Recommended Books

Michael Porter described this book as “the most important single contribution” in taking his original ideas on ways of achieving competitive advantage forward. The book is easy to read and contains numerous ideas to help reshape and challenge strategic thought processes. The authors develop Porter’s 5 forces model, introducing a sixth force – complementors. They emphasise the advantages of co-operation and look at using game theory for business strategy.

Competitive Intelligence Advantage starts from a marketing perspective and emphasises that successful competitive intelligence results in successful marketing. The book explains the difference between data and intelligence, and the importance of looking at the whole business environment. Competitive Intelligence should not be viewed as a cost that has to be borne – but as an investment in the future that saves money and provides immediate value – that when done consistently will lead to competitive advantage.

As the title suggests, Kirk Tyson’s book aims to be a comprehensive manual of competitive intelligence techniques. Although, there have been, so far, 5 editions of this book, it is expensive. However, it is well worth the money as it covers the topic in depth. Although each edition was updated, the older editions are still mostly valid as an initial primer to competitive intelligence. The SCIP edition was a special update at a lower price.

John Nolan is a master at uncovering competitive intelligence from primary sources. Nolan shows some of his techniques – who to ask, what to ask, when to ask and how to ask. An essential book on how to get intelligence through interviewing and elicitation and also how to protect your organisation’s intelligence secrets. It shows how to legally obtain competitor business secrets without crossing the line into industrial espionage and illegality.

Competitors shows you how to determine what you need to know about competitors, analyse competitor strategy, predict likely next moves and link this into your own operations, avoiding many errors associated with traditional approaches. Liam Fahey is a leading writer on Competitive Intelligence Strategy and this book introduces Fahey’s concept of “competitor learning”, giving guidelines for identifying and analysing key competitor data to help gain strategic insights. An important book – that should sit on any CI analyst’s bookshelf.

Ben Gilad is a noted and well-respected competitive intelligence thought-leader – and Business Blindspots was one of his first books. Unfortunately the third edition, which includes comments and updates to the previous two editions, is only available as a Kindle e-book (GBP) (US$). The book covers the blindspots that affect businesses and prevent them from seeing the threats that could damage them resulting in them missing opportunities that would help them grow. It covers the myths, assumptions and taboos present in all businesses – and the importance of developing a process to identify these and negate them.

Competitor Strategy is essential reading – for students, managers, academics and anyone who needs to know how to monitor competitors. This text introduces Porter’s 5-Forces model – used to understand the forces acting on companies and industries as well as the key 4-corners analysis technique for anticipating competitor future moves. My only reservation is that the book is not an easy read. Michael Porter, the book’s author, is often viewed as the father of competitive intelligence as a management discipline – and this book was the start.

Following on from where Competitive Strategy left off, this classic text offers ideas and techniques for analysing companies – so as to gain an understanding of their success or failure. The book introduces the Value Chain concept for analysing company strengths and weaknesses.”

Michael Porter, in the 1998 introduction to his book Competitive Strategy mentions a few books that have moved his original ideas forward. This is one of them. Oster’s book is a thorough analysis of the subject, with a strong mixture of theory combined with practical examples. The book emphasises that a full understanding of economic and managerial principles can make a striking difference in the quality of the strategic planning of an organisation and provide guidelines for effective corporate strategies. Covering areas in economics not treated in most other management and strategic planning books (eg game theory, added value analysis, etc.), Modern Competitive Analysis offers real guidance to forward-thinking management.

Clayton Christiansen has specialised in the concept of disruptive innovation i.e. innovations that change industries and result in incumbents losing business. In this book he examines the processes behind “disruptive innovation” and looks at why some new emerging technologies succeed whereas others fail to take off. The book answers the question as to why established market leaders often lose their throne to a newcomer offering a new way of doing things. Also provided are suggestions on what companies can try to do to save themselves when faced with new untested technologies.

If there is one book that is head and shoulders above other scenario planning books, this is it. Schwartz’s book is a joy to read and gives a tremendous introduction to the subject, leaving the reader with a firm grounding and understanding in the way that scenario planning has helped many companies gain competitive advantage in their industries. The text includes many case studies and anecdotes making it a must-read book. Peter Schwartz is not only one of the world’s leading scenario planners – but an excellent writer also. (Schwartz has also written a short supplement in 2011 called Learnings from the Long View (UK). (US). which updates and reports on the scenarios in the original book. The update is worth adding to the main book but not as a standalone text).

Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning deals with the process of developing and implementing a marketing strategy with a focus on creating superior market performance. It looks at ways of identifying and finding out about target markets, customers and how to differentiate the company from competitors through appropriate market positioning. The book considers both offensive and defensive competitor strategies and includes some great case-studies. It places competitive positioning at the heart of marketing strategy and includes in-depth discussion of the processes used in marketing to achieve competitive advantage.

A new way of looking at industries, challenging existing models on how value is created for companies. The book presents a new model – the value net, which aims at helping users to deal with problems assessing value in contemporary business and competitive systems.

Although the back cover says that the book is highly readable, we found that it was not the easiest read. However it is a worthwhile read and gives new ideas for understanding industries, companies and competitive strategy.

Nassim Taleb’s bestseller shows how to stop trying to predict everything – and take advantage of uncertainty. The book looks at how unpredictable, random events play major roles in our lives – whether in business or personal life. Such “black swan” events have huge impact but are impossible to predict, yet in hindsight they appear obvious. Taleb looks at ways to build robust business models that can cope with such events.

Kees Van Der Heiden’s book gives a more thorough and theoretical grounding into the subject of scenario planning than Peter Schwartz’s The Art of the Long View. Although this makes it a more difficult book to read, it is still an excellent book and gives a comprehensive view of the theory of scenario planning and how to construct workable scenarios.

Everything we do involves forecasts about the future. In Superforecasting, Tetlock looks at what makes a good forecaster – and shows that the average expert is only slightly better than a layperson guessing what’s next. However there are people who can predict the future with much greater accuracy and in a major project putting government experts against a range of ordinary people, he shows how and why the “ordinary” people achieve better results than professional intelligence analysts.

One of the very best texts on marketing. Marketing Management covers all aspects of marketing management, from direct and on-line marketing to marketing planning and marketing strategy. Philip Kotler is one of the leading marketing gurus and this book shows why. If you can only buy one book on marketing management then this is the one to purchase. Kotler (and co-writer Gary Armstrong) has also written Principles of Marketing (UK£) / (US$). This is an essential guide to marketing and the two books give a comprehensive view of all aspects of the subject.

Marketing Plans is an extremely comprehensive and well-written guide to preparing and using marketing plans. It is aimed at both students and practitioners – and is an essential reference to best practice that all marketing managers should be familiar with. The book explains the marketing planning process from initial assessment to profit targets using a step-by-step approach on how to devise a marketing plan and includes questions, case histories and diagrams. For a different view of this topic Malcolm McDonald and Peter Morris’s Marketing Plans: A Complete Guide in Pictures (UK£) / (US$) is interesting. This is a cartoon book illustrating the marketing planning process and a lot more – marketing analysis and theory. It makes a great revision book and also simplifies the concepts in the highly visual way that make cartoons such a great learning tool.

A fun book that looks at the strategies companies take to compete in the marketplace. The book examines strategies from the great military generals such as von Clausewitz and applies them to the business world. (In this context, the ideas are similar to those looking at Sun Tzu and business – except that von Clausewitz is currently less fashionable).

Ries & Trout are two major authors on marketing strategy, guerilla marketing and similar concepts. This book gives a good introduction to their approach and is highly recommended.

This is an update to Offensive Marketing by Hugh Davidson and another easy-read. The book looks at how marketing strategy can be used to gain competitive advantage – and introduces the authors POISE (Profitable, Offensive, Integrated, Strategic, Effectively Executed) framework to to strategy design. POISE brings together advances in strategy, innovation, and approach to produce a clear strategy and new level of effectiveness that gives market results.

This is an update to Offensive Marketing by Hugh Davidson and another easy-read. The book looks at how marketing strategy can be used to gain competitive advantage – and introduces the authors POISE (Profitable, Offensive, Integrated, Strategic, Effectively Executed) framework to to strategy design. POISE brings together advances in strategy, innovation, and approach to produce a clear strategy and new level of effectiveness that gives market results.