Competitive Solutions: The Strategist's Toolkit

R. Preston McAfee

ISBN 10: 0691124035 / ISBN 13: 9780691124032

Published by Princeton University Press, 2005

About this Item

Beschriftungen / Markierungen bis 20 %; Gebrochener Buchrücken. Competitive Solutions offers an engaging introduction to effective business methods across various real-world scenarios. Rejecting a one-size-fits-all approach, Preston McAfee equips readers with the intellectual tools necessary to tackle marketplace challenges. Drawing from his extensive consulting experience with major U.S. companies and thorough research, he highlights the importance of cooperation, pricing, litigation, and antitrust in shaping a firm's competitive stance. The book begins with an analysis of strategy as exemplified by America Online, introducing key concepts that are explored in greater detail later. McAfee delves into industry analysis, demonstrating how positioning and differentiation can reduce price competition and deter rivals. His insights into the product life cycle serve as a guide for effectively positioning new technologies to attract future customers. Central to the book is a practical manual for fostering cooperation, detailing tactics for standard-setting, government lobbying, and industry growth. McAfee's conversational style addresses complex topics such as organizational design and employee incentives. He also provides in-depth discussions on antitrust enforcement, pricing strategies, bidding, signaling, and bargaining. This work is a compelling exploration of modern business strategy, making it an essential resource for students, executives, and managers alike, presenting a cohesive vision.

Seller Inventory # 764466fd-ba0e-4bf4-9970-cfbaf6678551

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Competitive Solutions: The Strategist's Toolkit
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691124035
• ISBN 13: 9780691124032
• Binding: Softcover
• Condition: Fair
• Seller catalogs:
  • Economics

About this title

Synopsis

Competitive Solutions is an entertaining and wideranging introduction to successful business methods applied to a variety of real-world situations. Rejecting the one-size-fits-all premise that underlies so many guides to business strategy, Preston McAfee develops the intellectual tools and insights needed to confront many marketplace problems. Drawing on his broad experience as a consultant for major U.S. companies, as well as extensive research, McAfee emphasizes cooperation, pricing, litigation, and antitrust as vital to a firm's competitive posture--and focuses more attention on these elements than do most business strategy accounts.

McAfee begins by considering strategy as successfully applied by America OnLine, an example that introduces many of the tools discussed in greater depth throughout the book. From here he moves to industry analysis: By examining the context for developing a strategy, he points out uses of positioning and differentiation that enable a firm to weaken price competition and deter rivals from stealing customers. McAfee's exploration of a product's life cycle proves an invaluable guide to positioning new technology in order to maximize the potential for future customers.

In the centerpiece of the book, McAfee lays out a how-to manual for cooperation, providing tactics crucial for setting standards, lobbying the government, and fostering industry growth. Writing in a conversational manner, McAfee also addresses such deep topics as organizational design and employee compensation and incentives. More detailed discussions examine antitrust enforcement, which is an increasingly important constraint on strategy, as well as strategies for pricing, bidding, signaling, and bargaining.

This book is a fascinating examination of modern business strategy and its application in many different settings. Students of business and economics--as well as executives and managers--will recognize Competitive Solutions as an indispensable resource as well as a definitive vision of the strategic firm: one in which each element of company strategy reinforces the other elements.

About the Author

R. Preston McAfee is J. Stanley Johnson Professor of Business, Economics, and Management at the California Institute of Technology. One of North America's leading experts in industrial organization, he is the author of dozens of papers on antitrust, pricing, auctions, and business strategy and coeditor of the American Economic Review. McAfee codesigned the Federal Communication Commission's PCS auctions, which raised $20 billion, and served as an expert for the Federal Trade Commission on a variety of matters, including the Exxon-Mobil and BP-Arco mergers.