Strategic Management

Regularly considered to be the cap-stone course on any business or management degree, strategy has developed into a wide-ranging and sometimes overwhelming field of study. However, in recent years the theory of strategy has come under increasing scrutiny for its perceived failures and detachment from real world practice. With an engaging and conversational tone, this new concise textbook offers an accessible and timely review of the theory and practice of strategic management, explored from a more critical perspective. In a refreshing change from much of the literature, Richard Godfrey takes a wider view of strategy, incorporating insights from the worlds of sociology, psychology and history to highlight the complexity and plurality at the heart of the discipline. The book also incorporates a number of extensive case studies on contemporary business strategy from the likes of Apple, Nike, Zara and IKEA. Written for both an undergraduate and postgraduate audience, the book challenges a number of underlying assumption and beliefs about strategy and seeks to add clarity and context to the field.

Richard Godfrey is a scientist who began working with elite GB sportspeople in 1991 and has been an academic at a university in SE England for the last two decades. He was born in Glasgow and brought up in Bearsden, a town in the West of Scotland. He discovered writing poetry 'by accident' in the 1970s and tried to apply a few of the lessons he had learnt during secondary school English classes.
In this way, creative writing served many purposes, including self-discovery, finding meaning in life, gaining a better understanding of the weather, natural history, work, relationships, disappointment, loss, and more.

1. What is Strategy? 2. Strategy: A Brief History 3. Strategy by design and an emergent critique (part 1) 4. Strategy by design and an emergent critique (part 2) 5. Constructing Strategy for the Multi-Business Firm 6. Constructing Strategy from the Outside-In 7. Constructing strategy from the inside-out 8. Creating Strategy through Value Innovation Case Study 1: IKEA: Daring to Be Different Case Study 2: Fast Fashion at Zara Case Study 3: Innovation and Change at Nike Case Study 4: Apple Inc. in 2014