01 / Reading Guide
Reading Guide
Who this book is for
For business undergraduates bringing earlier courses together in a company analysis. It helps turn a catalogue of frameworks into a defensible strategic recommendation. Readers with work experience can use a familiar organisation, provided they distinguish personal impressions from evidence about its market and resources.
Prerequisites
Basic management, marketing, accounting and finance knowledge is recommended. Be able to read a simple company report and distinguish a financial indicator from an explanation of performance. The book is intended for a senior business capstone, although its chapters introduce their own strategy vocabulary.
What it covers
Eleven chapters connect organisational performance, external and internal analysis, strategic synthesis, business and corporate strategy, innovation, international competition, design and ethics. Cases and exercises provide opportunities to connect a proposed action with implementation. Strategic success is treated as a question requiring evidence and choices rather than a label attached to a well-known firm.
How to use it
Choose one organisation and define a decision it must make. Establish a performance baseline before drawing an industry diagram or resource inventory. Develop two genuinely different options, explain the trade-offs and identify a capability needed for each. Finish with implementation responsibilities and an indicator that could show your recommendation is failing. Revisit the case after reading governance so that incentives and affected stakeholders enter the analysis.
Edition and sources
The Virginia Tech edition dates to August 2020 and supplies PDF ISBN 9781949373967. Complete formats use CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. Kennedy is the primary contributor; the record separately identifies reviewers and production contributors. Update company examples before relying on them.
