Economics-and-finance

This book reinforces the worst stereotypes for consultants. The language is bombastic, e.g., "Small businesses are bounded by geographies." The author makes up such laws as "The Law of Focus," which he refers to several times, but which he never defines. Then there is the self-hedging "Law of Gradual Improvement," which says, "Incremental improvement to strategic elements may produce a quantum leap overall: '2+2=5' arithmetic." The author also gives us the "Power of N Principle = Size of Market x Success Probability."

Mistakes are common; I particularly liked this one: The Cadillac Cimmaron "only imitated what the segment really wanted - low gas mileage and reliability."

More troublesome, though, was the author's confused nomenclature. On page 6, the author constructs a table that includes the columns "Volume (Units)" and "Percent of of (sic) Volume." The data in the latter column, however, are actually percent of sales dollars, not percent of units sold.

I futilely attempted to sort out the meaning of several paragraphs on page 33, including this one: ".... a final step, rank your top customer types using these same decision criteria to determine your final three customer segments." The first problem was that "these same decision criteria" referred to, seemingly, nothing. The second problem was the author had previously used "customer type" and "customer segment" interchangeably, including on that very same page.

The book actually covers the topics you would expect, but there are too many errors and too much baloney.

A great resource for small business owners who need to understand the full range of marketing inj a limited amount of time.

Very well written with suberb examples. A good plain-language introduction to sociotechnical systems design - Harvey Kolodny, Professor, Faculty of Management, University of Toront

I personally use this book as a reference guide many times in my day-to-day business and I find the examples particularly helpful Hermann Jakob, Launch Planning & Training Manager, Ford Europ

For years, all the books available on organization design were written at too high a level of abstraction for practicing managers or were so enmeshed in detail that they simultaneously confused and bored the reader. At last, with The 20% Solution, John Cotter has provided a readable and practical guide to designing organizations for todayÍs business environments. This book is a real treasure chest of ideas. A must read! - Leonard A. Schlesinger, George F. Baker Jr., Professor of Business Administration, Ha

Ponceano is great. He has years of experience and has a lot of great advice for the new business owner.

Don't waste your time on this book and don't waste any more of your time considering purchasing this book. I've never read a book which is so confusing and pointless. 20/20 Insight is the wrong title - they should call it "Read this book and you won't be able to see a thing" or "Turn off the lights and begin to not understand anything about business." This guy must be blind when it comes to the world of consulting. I've never been so confused after reading a book. I kept reading hoping things would get better, but I just become more and more confused. His examples are silly and don't really apply. Again, don't read this book!!!!!

I found this book to be excellent!! Anyone that wants to transform their life, finances and business should read this book. Randy Gibbs puts everything into perspective and very manageable so that anyone can make the proper changes. I highly recommend this book to anyone!!

Randys insights into making lasting changes are among the best I have ever read or tried. He delivers real everyday "How To's" and it's obvious that he teaches what he has done himself. This is one of the best books I have read and used.

A must for anyone considering starting up a business however large or small. The author has interviewed entrepreneurs who have started their own companies - tiny ones you still haven't heard of, all the way up to Domino's Pizza. The insights they give into the pitfalls of company start-ups are priceless and take the reader through from the initial back-of-an-envelope ideas for their businesses right up to their launch and the first faltering footsteps. Even if you avoid one major start-up clanger by reading this book, it will have paid for itself many times over. Invaluable.

It would be hard to find someone better qualified for a book about successful business practise than Rachelle Thackray. Anyone who has followed her columns in the Independent Newspaper over the last four years - Me and My Partner, The Digerati, My Biggest Mistake - will be familiar with the breadth of the interviewees she has covered, from the music business to deep sea salvage, from hotel designing to ethical farming. She clearly has the ability to not only ask the crucial question but formulate the replies into a priceless objective wisdom. Thoroughly recommended for all prospective or seasoned entrepeneurs, whether to study in one gulp or to pick up intermitently for bite-sized quotes and thoughts. If the book teaches anything, it is that in business you stop learning at your peril.

