[Book] Dynamic Capabilities & Strategic Management (INTRODUCITON)

I have been reading this book, Dynamic capabilities & Strategic Management: Organizing for Innovation and Growth, for weeks but I just had time to really sit down and read it last night.

The book is written by David J. Teece, a Chaired Professor at the University of California Berkely, where he was the Director of the Institute of management, Innovation, and Organization for 25 years--and this book is pretty much his insights on management issues.

In the introduction, he explains that "strategic management" is about major decisions (that are complex--because interdependencies ;and uncertainty in customer reaction, competitor response, and market and technological change--and important) and invesment needed to reach the enterprises' goals (taking actions and marketing investment to reflect opportunities and changing circumstances) and it also is what explains the ability of the business enterprises to generate wealth for their stakeholders and shareholders.

Unfortunately, almost all management models ignore "intagible assets," innovation, firm capabilities and disequilibrium phenomena which actually and frequently happen in the real world, especially in the "advanced Post-industrial societies."

The idea of Post-industrial societies, Teece explians, is about to put creation, ownership and deployment of intangible assets (esp. Knowledge and relationships) at the core of any strategies that the enterprises would implement to yeild shareholder value. And the tangible assets are not just found in individuals, but also in processes and procedures and/pr (strategic) operation rules that could be essential in supporting new products and services but are still ignored in market approaches.

This book looks in fields in an endeavor to identify characteristics of the business enterprises and of management actions, designs and processes which undergrid superior enterprise performance.

It, moreover, provides analysis of markets, competition, innovation and the organization of the business enterprise itself by explianing how firms stay alive and how they develop uniqueness and competitive advantage in given environments.

The book encourages enterprises to find their "sustainable advantage" which will be created by building and protecting their existing (and potential) intangible assets (which are their competitive advantage).

All in all, the focus of Dynamic Capabilities is on innovation (both technological and organizational) and market disequilibrium since it outlines a new theory of management which can be the connerstone to a deeper understanding of the business enterprise, competitive processes, competitive outcomes and wealth creation in "advanced post-industrial knowledge-based societies."

Teece, Davod J. 2009. Dynamic Capabilities&Strategic Management: Organizing for Innovation and Growth. Oxford University Press. New York