Lords of Strategy

the story of the men, ideas and organizations that revolutionized how we understand business.

Imagine, if you can, the world of business without corporate strategy.

Remarkably, fifty years ago that's the way it was. Businesses made plans, certainly, but without understanding the underlying dynamics of competition, costs, and customers. It was like trying to design a large-scale engineering project without knowing the laws of physics.

but in the 1960s, four mavericks and their posses created instigated a profound shift in thinking that turbocharged business as never before, with implications far beyond what even they imagined. in The Lords of Strategy, renowned business journalist and editor Walter Kiechel tells, for the first time, the story of the four men who invented corporate strategy as we know it and set in motion the modern, multibillion-dollar consulting industry:

• Bruce Henderson, founder of Boston Consulting Group
  
• Bill Bain, creator of Bain & Company
  
• Fred Gluck, longtime Managing Director of McKinsey & Company
  
• Michael Porter, Harvard Business School professor

Providing a window into how to think about strategy today, Kiechel tells their story with novelistic flair. At times inspiring, at times nearly terrifying, this book is a revealing account of how these iconoclasts and the organizations they led revolutionized the way we think about business, changed the very soul of the corporation, and transformed the way we work.

(McGraw-Hill)

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<br>"[Kiechel's] 'The Lords of Strategy' is a clear, deft and cogent portrait of what the author calls the most powerful business idea of the past half-century..." - The Wall Street Journal <br>"I must say that you've written a great book that reads almost like a juicy tell all." - Consulting Magazine <br>"Even though we are only 4 months into 2010, it is pretty likely this is going to be the best business book of the year for me. If you are considering, currently in, or recently graduated from, an MBA program, you really must read this book. If this book had been written 10 years ago, it would have saved me a good deal of trouble making my own career decisions." - RibbonFarm.com <br>Named one of "5 Smart Books" on the origins of the strategies - SmartMoney.com <br>..".Kiechel has done a real service...in bringing his subject to life. The book serves as a primer as well as a history, and as such almost any executive or B-school student would do well to pick it up." --The Co

(McGraw-Hill)

Walter Kiechel III has been the editorial director of Harvard Business Publishing and the managing editor at Fortune magazine. He has written articles and columns on all aspects of business, and is the author of a previous book, Office Hours: A Guide to the Managerial Life (Little, Brown, 1989). He received AB, MBA, and JD degrees from Harvard, and served five years in the U.S. Navy.

(McGraw-Hill)

Preface: Three Common Suppositions to Be Discarded

chapter 1: strategy as a case to be cracked

Chapter 2: Bruce Henderson Defines the Subject

chapter 3: the experience curve delivers a shock

Chapter 4: Loading the Matrix

chapter 5: what bill bain wanted

Chapter 6: Waking Up McKinsey

chapter 7: michael porter encounters the surreal

Chapter 8: The Human Stain

chapter 9: the paradigm that failed?

Chapter 10: Struggling to Make Something Actually Happen

chapter 11: breaking the world into finer pieces

Chapter 12: The Wizards of Finance Reveal Strategys True Purpose

chapter 13: how competencies came to be core

Chapter 14: The Revolution Conquers the World

chapter 15: three versions of strategy as people

Coda: The Future of Corporate Strategy

(McGraw-Hill)