Strategic Management by Finlay - Book Report/Review Example

• Providing examples:

In order to express the views of strategic management in the book, the author used examples of Ford Motor Company and British Steel. The examples are effective to identify the organisational strategies to run the business activities in aproper way (Finlay, 2000). Though the examples are important, it is from long time ago as the book was published 15 years ago. Therefore, it is difficult to analyse the current market structure with the help of the strategic decision taken to deal with the market 15 years ago (Finlay, 2000). Therefore, it is quiet hard to compare the organisational strategies in the recent years with 15 years ago.

• Language:

The language of this text book is sophisticated and there are several terms which are appropriate for strategic marketing (Wodak and Meyer, 2015). For expressing the information in the book, the author sometime used difficult terms such as value chain, global competitive market, marketing mix strategiesetc. which are quiet hard for the reader to understand at first time. The author provided all the syntax in the book but it is still difficult for the people who are not familiar with the management terms (Finlay, 2000). Therefore, it is sometime difficult to understand the content in this book.

• Figures and diagrams:

There are proper diagrams in this book to explain the ideas and information about strategic management (Finlay, 2000). The readers who are familiar with the subject can understand the diagrams. However, there is no such appropriate caption of the diagrams. Therefore, the reader needs to connect the diagram with the content (Adie et al., 2013). Moreover, lack of referencing the initial source for the diagram increase complications to understand the ideas behind it (Finlay, 2000). There is lack of explanation of the diagrams for which it is not easy to improve own understanding and knowledge from the diagram.

• Content development:

The content of the book is quiet appropriate to improve own understanding about the topic. Proper explanation ofthe strategies and competitive market analysis are helpful in this text book to analyse the market structure and organisational activities (Finlay, 2000). The content is understandable for the reader and it is appropriate for developing knowledge about business environment and value chain (Finlay, 2000). Porter’s five forces model was incorporated to understand the business environment (Juffermans and Van der Aa, 2013). Complex content in describing the Porter’s five forces model can change the perception of the reader. The value chain analysis provides a scope to the reader to develop own ideas about the production and distribution process of goods and services (Rothaermel, 2015). On the other hand, the discussion on competitive arena is essential to gain more knowledge about the competitive business environment and strategies of the multinational corporations to secure competitive advantage in the international market (Mellahi and Frynas, 2015).

Therefore, the book is overall appropriate for providing all the relevant information about the strategic management and organisational planning process to gain competitive advantage over other existing competitors. However, there are several issues in the book such as critical content and technical language for which it is sometime not easy to understand the content and technical terms under strategic management.

• 3. Possible alternatives

In order to resolve the existing issues in the book and improve the quality of discourse, it is important to suggest some suitable recommendations.

• Visual presentation:

The visual presentation is one of the appropriate strategies for improving academic discourse so that it can attract more readers to read the book properly. This strategy is also effective for increasing the interest of the readers. The author needs to use more diagrams, charts and figures to explain the information and data properly. Colourful presentation and short content are essential for improving the visual presentation of the content (Van de Poel and Gasiorek, 2012). In this book, it is required to provide proper caption for the figures so that the readers can understand the diagram properly. Moreover, the figures need to be referenced so that the readers also have the access to study the initial literature sources. Therefore, it is important to improve visual presentation of the book so that the readers can gain more knowledge and ideas about the topic.

• Develop appropriate abstract:

Developing proper abstract is also another necessary step for improving the quality of discourse for the book. The author needs to incorporate effective abstract from which the readers can gain overall knowledge about the discussion of the particular chapter. Therefore, abstract is important to improveknowledge and understanding of the students.

• Practical examples:

It is important to provide real life examples so that the reader can analyse the market with the help of existing literatures. The examples are necessary to understand the actual business environment and the possible strategies to resolve any existing issue. The examples also provide a scope to the reader to connect the thoughts and ideas of real life experience with the existing theories and models. Therefore, it is important to provide relevant information that represents the theories and models in the book. The author needs to analyse the business environment and competitive market structure to relate it with the literatures and represent the understanding efficiently. Thus, this is an effective strategy through which it is possible to improve discourse of the book.

• Improve language of the content:

The content of the book needs to be simple and to the pointso that there is no complex sections which the reader does not understand. The author needs to explain the critical thinking in simple words and this strategy is effective for motivating more readers. Therefore, the author needs to improve language style so that it is understandable to all the readers. On the other hand, it is also important to explain the syntax in the book presenting the technical words of strategic management. This will further help to improve reader’s understanding about the particular word in the book.

• 4. Developing own understanding

Discourse analysis is effective for increasing own knowledge and understanding about the topic of the text book. From the above section, it is found that proper explanation of the topic in simple language and expression is required for presenting the information and data about a particular topic. As a manager, it is important to implement proper strategy for improving the business in such an edge of global competitive market. In order to increase efficiency of the organisations, it is essential to improve value chain so that it can distribute the products and services at target market.

• 5. Conclusion

The discourse analysis is important in this essay to evaluate the presentation of the book, ‘Strategic Management’ by Finlay (2000). The concept of strategic management including theories of Porter’s five forces, value chain model is properly discussed to improve understanding about the business environment. However, there are some issues in representing the book such as language problem, lack of referencing from initial secondary sources like books, journals and articles and no captions in the diagrams and models. Presentation and critical content of the book also create issues for the reader to understand the particular topic and use of technical words is also difficult to understand. In order to improve the discourses of the book, it is important to follow some suitable alternatives. In this regard, proper referencing from initial texts, clear caption against the figures and diagrams, simple language, incorporating efficient examples,effective abstract and simple syntax are the important strategies through which it is possible to improve the discourse of the book strategic management by Finlay (2000).

• Reference List

Adie, L., Lloyd, M. and Beutel, D., 2013. Identifying discourses of moderation in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 38(8), pp.968-977.

Finlay, P. N., 2000. Strategic management: An introduction to business and corporate strategy. London: Pearson Education.

Flowerdew, J., 2014. Academic discourse. London: Routledge.

Hill, C., Jones, G. and Schilling, M., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. London: Cengage Learning.

Hitt, M., Ireland, R.D. and Hoskisson, R., 2012. Strategic management cases: competitiveness and globalization. London: Cengage Learning.

Juffermans, K. and Van der Aa, J., 2013. Introduction to the special issue: Analyzing voice in educational discourses. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 44(2), pp.112-123.

Mellahi, K. and Frynas, G., 2015. Global strategic management. London: Oxford University Press.

Rothaermel, F.T., 2015. Strategic Management. London: McGraw-Hill.

Thomas, P., Wilson, J. and Leeds, O., 2013. Constructing ‘the history of strategic management’: A critical analysis of the academic discourse.Business History, 55(7), pp.1119-1142.

Van de Poel, K. and Gasiorek, J., 2012. Effects of an efficacy-focused approach to academic writing on students' perceptions of themselves as writers. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 11(4), pp.294-303.

Wodak, R. and Meyer, M., 2015. Methods of critical discourse studies.NewYork: Sage.