Strategic Management and Core Competencies: Theory and Application

Rating:
Summary: A great read!
Review: As a manager and MBA-graduate, I really enjoyed this book. It is of great practical value with operational tools, understandable frameworks and ready-to-use methods. But is also of great interest for those interested in theory. It embraces the strategy concept and places competence-based strategy in its prober theoretical context. There is certainly something in this book for everone - even an entrepreneur and CEO.

Rating:
Summary: A positive step forward in the latest management debate
Review: As a researcher in the field of management I found this book to be a breath of fresh air.

The management debate surrounding core competencies has become increasingly jargon laden and has progressively moved away from being of any use to practitioners. This book redresses the balance by providing both a critical (and exhaustive) review of the literature and practical examples of how different theories can be applied.

It's great strength is in synthesising the work of many disparate fields rather than the more common practice of highlighting the differences. This results in a complex and fragmented view of the world of strategic management that more accurately portrays the issues facing today's managers than the generic management 'fads' that are adopted and then discarded with increasing aplomb.

The cases used to illustrate the theories are refreshing as they are atypical and topical. Cases such as Bang & Olufsen, the innovative hi-fi designers, and Lego, the ubiquitous toy manufacturers support Drejer's thesis that sustaining a competitive advantage through the development of core competencies is contingent upon many factors and requires different approaches at different times.

This is where the book shows a related weakness. As the real world is complex and fast changing, especially in the interaction between people and technologies, there are no 'right answers'. As a result many will reject Drejer's approach of critically examining all the possible answers to allow the individual to determine the correct approach they should adopt. However this 'open' approach is, in my view, the correct way to bring forward this important debate.

This book will not make the author rich, but will help numerous researchers and managers to reflect more constructively upon the very real issues that they face in their working lives.

Rating:
Summary: Of great practical value
Review: I was looking for a book, which could provide practitioners like me with tools to proactively work with the core competencies of my company. This I found in this book written by Anders Drejer. I appreciate the way this author draws up the theoretical background and leads over to operational and useful methods and means. A lot of examples from different firms and the modern language of the book, makes it easy to understand the presented methods and means based on a genetic and quite intuitively understandable framework for competence-based strategy. I was able to transfer the lessons learned to the situation of my firm and no doubt, I will use the described tools in praxis. This book will be close to my desk and my work as a manager.