The Strategy Book – Book Review Book Review

The strategy book by Max McKeown is an excellent book for managers or leaders in general to read and follow in order to create a unique strategy for their business. The strategy book includes examples of strategies that were previously constructed and followed by small, medium and large companies. The book gives readers the chance to know the strategies that were employed by different types and sizes of business and how successful they were. These real life cases are what make the book so interesting and informative. The book is divided into different parts that inform the readers about formulating and then following the appropriate strategy.
The unique thing about the book that makes it stand out from the rest of the books based on a similar theme is that the information has been very well delivered to the audience. The book is easy to comprehend as it very well structured and delivers what it promises the readers. It starts off by telling them what a strategy is. Often strategy books are found to be very confusing especially to a person who does not have a degree in business (Mckeown, 2012). There are business theories and diagrams that are not too well understood by people who are new to a business.
However, this book starts off from the scrap. It tells a layman business person or a person interested in setting up a business soon that a strategy is about planning for the future. It is to plan the future in a way that makes it easy for the managers to set up objectives and for the employees to follow those objectives (Mckeown, 2012). The book gives examples of successful business persons and how they made their business strategy when they came into the business field. There are examples of people, who found success instantly, and there are also examples of business persons who struggled at first, but then after reshaping the strategy they were able to effectively conduct their business. It is very helpful for new entrepreneurs to know about these strategies so that they could also learn and implement it in their business.
The book goes beyond defining strategy and tells the readers how they can benefit from making one. It is one of the few books that explains the mission and vision of companies and how they help to contribute in achieving the goals of a business (Mckeown, 2012). The best thing about the book is not that it asks the audience to make a strategy based on their resources, profitability or long and short term targets but it tells them the importance of their mission in the industry. It tells managers or any other business person interested in doing business in future that the strategy should be based on what the business stands out to do (mission) and where it sees itself in the future (vision).
It tells the future business entrepreneurs and managers that their strategy should not be a work of complex models based on cash inflow but their strategy should be well calculated according to where they stand in the present and where they see themselves in the coming few years (Mckeown, 2012). The author makes a very good attempt incorrectly guiding people. He correctly asks them to forget about short-term resources or profits and focus about building a strategy that could make them compete in the market for many years to come.
One aspect that the book focuses on is to effectively engage people in the business. The employees are the most important part of every business as they are the real reason behind the success and failure of anything that a company does (Mckeown, 2012). Employees are at the center of every strategy, and the managers and leaders must focus to get the best out of them. The author believes that this strategy, to serve the employees well so that they could perform better, goes out for each and every organization. Employees in the modern world need to be pampered, and organizations must know how to pamper them best so that they could extract the maximum out of them. Once again, the author makes a very good strategy for other businesses to follow. He mentions that organizations that are successful are all because of their employees. If employees are happy, the organization will prosper. Somehow at times managers and leaders tend to forget this notion. Selfish motives make them drive away from this strategy and they lose commitment from employees in the middle of the way. Success for such companies seems short lived.
In conclusion, the strategy book by Max McKeown is a very informative book for people who are about to set up a business or are finding it hard to formulate a business strategy. The book is a very good guide for people who think about the mission and why they are entering the industry. It also helps them understand how and where they want to be in the future. The book helps to make strategies on the distinct mission and vision of leaders and managers also looking at cases of some of the popular companies in the past.

References

Mckeown, M. (2012). The Strategy Book. London: Pearson .