Prof. Dr. Philip Kotler (M.A., University of Chicago, Ph.D., M.I.T.) is the S.C. Johnson Dis-tinguished Professor of Interna-tional Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, North-western University. He pub-lished his 13th edition of Mar-keting Management, the world's leading textbook in teaching marketing to MBAs. He has also published Marketing Mo-dels, Principles of Marketing, Strategic Marketing for Non-profit Organizations, Social Marketing, Marketing Places, Kotler on Marketing, Market-ing Insights A to Z, Lateral Marketing, Museum Strategies and Marketing, Standing Room Only, Corporate Social Responsibility, Chaotics, Up and Out of Poverty, Marketing 3.0 and several other books. His research covers strategic marketing, innovation, consumer marketing, business marketing, services marketing, distribution, e-marketing, and social marketing. He has been a consultant to IBM, Bank of America, Merck, General Electric, Honeywell, and many other companies. He has received 12 honorary doctorate degrees from major universities in the U.S. and abroad.

Prof. Dr. h. c. Roland Berger is Honorary Chairman of Roland Berger Strategy Con-sultants. Roland Berger Strate-gy Consultants has grown to become the number 5 among the world's leading strategy consultancies with 36 offices in 25 countries. Since 1996 he has been a lecturer and since 2000 Honorary Professor of Business Administration and Management Consulting at the Brandenburg Technical Uni-versity in Cottbus. He is Chair-man of the Board of Trustees of his private Roland Berger Foundation. Roland Berger is a member of various super-visory and advisory boards of national and international companies, foundations and organizations. These include Fiat Group, Turin, Italy; Telecom Italia, Milan, Italy; Fresenius SE (Chairman Audit Committee), Bad Homburg; Prime Office AG, Munich (Chairman). He is also a member of various international advisory boards, including Deutsche Bank AG, Frankfurt, Germany; MillerBuckfire New York, USA; Sony Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, and The Blackstone Group, New York, USA.

Prof. Dr. Nils Bickhoff holds an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in business ad-ministration and began his career as a consultant with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in 1995. He advised international clients on matters of strategy, organization, branding, and corporate finance, and was also responsible for Roland Berger's global research & development activities. In 2005 he founded his own company and has since been advising top managers on all issues of strategic management. Nils Bickhoff has authored and published several management books, is editor of the 'Quintessence' series, gives lectures and seminars, and is Professor of Strategy and Marketing at the European Distance University in Hamburg.

1;Table of Contents;5 2;Introduction: Essential Strategy Know-Howand Nothing More;8 3;1 Strategy and Strategic Management: AFirst Basic Understanding;11 3.1;1.1 What is Strategy and How is it Developed?;11 3.1.1;1.1.1 Modern Opinions;11 3.1.2;1.1.2 Basic Historical Concepts;12 3.1.3;1.1.3 A First Example: The Second Punic War;14 3.2;1.2 The Theoretical Response: Strategy as anIntegrated Concept;18 3.2.1;1.2.1 Strategy;18 3.2.2;1.2.2 Strategic Management;20 3.3;1.3 The Process-Based Response: Strategic Planning- An Organized Understanding of StrategyProcesses;21 3.3.1;1.3.1 General Planning;21 3.3.2;1.3.2 Strategic Planning;23 3.3.3;1.3.3 Operational Planning;23 3.3.4;1.3.4 Steering and Controlling the Operational Planning;23 3.3.5;1.3.5 Implications of Strategic Planning as a Concept;23 3.4;1.4 The Innovative Response: Creative Rule-Breaking as an Alternative Way of ExecutingStrategy Processes;25 3.4.1;1.4.1 Why Rules Need to be Broken;25 3.4.2;1.4.2 The Rule-Breaking Strategy Creator - Four Steps toBreaking the Rules;27 4;2 Strategic Frames of Reference: The KeyTools of Strategy Determination, theirPrinciples, and How they Interact;33 4.1;2.1 Why it is Important to Structure the Market, theCompetition, and Your Own Company Properly;34 4.1.1;2.1.1 Interdependencies Between the Key Approaches;34 4.1.2;2.1.2 The Harvard Business School SWOT Analysis - TheData Basis for all Interpretive Tools of StrategyDetermination;36 4.2;2.2 Analyzing Corporate Strategies;40 4.2.1;2.2.1 Horizontal Growth Options: Ansoff's Product/MarketMatrix;41 4.2.2;2.2.2 Portfolio Management: Portfolio Analysis (Matrix);44 4.3;2.3 Analyzing Business Strategies;50 4.3.1;2.3.1 The Market-Based View: The Structure-Conduct-Performance Paradigm and Porter's Five Forces;51 4.3.2;2.3.2 The Resource-Based View: The Core CompetencyApproach;56 4.3.3;2.3.3 Dynamic Markets: The Simple Rules Approach;57 4.4;2.4 Network Approaches: The Business Model - AnIntegrative Frame of Reference for Describing aStrategy;60 4.4.1;2.4.1 From Old to New Business Models;61 4.4.2;2.4.2 The Three Components of a Business Model;62 5;3 Current Focal Areas in Strategy Practice:Four Significant Management Concepts ofthe Past 20 Years;70 5.1;3.1 Growth Strategies;72 5.1.1;3.1.1 Value-Based Management, Protecting Your MarketShare, Limits and Approaches;72 5.1.2;3.1.2 Seven Growth Strategies in Strategy Practice;79 5.2;3.2 Business Process Reengineering;84 5.2.1;3.2.1 Belief and Reality;84 5.2.2;3.2.2 An Implementation Example;95 5.3;3.3 Strategic Brand Management;101 5.3.1;3.3.1 The Brand: Complex and Meanwhile Indispensable;102 5.3.2;3.3.2 Examples of Brand Evaluation Using PositioningAnalysis;113 5.4;3.4 Strategic Gaming;118 5.4.1;3.4.1 Game Theory: A Way of Dynamically Modeling theCompetition;119 5.4.2;3.4.2 Dynamic Competitive Simulation in Reality;125 6;Summary: It's Your Turn!;129 7;Bibliography;130 8;About the Authors;133