List of strategy books recommended for first year MBA students.

1. Strategy
Book Recommendations
Kelley MBA CORE
Professor Greg Fisher

2. Core Strategy
Good Strategy Bad
Strategy: The Difference
and Why It Matters
• An excellent overarching
perspective on strategy
• Highlighting good versus bad
habits in strategic thinking and
action
• Great insights on strategic
thinking
• Good examples
By Richard Rumelt
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Strategy-Bad-Difference-
Matters/dp/0307886239

3. Core Strategy
Understanding Michael
Porter: The Essential
Guide to Competition and
Strategy
• Clear description and
integration of Michael Porter’s
insights and strategy concepts
• Covers Five Forces, Value
Chain, Activity Maps, Strategic
Trade Offs and Fit
• Well written with excellent
examples
By Joan Magretta
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Michael-Porter-Essential-
Competition/dp/1422160599/

4. Strategy Process + Strategy
Consulting
What I Didn't Learn in
Business School: How
Strategy Works in the Real
World
• This is a fictional story that
which beautifully illustrates the
challenge and opportunities in
applying core strategy
concepts in the real world
• Especially relevant for those
wanting a career in consulting
By Jay Barney & Trish Clifford
www.amazon.com/What-Didnt-Learn-Business-School/dp/1422157636/

5. Strategy For Consumer Goods
Playing to Win: How
Strategy Really Works
• Examines the central questions
and steps in the strategy
process
• Very practical application of core
strategic principles
• Most examples relate to P&G,
hence very relevant for those
wanting a career in consumer
goods
By A.G. Lafely & Roger Martin
http://www.amazon.com/Playing-Win-Strategy-Really-
Works/dp/142218739X/

6. Strategic Growth and
Turnarounds
Scaling Up Excellence:
Getting to More Without
Settling for Less
• Insight into the challenge of
scaling up a business or a
business process
• Useful tools and perspectives
for turning around a struggling
entity
• Engaging reading with
excellent case studies
By Robert Sutton & Huggy Rao
http://www.amazon.com/Scaling-Up-Excellence-Getting-
Settling/dp/0385347022/

7. Selling Ideas and Strategic
Initiatives
Made to Stick: Why Some
Ideas Survive and Others
Die
• For strategy to be effective,
others need to buy in to what
you are doing. This is a great
book on getting others to buy
into your ideas
• Practical framework and
excellent examples throughout
By Chip Heath and Dan Heath
http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-
Others/dp/1400064287/

8. Strategic Decision Making
Decisive: How to Make
Better Choices in Life and
Work
• Strategy is about decisions.
This is a very well researched
and well written guide to
decision making
• Applicable to everyone
whether you making billion
dollar strategic decision on
personal career decisions
By Chip Heath and Dan Heath
http://www.amazon.com/Decisive-Make-Better-Choices-
Life/dp/0307956393/

9. Strategic Questioning
A More Beautiful
Question: The Power of
Inquiry to Spark
Breakthrough Ideas
• Questioning—deeply,
imaginatively, “beautifully”—can
help us identify and solve
problems, come up with game-
changing ideas, and pursue
fresh opportunities.
• Applicable to all stages of the
strategy process especially,
analysis and adaptation.
By Warren Berger
http://www.amazon.com/More-Beautiful-Question-Inquiry-
Breakthrough/dp/1620401452/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0

10. Personal Strategy
Essentialism: The
Disciplined Pursuit of Less
• Application of key strategic
principles to personal choices
and actions
• Makes strategy relevant in
every aspect of life
• Links back to many concepts
from class and applies them in
more personal settings
By Greg Mckeown
http://www.amazon.com/Essentialism-Disciplined-Pursuit-Greg-
McKeown/dp/0804137382/

11. Leadership
Give and Take: Why
Helping Others Drives Our
Success
• This book offers some of the
most valuable advice into
leadership
• To be effective in strategy one
needs to lead others and this
book provides an insight into
the actions and perspective of
truly effective leaders
By Adam Grant
http://www.amazon.com/Give-Take-Helping-Others-
Success/dp/0143124986/

12. Global Strategy
World 3.0: Global
Prosperity and How to
Achieve It
• Great insight into global
dynamics
• Examines the challenges and
opportunities of doing business
in a global economy
By Pankaj Ghemawat
http://www.amazon.com/World-3-0-Global-Prosperity-
Achieve/dp/142213864X/

13. Happy Reading!