The book provides no exciting findings for strategic decision makers. The only idea this book has is to distinguish uncertainties into four levels and it uses this four-level frame in its following discussions. And even the four-level classification is cliche. You can skip contents after chapter 3 without regretting anything.

"If you want to make better strategy choices under uncertainty, then you have to understand the uncertainty you are facing. .... you must embrace uncertainty, ... get to know it." This is the basic thesis of the book, which suggests that:
• there are four basic levels of 'residual uncertainty', which the author defines as 'the uncertainty left after the best available analysis to separate the unknown from the unknowable', each of which requires a different strategic response
• strategy under uncertainty requires arriving at the best possible answers to five basic questions:
- shape or adapt (eg seek to shape a market or adapt to an existing market)
- Now or later
- focus or diversify - for example a strategic portfolio
- should we use new tools and Frameworks - the author explores scenarios, game theory and systems dynamics among others
- new strategic planning and decision making processes - should we challenge a traditional planning cycle or set of decision processes?

• Management should operate with a four step process:
- Define the strategic issue and the level of residual uncertainty
- Frame possible solutions
- Analyze possible solutions and make strategy choices
- Monitor and update strategy choices over time

• The appropriate approach is issue related, not organization related. Organizations in stable environments may encounter major strategic issues involving high residual uncertainty, while those in very dynamic environments may have issues involving low uncertainty. The strategic process must be appropriate to the situation.

The book is concerned with how to answer the five basic questions above in the context of each level of uncertainty, and which tools are most appropriate for guiding the decision process. The tools discussed in the Appendix "The Uncertainty Toolkit" are:
scenario planning
game theory
decision analysis
systems dynamics models
management flight simulators.
In essence, what the author has done is to frame a set of known tools and principles within McKinsey's preferred structure of analytical rigour. If you still believe that 'classical' strategic planning round the business case is the only way to approach strategy, the book may help widen your options. If you are already familiar with the various tools offered, the main benefit of the book will be to provide a useful reminder that levels of uncertainty differ, and a framework for thinking about your own situation and response to it. Perhaps the most important message in the book is not to assume uncertainty until you have carried out the analysis needed to separate the knowable from the truly uncertain.

Would highly recommend this book to anybody who is looking to find strategic tools that help resolve problems under uncertain contexts.

Most books out there (Porter's Competetive Advantage, Co-opetition, Competing for the future, Decision Analysis books, and many more) talk about one tool/methodology or one way of resolving the strategic problem. This book takes a different path in that all good tools are used together and it is hoped that by viewing the well defined structured problem using these tools would help you come to conclusions in differing levels of uncertainity (obviously the problem context has levels of uncertainity or risk).

Four levels of certainity are defined and tools that would help under those circumstances are clearly listed. For most of the tools - how to use those tools is upto you to figure out. However, having said that the Appendix section does lists further reading, that would help you get started in learning about _some_ of the tools used in the book. I found the tools lists to be very useful. After reading the book I knew _exactly_ what tools to use under my circumstances.

If you have spent time reading strategy (Mintzberg, Ghemawat, Hamel, Kaplan et al, Porter, Prahalad, Day, systems engineering approaches...), you'll find good use on how to put togther all those analysis methodologies into one framework and come to conslusions.

I wish the book actually walked through some cases and used the tools listed to arrive at conclusions. Cases in differing levels of uncertainity would have been very helpful (hence 4 stars).

Finally, this is my first McKinsey book (McKinsey brand leveraged book) among others that walk the talk (others being Valuation and the McKinsey Way/McKinsey Mind).

Recommended.

This is the worst investment book that I ever bought. How the author ever managed to get published is beyond me. Example: "Way #XX: Don't buy on margin, it's too complicated." There may be reasons not to buy on margin, but come on. I honestly got the impression that margin was too complicated for the author to understand. He gave a money example, showing how you will loose on margin even when the stock price rises that was just flat out wrong. I couldn't believe it.

a very factual to the point book. very unlike most books about the markets which are mostly author biographies, war stories, and personal opinions. this one gives a good illustration of how peddlers and sharks of the business work their craft.