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Preface

Why the Need for This New Edition?
The global economic recession has created a business world today that is quite different
and more complex than it was just two years ago when the previous edition of this text
was published. Thousands of businesses have vanished, and consumers have become
extremely price sensitive and oftentimes reluctant purchasers of products and services.
Very tight credit markets, high unemployment, and millions of new entrepreneurs have
also changed the business landscape. Business firms that have survived the last three
years of global economic turmoil are today leaner and meaner than ever before.
Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage is harder than ever. Social networking
and e-commerce have altered marketing to its core since the prior edition. This new edi-
tion reveals how to conduct effective strategic planning in this new world order.
Since the prior edition, thousands of liquidations, bankruptcies, divestitures, merg-
ers, alliances, and partnerships captured the news. Corporate scandals highlighted the
need for improved business ethics and corporate disclosure of financial transactions.
Downsizing, rightsizing, and reengineering contributed to a permanently altered corpo-
rate landscape. Thousands of firms began doing business globally, and thousands more
closed their global operations. Thousands prospered, and yet thousands failed in the last
two years as the global recession spared few. Long-held competitive advantages have
eroded as new ones formed. This new edition captures the complexity of this world busi-
ness environment.
Both the challenges and opportunities facing organizations of all sizes today are
greater than ever. There is less room than ever for error in the formulation and imple-
mentation of a strategic plan. This new edition provides a systematic effective approach
for developing a clear strategic plan, even in the worst of times. Changes made in this
edition are aimed squarely at illustrating the effect of new business concepts and tech-
niques on strategic-management theory and practice.
Due to the magnitude of recent changes affecting companies, cultures, and countries,
every page of this edition has been updated. The first edition of this text was published in
1986. Since then, this textbook has grown to be one of the most widely read strategic-
management books, perhaps the most widely read, in the world. This text is now published
in nine languages.

What Is New in This Edition?
This edition includes exciting new features, changes, and content designed to position this
text as the clear leader and best choice for teaching strategic management. Here is a sum-
mary of what is new in this edition:
• A new Chapter 10, “Business Ethics/Social Responsibility/Environmental
Sustainability”; there is extensive new coverage of ethics and sustainability because this
text emphasizes that “good ethics is good business.” Unique to strategic-management
texts, the natural environment discussion is strengthened in this edition to promote and
encourage firms to conduct operations in an environmentally sound manner. Respect for
the natural environment has become an important concern for consumers, companies,
society, and AACSB-International.
• A new Chapter 11, “Global/International Issues”; there is extensive new coverage
of cultural and conceptual strategic-management differences across countries.
Doing business globally has become a necessity, rather than a luxury in most
industries because nearly all strategic decisions today are affected by global