Management science has become like theology, dominated byrespected gurus and a body of accepted teachings. However, the pressures of a rapidly changing business environment aremaking managers and leaders more and more aware of theneed for a broader scope of ideas to help in decision-makingand the encouragement of innovation. Here I have attemptedto combine conventional theories of management with conceptsand writers outside of the conventional and accepted orthodoxyat the danger of being burned at the managementstake for heresy.Yet, the original source of this work on strategic managementwas inspired by the need to provide students of the subject atbachelor and masters level with a basic script to guide theirstudies and was first published as a series of four books. Thiswas of course accompanied by face-to-face lectures and manydiscussions and term papers. It is the author's intention tohere provide a simple framework that managers and leadersas well as students and teachers of management can use as abasis for provoking thought and intention. It was because ofmany requests to provide the four sections in the form of onebook as a reader for managers and others interested instrategy that inspired me to produce this reader's edition
About the Author: I would just like to share a few words about myself so that the reader might understand a little of my background. I grew up in England with an English mother and a Texan Father. I didn't have it too easy as a youngster and finally left grammar school to take up an apprenticeship with Royal Dutch Shell as an instrument mechanic. I later became a sales engineer for Honeywell Controls and other organizations. Having married at the age of 19, my wife has been my lifelong companion and we have lived a busy and adventurous life. In our young years, we decided jointly to become teachers and took a teaching degree at London University. She majored in mathematics (so she has always looked after the 'beans') and I in religious studies (the dreams).. It was during this time that I met Hugh Schonfield and worked with him on his vision of a new society based on equity and justice. Another of his associates was Willi Haller. We became close friends with him and his family. Together we founded a community school in London to experiment with practice-oriented education for school dodgers. Later we joined Willi in Germany at the founding of his company Interflex where I became materials manager (so I did my fair share of managing beans too). Some ten years later, I founded my own electronics company, which was finally passed on to my son Amos a couple of years ago and continues to grow, before setting to write down these thoughts. I have also founded the Arun and Sunanda Gandhi Educational Institute in Germany with Arun Gandhi whilst at a conference in Nepal as a delegate from the International Leadership and Business Society of which I am chairman. I have been lecturing strategic management and marketing to students from a wide variety of universities in both English and German for well over a decade now. One learns a lot from the interaction with others and many students bring a lot of their experience into the process. I am also a council member of the historical Sack Family Foundation, which means that I travel and interact with the most interesting people across the globe from all walks of life. All these experiences have been very enriching for me and I hope you will join us in the quest for deeper knowledge and understanding.