The author talks about 'Big Ideas' that companies come up with or adopt, which are instrumental in shaping their strategic management decisions.

According to Hugh McDonald, a lecturer at the Cranfield School of business, these 'big' ideas have a life cycle of 11-13 years. The book talks about various organizations that have adopted some or the other big idea(s). GE has adopted the idea of 'Work Out' and 'Six Sigma' and its strategic decisions have been based on it. The automobile sector has adopted ideas like Total Quality Management, Just-in-time, decentralization and lean production.

Another concept the book talks about is Richard Pascale's idea of looking at living organisms as a business model. Companies like BP, Shell and HP have viewed themselves as living organisms, which evolve into change, rather than being driven to it. This type of thinking has influenced the strategic decisions that these companies have taken over the years.

The author also talks about several other 'big' ideas that have emerged over the years that help formulate strategy. She feels that businesses nowadays must adopt the 'three click culture', which essentially refers to taking business decisions very quickly (in the so-called 'Net' time).

The author goes on to differentiate the way old- and new-economies formulate strategy, by likening it to the difference between a bus and a car - take a preset path or go where the user takes you.

The author finally talks about Andrew Grove, chairman of Intel's theory of Strategic Inflection Points (SIPs); these are events, usually but not always technological, whose impact is hard to see at that time, but which leave a permanent change in the way businesses function.

Thus, the book has several examples of strategic management by companies based on 'big' ideas.

* Contributed by -
Sathyanarayana Jayapaul,
PGP 2003 -2005,
XIM Bhubaneswar.