NOTA |
()(How do the Japanese do it? How do they manage to get there faster, better, and cheaper so often?@^ItLs a question that has been asked again and again in recent years --and answered in various ways by various Japan-watchers, some of impeccable credentials. Yet somehow the puzzle continues to perplex American business executives. Explanations by Westerners are all very well, but they inevitably miss the core of the matter : how winning strategies actually take shape in the mind of the Japanese business strategist. It is that process, as observed and practiced by a uniquely qualified Japanese LinsiderL, which is described for the first time in this remarkable book.^@LThe Mind of the StrategistL is neither a conventional formulas-for-success-in-business book nor another routine sociological analysis of the Japanese approach to life and business. It is a close-up, real-life look at the art of strategic thinking by JapanLs best-known strategy consultant : Kenichi Ohmae, managing director of McKinsey & CompanyLs offices in Japan and adviser to leading corporations around the world. Ohmae presents no magic formulas. Nor does he claim to have discovered the key strategic principles presented in The Mind of the Strategist. What he has done is, first, to bring these principles to life by setting them out in his own dynamic personal perspective and, second, to show how they have actually been forged into winning business strategies by such Japanese giants as Sony, Nissan, Yamaha, Mitsubishi, Honda, and Matsushita.^@He shows the creative strategistLs mind in action : weighing the companyLs strategic strengths and weaknesses, sizing up the options open to competitors, identifying the real wants and needs of the customer, and translating strategic concepts into successful business action.^@His book is full of simple but powerful ideas presented with a freshness and conviction that should stir the imagination of any business executive. He sets out the concept of strategic advantage and describes four distinct methods of capturing it. He describes the dynamics of what he calls Lthe strategic triangleL and shows how effective strategies can be devised through focusing on any one of its three components : company, customer, competitions. Virtually every point is illustrated with concrete examples from the fiercely competitive world of Japanese business.^@For all its richness of content, LThe Mind of the StrategistL makes easy and entertaining reading. Chapter after chapter abounds with provocative ideas, vivid anecdotes, and bold challenges to conventional wisdom. Here Kenichi Ohmae offers American business readers not only a privileged glimpse into the minds of their Japanese competitors but a deeper insight into their own businesses as well.^@Kenichi Ohmae is a man in whom East and West definitely do meet. He was born and bred in Yokohama and came as a young man to M.I.T., where he got his doctorate degree. He is now managing director of the Tokyo office of McKinsey & Company. He has served as a consultant to leading business firms not only in Japan but also in Europe and the United States.^@He has been widely published in Japan. And, as a matter of fact, this present work,LThe Mind of the StrategistL, is based on his best-selling Japanese work, LThe Corporate StrategistL, which has sold well over 100,000 copies since publication. He is also widely cited as an authority on corporate strategy in such U.S. business publications as The Wall Street Journal and Business Week.^) |