Using the Law for Competitive Advantage (University of Michigan Business School Management Series) - Hardcover

Siedel, George J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0787956236 ISBN 13: 9780787956233

Publisher: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub, 2002

Synopsis

The law has become an enabler that allows firms to expand globally, develop entrepreneurial ventures, establish a customer-focused company, and create corporate values. Using the Law for Competitive Advantage reveals the link between business objectives and legal objectives and explains how the law can help create competitive advantage for a company. Drawing on the latest research and numerous examples from business, the author shows how to manage legal resources to gain an edge in the marketplace in a cost-effective manner. He tells how to reframe legal problems as business problems. And he explains how to use legal frameworks to create both value and values for the company. In addition, the book includes practical, hands-on tools that managers can use to deal with a variety of stakeholders and legal concerns.

About this title

About the Author

George J. Siedel is Williamson Family Professor of Business Administration at the University of Michigan Business School. He has received several research and teaching awards, including the Hoeber Award from the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, the International Case Writing Award from the Center for International Business Education, and the Thurnau Professorship from the University of Michigan.
He has served as a visiting professor at Harvard University, Stanford University, and Cambridge University, and in 2001 was named as Fulbright Distinguished Chair in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

From the Back Cover

The law has become an enabler that allows firms to expand globally, develop entrepreneurial ventures, establish a customer-focused company, and create corporate values. This book reveals the link between business objectives and legal objectives and explains how the law can help create competitive advantage for a company. Drawing on the latest research and numerous examples from business, the author shows how to manage legal resources to gain an edge in the marketplace in a cost-effective manner. He tells how to reframe legal problems as business problems. And he explains how to use legal frameworks to create both value and values for the company. In addition, the book includes practical, hands-on tools that managers can use to deal with a variety of stakeholders and legal concerns.

From the Inside Flap

The law touches almost every aspect of a manager's work. All types of business organizations show an increasing appreciation for the importance of law, as the globalization of business has fostered rapid changes in the law of contracts, environmental protection, securities regulation, and many other areas. These changes, says George Siedel, have created new opportunities for competitive advantage. Savvy managers can use the law to reduce their costs and develop products that are unique and priced lower than those of competitors-if they know how.

Using the Law for Competitive Advantage provides a four-step process, the Manager's Legal Plan, that can help managers not only defend against costly and wasteful litigation, but actually turn legal resources into competitive assets as they address legal concerns on a daily basis. This tenth book in the University of Michigan Business School series shows managers how to:
* Understand the law more broadly than the immediate legal challenge
* Determine whether conventional legal approaches can be used to resolve legal concerns
* Develop business strategies and solutions to minimize future legal problems
* Reframe legal concerns as business opportunities
Siedel illustrates how the process can be used to address many of the most troubling problems facing managers today, including product liability, workers' compensation, wrongful discharge, sexual harassment, and environmental regulation. He tells how to obtain the best legal resources and maximize their value, provides management tools for resolving disputes in a cost-effective manner, and shows how to use the Manager's Legal Plan to encourage ethical decision making.

Edition details

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0787956236
• ISBN 13: 9780787956233
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 206