Competitive Advantage is another classic from the great Michael Porter. This book is more internal and organizational focused than Competitive Strategy and provides the reader a rigorous and well thought out method for understanding the core of your advantage as an organization. He gets down to the simple truths of competitive advantage in this work. In the age of endless business school, executive, and consulting jargon on whatever dressed up version of technology, methods or tools are claimed to be competitive advantage, Porter will dispel all the myths for you and provide you a clear and cogent understand of the structure of your organization and how it delivers value in a sustainable and effective way. I recommend this book for leaders, strategy analysts, organizational effectiveness consultants, and also continuous improvement professionals. It is actually a great accompaniment to the “Value Stream Mapping” approach that will expand on that method and tool set to an organization wide and financial model point of view.
Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change
In “Managing Transitions” author William Bridges explores his conception of Organizational Transitions. This stems from his research, consulting experience, and design work from another book, “Transitions”. He lays out practical questions that need to be addressed at each stage of an organizations lifecycle, how to prevent complete demise, and leadership tactics and characteristics required to manage the evolution of their organizations. I recommend this book for HR professionals, Organizational Effectiveness experts, continuous improvement experts, and Leaders and Managers in general.
On Change Management from Harvard Business Review's "10 Must Reads"
As with Harvard Business Reviews “On Strategy”, “On Change Management” is a rich resource and primer in the area of organizational change management. The variety of authors bring a broad yet deep background in the field to provide the reader with articles that have prescriptive as well as descriptive components. This book provides a pragmatic understanding of the subject matter but also provides the readers with systematic, tests and proven methods for successful change management. As with “On Strategy” many of these authors have since published books built from the core principles laid out in these articles. A must read for human resources professionals, continuous improvement experts, change agents, leaders, and anyone seeking to understand human and organizational psychology and how to get from current state to a brighter future.