A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Studying Strategy (Very Short, Fairly Interesting & Cheap Books)

Interesting book with a catchy title. Glad I purchased.

A couple of things about this book:1. The title is misleading. It is, in-fact, not 'very short'. Though it may only be 170 pages (or thereabouts), it took me many, many hours of reading and rereading in order to absorb the many theories and studies that are presented in the text. Additionally, at $20 for the Kindle edition, it is not what I consider 'reasonably cheap.'2. If you're not involved with strategy in your organization, this will most likely bore you to tears. I read this for the capstone course in my MBA program. I was warned ahead of time that it was the most boring book some of my classmates have ever read. With that said, I did find it 'fairly interesting' based on the fact that I actually am a strategic planner. Much of the content was applicable to what I do, and for the most part I could appreciate the authors waxing lyrical about strategy. However, I am vastly in the minority among my classmates when it comes to enjoyment and knowledge extraction from this book.3. Though I did glean some pearls of wisdom, this text is a perfect example of academia being self-perpetuating. Although I admitted above to finding parts of it interesting from a strategist's perspective, the content is probably more appealing to business strategy professors rather than actual business strategy practitioners. (I should admit that I tend to be somewhat of a nerd when it comes to theory, so I enjoyed the academic-ness of it.) For the most part, the book is structured as so: a study by a professor is presented, another professor(s) studies that study, a different professor(s) finds faults in the study, still yet another professor(s) critiques and delves deeper into the study matter, and some other professor(s) decides to begin a completely new study based on the old study. And the authors of the book disagree with all of the studies (after they've presented an entire chapter going over every detail of said studies). Repeat.Overall, it was a tolerable read. It was like reading a very, very long lecture. You'll get some nuggets of knowledge out of it, but for the most part it's lots of droning on and on.

I wouldn't consider this book the most interesting by any means but it is nice that it is relatively short. It is a small book but very easy to hold. I wish it was a little cheaper for how small of a book it is.

I have to agree that the text was not an "easy" read, but it was a very comprehensive view on the insights of the authors perspective on the study of strategy. I think it's fair to say that this book is really not so much about being a strategist, or even strategy in action per se, but that it is focused on the 'study of the study of strategy.' It uses extremely complex, flowery language to depict what are at times fairly simple concepts.This book is so thorough and dense, I would recommend anyone reading it (if you're being tested on it; if you're not, I would take a moment to question why you are reading it) write an outline of it to keep track all of the players and theories presented. I humbly agree that some of the words used, like "tautological" for example come off as pretentious, as the previous reviewer suggested.Finally, I found myself crossing words and sometimes whole phrases within mangled, contorted sentences out with a pencil that were completely unnecessary to get the point across.In the end, I agree with the authors, my career and salary would have likely benefited more by studying Machiavelli than studying this book. In its defense, it gives a very detailed and solid foundation on the study of strategy and clearly displays the authors epic mastery of the subject, not to mention, the English language.

Got it for a class, and while it's a small book it's extremely information dense. Be prepared to read it twice if you want to have a chance at remembering the long list of people and accomplishments contained within. Arrived in great condition, however, and was shipped promptly. Its a good book, but give yourself some time to absorb it for a course, and don't think of it as a particularly easy read.

142 pages of literature review on the history of strategy with some opinion that is useless and/or incoherent, either because it's so ridiculously boring or because the authors wanted to embed their pretentious vocabulary lesson throughout. If you don't wear a dictionary out when you read this book, I want you on my Scrabble team. The blabber is so tedious I lost track of which theories they agree with and which they don't. The content that I consider useful to me could have been written in a pamphlet. Why would you blabber on for an entire chapter on something that could have been said in one or two paragraphs? To sell a cheap book that is neither short nor the least bit interesting. Funny, there's no discussion on the strategy of deceptive book titles. Change the name! Now I'm required to study this book and memorize the names of people who will never matter to me.Enjoy!

"Fairly Interesting" is most definitely a misnomer. I had a hard time getting into this book. It reads more like a history book than anything.

I have to agree with the earlier review. These authors spent more time using their word processing software's thesaurus than effectively communicating the topics. Boring and pretentious read.

I am doing a MSc in Innovation, Leadership and Management. This book was recommended for my first module - Practicing Strategy.

It was short but very interesting! Summed up a lot of useful points and areas and gave a great foundation to learning about stragey. It's written very well, good detail but in a lighter tone and offers good references.

A very informative small book which was easy to read. I would recommend it to anyone who wants just the main points.

useful

I brought this book for my Son-in-Law, who has informed me it's helpful, regards to the course he is doing.