Book review

Book review

Author: Paul Finlay

Title: Strategic management. An introduction to business and corporate strategy

Book is thoughtfully structured, well written, and contains a good deal of useful information. Paul stresses that strategic capability is needed at all levels in an organisation - not just top management; indeed, a recurrent theme in the book is that first line supervisors and middle managers have a critical part to play in the development and implementation of strategic planning. There are seven substantial chapters, extensively subdivided; and, as Corrall intends, these units can be read largely independently of one another.

This book provides a comprehensive and lively introduction to strategy. Throughout the text the distinction between corporate and business level strategy is emphasised. Each is treated separately when considering analysis, synthesis, implementation and control. There is also balanced coverage of planned and emergent strategies, as well as the influence of chaos and complexity theories. All this is presented within a student-centred teaching and learning package and is amply illustrated with short and long cases from a wide variety of organisations. All this is supported by a robust yet flexible teaching package which includes: Instructor's Manual with full teaching and case notes.

It covers both traditional strategic management topics and new topics, such as corporate social responsibility and new technologies. Global Strategic Management gives the student a thorough understanding of the wide range of theories and research available in this field, while providing both mini-cases and full-length cases of successful global companies from the United States, Europe and emerging economies.