Amazon.ca:Customer reviews: Better, Simpler Strategy: A Value-Based Guide to Exceptional Performance

Reconceptualized ideas of Value add that have been around forever-

Reviewed in Canada on May 29, 2021

The basic point of the book is painfully simple! Sell high , buy low! that's it...nothing new or useful in how to create a path on a new strategic direction.
In fairness the author does provide good case examples and his analysis of the cases are very interesting. Unless you have very little management experience i would skip this title and read some of the source material instead.

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Amazon Customer

Willingness to Pay and Willingness to Sell is the framework in this book

Reviewed in Canada on November 22, 2021

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More focused on business that sell products/services than on Better Simpler Strategy

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ABHIJIT SINGH BRAR

Strategy demystified, simply

Reviewed in India on May 19, 2021

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An absolutely marvelous & masterful tour de force by Prof.Felix Oberholzer-Gee.

It's astounding how simply and adeptly he demystifies the complex beast that Strategy always was purported to be. It is that very simplicity that yields the real power of the Value Stick and Value Driver Maps, which are revisited in the data-backed real-world lessons replete in each chapter, constantly underscoring their potency at the same time.

Highly recommended to anyone who wants to genuinely, and finally, get to the heart of strategy. A true nugget, worth its weight in gold.

[Tip: if you haven't the time (shockingly!) to read it cover-to-cover, a mere compilation of Felix's take-aways at the end of each chapter will more than suffice in seeing you through the strategic bottle-necks at your organisations!]

One person found this helpful

einkaeufer

Great insight into the "Value-Based Approach"

Reviewed in Germany on January 1, 2022

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A valuable angle on how to think business strategy. Thanks for your great work Mr. Oberholzer-Gee!

Kanwal

Strategy is Simple!

Reviewed in India on July 11, 2021

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Prof. Felix is outstanding in explaining strategy so simply. Strategy is simple, hope is not a strategy.

Demystify Strategy with Prof. Felix!

Bill Bigler

Excellent Book

Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2021

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This is an excellent book and a great contribution to the field of strategic management in my view.

Felix elaborates nicely on the concept of the Value Stick. This notion was presented first to my knowledge in the 1980s by a Pankaj Ghemewat, then a faculty member at the Harvard Business School. I have had intermittent stints as a strategy professor and used the concept in my MBA strategy course starting in the early 2000s. But it was a concept that I felt needed further elaboration. And I did not feel competent enough to do it for reasons below.

Enter Felix's new book. It explodes and elaborates the notion that value is created when the "wedge" or the difference between Customer Willingness to Pay and Supplier Willingness to Supply is made larger than a firms competitors' spreads. This is the, at one level, simple notion that is greatly expanded in the book.

One of the key strengths of Felix' book is the use of many company examples. And by exploding this simple concept Felix discusses, among many other things, substitution, compliments, and network effects. He does this by first focusing on the upper portion of the Value Stick - Customer Willingness to Pay. Then proceeds to discuss the bottom of the Value Stick- Supplier Willingness to Supply. All of this while discussing the Value that can be Created by strategic and tactical moves and then how to actually Capture the Value that your firm has created to monetize it.

One thing I would like to highlight. I and many other Commenters have said the notion of the Value Stick is "simple". It is in one sense. But the concept of Value in my view, and I think in Felix' view, can only be fully realized when we view the world as a "canvas of differences" (I made this phrase up and will own up to any deficiencies). Value only makes sense when we compare it to others' offerings or to the notion of opportunity cost. I have noticed the ability to continually think in differences is not widely found in U.S executives and managers. Felix' book will help greatly with honing this skill.

I won't go into detail here as one needs to read the book in Felix' words. Every strategy professional should read this book.

6 people found this helpful

Victor Franco M. Calanog

Simple but not simplistic. Read, linger, learn.

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2021

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If there is one ‘business’ book you should read this year - or perhaps for the next ten years - it should be this one.

Part of my job requires reading and reviewing 2-4 books and papers a week. Most business books tend to be merely a collection of success stories cherry-picked to prove a thesis. Few deal with the actual challenges of implementation: working with systems, people, and the realities of context, history, and trade-offs. The papers that offer nuance tend to be academic papers that few have the patience to read.

This book deftly manages to sidestep all that. The ideas it presents are simple but not simplistic. The questions it raises challenge its own propositions; the conclusions often counterintuitive and therefore insightful. There are examples of firms that succeeded, firms that failed, and what we can learn from such systematic ('general equilibrium') thinking. Entire chapters on trade-offs and execution issues bring it back to experiences of leaders and managers in the real world. It is a book that challenges you with the highest of ideals, and yet offers practical suggestions for concrete next steps.

This is, of course, not just because the author Felix Oberholzer is an award-winning teacher - he's earned some of the highest teaching awards granted by Wharton and Harvard - whose research has been published in the very best academic journals in multiple fields. Those are outcomes. It is because the author is a Renaissance man and humanist in the highest sense: he brings insatiable curiosity and a sharp mind, asking questions about what seems obvious, deriving new insights and making new connections. Not just about abstract concepts in economics and management - but about how it plays out in the real world. The chapter on complementors alone - drawing from economic thinking about substitutes and complements - can be the subject for an entire semester's course. Have many people asked the question of "why supply chains are people too"? How many business book chapters start with the link between Lady Gaga and Lipitor?

I particularly adored several chapters pushing the reader to think about what NOT to do, and where firms should UNDER-invest. While startups often face natural constraints and make decisions about trade-offs, larger companies tend to want to try to do everything - or at least be good at everything you put up on Post-It notes during 'annual brainstorming sessions.' But what would truly add value to customers, suppliers, employees? And what should be deprioritized?

I am torn between writing even more about this book, and leaving you to be delighted with its insights as you read through it yourself.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is not just about 'business and strategy.' It is a compass, a Socratic gadfly that will prompt you to ask questions about what 'adding value' means, whether it be for work, your personal life, or anything in between. Read it. Linger. Reread it. Learn.

5 people found this helpful

Thales T

Great as a text book or business book

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2021

Verified Purchase

Better Simpler Strategy is a terrific book. It describes how a variety of companies can simplify the design of their corporate strategies by focusing on value levers that impact willingness-to-pay (or -to-sell). The book offers many examples and is quick to the punchline with the insights; it is neither dense nor verbose and long-winding. I am sure the book will have a tremendous impact in corporate boardrooms and among senior executives who take time to distill its principles. I think it can be read in a course on strategy, substituting long and dense textbooks or for business people to learn and apply the frameworks.

On the desirable side, a few in-depth examples of applications in companies (as opposed to post-hoc retrofitting of the framework to explain success) would have made the book even better. In my experience, application of even the most solid business frameworks is an art and typical pitfalls are common.

2 people found this helpful

SudhP

The only book you ever need to read on strategy

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2021

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I wish this book was available sooner. With so much already said about strategy through books and research, one would wonder what can another book say? If only we read Better, Simpler strategy as the first book, we can focus on what really constitutes strategy for organizations large and small. Thank you Professor Felix for sharing your experience and knowledge through this master piece.

Srikant

Excellent read, loved the the real life examples

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2022

Verified Purchase

Professor Felix is a gifted narrator, loved the way he combined his theories with practical examples from the industry. This style of explanation is really helpful for a beginner like me without any leadership/management background to peek into that world and build a mental model related to value creation. I've started seeing the businesses he mentioned in the book with a different perspective after reading this, thank you Professor.

5 star		71%
4 star		20%
3 star		6%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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