Demystifying Your Business Strategy

In this book, David Lei and John Slocum offer readers a comprehensive overview of the drivers of evolutionary advantage, recognizing that sources of competitive advantage for any organization will necessarily shift and evolve in response to changes in the industry environment. Demystifying Your Business Strategy also offers practical insights on how to spot "inflection points" of strategic transition and identify signals that indicate when an organization needs to develop a new source of competitive advantage. With in-depth discussion of the four different types of business strategies that many firms pursue and the strategic disciplines that support them, this book can provide significant insight and direction to managers at all levels within an organization.

David Lei is Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. His research has examined topics such as competitive strategy, strategic alliances, global strategy, and organizational issues. He has authored/co-authored over 40 articles and consulted with numerous organizations (e.g., EDS, Texas Instruments, Corning, The Sabre Group, IBM, Fidelity Investments) on issues related to strategic planning and strategic renewal.

John W. Slocum is Professor Emeritus at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. He has consulted for numerous organizations such as Aramark, Andrews Distributing Company, Kimberly Clark, AAA, Celanese, KeySpan Energy, University of North Texas Health Science Center, NASA, and OxyChem. A former President of the Academy of Management, he is the Associate Editor of Organizational Dynamics, Journal of World Business, and Journal of Leadership & Organization Studies. He has written 24 management textbooks for Cengage Learning and is the author of The Smarter Organization (Wiley, 1994).