Analysis without paralysis : 10 tools to make better strategic decisions

 by Babette E. Bensoussan and Craig S. Fleischer. Bensoussan (strategic planning/competitive intelligence professional) and Fleisher (Univ. of Windsor, UK) deliver on their promise to provide clear, realistic, and actionable guidelines for conducting strategic analysis. They present a very user-friendly introduction to strategic analysis and then describe ten of the most commonly used strategic analysis techniques (e.g., competitor analysis, scenario analysis, financial ratio and statement analysis) in clear, practical language. Step-by-step instructions make the use of each technique immediately accessible. The authors also offer a balanced evaluation of the context, strengths and weaknesses, and rationales for each of the ten tools. Importantly, they emphasize the need for using several analytical techniques to inform managerial insight with regard to strategic directions. This book provides the means to make the techniques very usable, and in so doing it should be of great value to managers across all types of industries. A chapter is devoted to each of the ten techniques, but there does not appear to be a reason for the order in which they are presented. However, each chapter stands on its own as a very useful description and explanation of a technique for the particular context and situations described. --Choice (Check Catalog)