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Rating: 
Summary: Warmed Over and Not Worth the Time or Ink
Review: The authors offer what they seem to think is a "new" way to view competitive success. Like many management books, the ability to derive framework from illustrations comes with limitations. Most frameworks are illustrable. The true innovations in thinking build from or rail against prevailing work, in books like Porter's or D'Aveni's counterviewpoint Hypercomopetition. What is most frustrating about this book is that it spends a lot of time in what could be said in a few pages, the result perhaps of combining an academic and personal consulting vantage - borrowing your watch to tall you the time in roman numerals! Every good manager knows that first to market isn't per se sustainable and that creating barriers to switching is good. Here, these simple truths are passed off, albeit in different words, as wisdom. Please, guys, like so many others, you would best ply your respective trades in your current arenas and leave the thinking to more cogent thinkers. Bottom-line, I wouldn't offer this for sale even used.
Rating: 
Summary: Concise visualization of strategy in the netwoked world.
Review: The result of several years of analysis and contribution from some of the world's leading CEOs (in addition to Hax and Wilde), the Delta Project very succinctly creates a visual representation for strategy development that is both descriptive and normative. It explains the "Bonding" principle as a primary strategic force in both SRM (Supplier Relationship Management - including complementors) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management). It shows strategy as a spectrum from "Best Product" to "Total Customer Solution" to "System Lock-In" and the multiple paths and various methods to achieve each end point.
This book explains the need for process design from the start (e.g. Six Sigma), management by measurement, the failure of averages (a mean without a STD DEV is a meaningless number), and the difference in High Level and Granular metrics (what my Firm would call Critical Success Factors vs. Key Performance Indicators).
Most importantly, it drives home the most critical aspect of a winning corporate/industry/market strategy - operationalization, "Execution is NOT the problem, aligning execution to Strategy is!" I see this every day in my own client consulting. This is not a MBA textbook it is a practical, quick and succinct read.
Rating:
Summary: Warmed Over and Not Worth the Time or Ink
Review: This book give a clear vision about the strategy changes that companies must take in this changing business world.
Rating: 
Summary: A useful framework flawed by poor examples.
Review: This book is useful for executives trying to identify core competencies that can be used to achieve Customer Lock-In and go beyond simple cost cutting and other product centric strategies. Unfortunately, the Delta Project devotes an inordinate amount of text on extolling the virtues of the new Internet economy and how technology has brought us closer to customers. The stars of the Delta Project include Egghead.com (now bankrupt) and WorldCom (almost bankrupt). The book states, "Egghead has had outstanding success in almost completely converting to a web-based operation." And again, "WorldCom stock has generated the second highest shareholder return in the 1994 to 1999 five-year period" and "WorldCom created enormous value by pursuing a unique strategy." Unique indeed! Well, in the last week WorldCom shares have fallen by 80 per cent and their corporate bonds are trading for 50 cents on the dollar. On the other hand, Southwest Airlines' "best product" strategy is "fragile" because it does not "bond" with customers. Yet SWA has INCREASED earnings since September 11 when other airlines are struggling. And then there is ENRON! Enron has a "major competitive weapon" we are told. Shhh! Don't tell anyone! Enron has "dealmakers who arbitrage the market to take the net exposure the company desires. Enron's profit (sic) from trading now exceeds its profit from generation." Bad call guys! If readers can get beyond the poor analysis of the companies they chose to illustrate their framework with, they may find some useful ideas.
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