Description
How do the Japanese do it? How do they manage to get there faster, better, and cheaper so often?It's a question that has been asked again and again in recent years-and answered in various ways by various Japan-watchers, some of impeัั- able credentials. Yet somehow the puzzle con- tinues 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 pro- cess, as observed and practiced by a uniquely qualified Japanese "insider," which is described for the first time in this remarkable book.The Mind of the Strategist is neither a conven- tional formulas-for-success-in-business book nor another routine sociological analysis of the Japa- nese approach to life and business. It is a close- up, real-life look at the art of strategic thinking by Japan's best-known strategy consultant: Kenichi Ohmae, managing director of McKinsey & Com- pany's offices in Japan and adviser to leading cor- porations around the world. Ohmae presents no magic formulas. Nor does he claim to have discov- ered 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, sec- ond, to show how they have actually been forged into winning business strategies by such Japa- nese giants as Sony, Nissan, Yamaha, Mitsubishi, Honda, and Matsushita. He shows the creative strategist's mind in action: weighing the com- pany's strategic strengths and weaknesses, sizing up the options open to competitors, identifying the real wants and needs of the customer, and trans- lating 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 "the strategic triangle" 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, The Mind of the Strategist 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.ISBN:0070475954
