Beyond Theory
In Summary Vijay Ramachandran
What I Didn’t Learn In Business School
By Jay Barney & Trish Gorman Clifford
Published by Harvard Business School Press.
Rs 700
How do you craft and deploy strategy and strategic initiatives knowing that your colleagues are hardworking, smart, lethargic, insecure, and looking out only for themselves? In short, in a practical scenario that's as different from theoretical case studies as chalk from cheese. While going over the rather interesting situation that the protagonist finds himself in, you'll relate to how theory flies out of the window when colliding with reality.
Given my background in mainstream media, I could relate to the petty politicking and the minefield that human dynamics can become when attempting to bring order to the chaos that strategy often morphs into. What this book advocates is a part-art, part-science approach-get that right and you'll figure why some organizations outperform others and why some teams stay more charged. This is a great read for also understanding why the best of MBAs can find themselves at sea when confronted with a situation that doesn't 'fit' into standard frameworks.
Read on for excerpts from reviews of this book from three IT leaders
CIO REVIEWS Expand all | Collapse all
Tarun Pandey Vice President-IT, Aditya Birla Financial Services
An engaging book, it combines storytelling with lessons on strategy management. The focus is on self-learning rather than criticizing what was not taught or learned. Importantly, all the characters in the book reflect the realities of corporate life. Through the experiences of Justin Campbell, a business graduate, we learn about the real world limitation of the best of management theories in dealing with human psychology, office politics, biases, and the aspirations and insecurity of employees. We also get an insight into the collaborative role of teams. Overall, an excellent read.
Ajay Kumar Meher VP-IT and New Media, Multi Screen Media
I believe this book helps us better appreciate the fact that despite models and management theory, both planning and strategy can wildly vary depending on who is involved in decision making-given individual personalities, mindsets and biases. The book also points to a systematic approach to tackling problems by drilling down to the details. All in all, it makes a good case for tweaking generic strategy theory to help turn good ideas into profitable business. This book is definitely a must-read.
Veneeth Purushotaman Head-Technology, HyperCITY Retail
Despite the title, Jay and Trish's book will make sense to even those executives who are not from a business school. I love the fact that Justin is portrayed as a vulnerable guy-next-door, and not a hero who has answers to all problems. On his corporate journey, Justin not only quickly learns that he has to start unlearning the strategies that seemed to make sense, but he also realizes that the politics and internal dynamics of a workplace are eons away from the case studies he had poured over. I specially liked the chapter-wise reading list which can act as a preparatory step or a post-read revision.
