BUSINESS THINKING BETWEEN THE COVERS:

Understanding Michael Porter – The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy

by Joan Magretta

Harvard Business Review Press €25

FEW FIGURES IN the world of management have had a more profound influence than Michael Porter. His works on competitive strategy and competitive advantage are seminal. Here, Joan Magretta, an associate of Porter and a former editor of Harvard Business Review, distils some of his key ideas.

This is not as easy as it might seem, as Porter is often misunderstood or misrepresented. His central idea about competition, for example, is that it's not about "being the best", it's about being unique.

One of Porter's key insights , Magretta says, is that competition is not a battle about market share, it's a struggle for profits that extends well beyond direct rivals. It involves deliberately choosing to make some customers unhappy and consciously avoiding "hot" fast-growing industries. As Porter puts it, "The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do."

As well as distilling Porter's key ideas, Magretta adds value through fresh case studies showing how companies such as Zara, Ikea and In-N-Out Burger deploy Porter's ideas. Written in a very accessible style, this is a book for managers rather than academics.

Power Genes

by Maggie Craddock

Harvard Business Review Press €24

IN THIS EASY read, executive coach Craddock identifies four power types in organisations: pleasers, charmers, commanders and inspirers.

The book suggests that readers try to identify themselves in these classic personas and so recognise their type's blind spots and recondition their thinking and modes of behaviour.

To understand power it is important to understand the building blocks that we are all drawn from, Craddock says, and this starts from understanding how we were conditioned to get what we wanted from our family systems. This defines us in how we interact with others in the workplace.

Reconditioning yourselves to play to your power-gene strengths is possible but Craddock doesn't offer a quick fix. Rather, she suggests, it's a question of engaging in the right sequence of self-reflective exercises and action steps.

Accompanied with a series of case studies, Craddock makes some interesting observations about office politics and the underlying psychologies that drive behaviour in organisations.

Africa's Future – Darkness to Destiny

by Duncan Clarke

Profile Books €25

THE AUTHOR HAS a 40-year background in the economics of Africa and his authority on the subject is demonstrated throughout this book. Clarke emphasises how understanding Africa's culture and history over thousands of years is a prerequisite to any attempts to predict its destiny. He proves sanguine about the prospects for Africa. He is sceptical about predictions made by the World Bank and others that the continent is on the cusp of an economic boom. The bank's chief economist said in 2011 that Africa's GDP could grow at 7 per cent for the next 30-40 years. This has gained traction worldwide with companies and countries seeking to take advantage of the anticipated rising, he notes.

But Clarke points to problems such as infrastructure deficits, embedded inefficiencies, the growing lag between competitors elsewhere and problems with greenfield infrastructure funding.

Then there are problems of health, famine and disease as well as political instability. It took over three centuries to create the most modern piece of Africa's economic infrastructure, South Africa. Maps provide visual images of the themes discussed. While not light reading, this is an authoritative, well-researched book.