM as language ; Exploring language ; BM as diagram ; Von Clausewitz's methodology ; Changing the BM ; Summary
Persuading supporters. Talk ; OK, we have a strategy, now what? ; Communication ; Rhetoric ; Question theory ; Strategic change ; Summary
The business strategist's world. Making management's knowledge ; Practical philosophizing, or how manages do not think like academics ; History and the private sector firm ; Technology ; Labor and work ; Management education ; Self-preparation ; Summary ; Concluding remarks
Appendix A: on case-writing and teaching
Appendix B: teaching from this book
Appendix C: some strategy texts and their implicit theory
Appendix D: further reading
Index