Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 - AnnaLee Saxenian

I just finished reading this book by AnnaLee Saxenian! This was the first time I was reading a book that compares two of the regions I have been reading about in my coursework as part of the PhD program. Annalee builds an interesting argument which I could relate with closely to the time frame she has described in the book with the shift in the perspective in academics too.

When O. Williamson was building his theory of the transaction cost economics early in the 1970, the world around him was speaking about the large monolithic organization. The question asked was thus - which activities would the venture internalize (vertically integrated) and which of these activities would not be integrated. When the dominance of these large firms in the upcoming technology sectors, was challenges - the question that Annalee raises is gains prominence. What has lead the Route 128 based firms to loose their predominance, while the firms in the silicon valley successfully adapted to the change in the situation around them.

She theorizes the role of the network form of organization, the role played by the underlying social network which helped manage the interdependencies and accelerated movement of relevant information from learning that the members in the network developed.

I love this book not just for the insights it generated from the evolution of the two regions, but also for the underlying mechanisms that were she gets to the fore.
If you are interested in understanding the evolution of these innovation clusters this is a good book to start with. Read it!

Good Strategy Band Strategy - Richard Rumelt

 

Strategy is loosely used by every other person who intends to communicate the possibility of an underlying plan or something they find hard to understand! This is a generally held notion and often I engage into a debate saying that is not strategy! They then ask what  is strategy and used to wonder how do I communicate in precise terms. I think I found my answer with this book.

Strategy is not vision, its not possessing an audacious goal. If someone attributes these piece-meal to be indicative of some strategy rest assured this is an incomplete understanding. A good strategy consist of a kernel (composed of three parts - A good diagnosis, A good guiding policy and finally coherent action). Rumelt goes on to show why a good understanding of strategy is important and essential to gain an advantage in business.

To all those people who ask me if there was one book which could help them understand what strategy really stands for here is a classic by Richard Rumelt. Rumelt compresses the rich academic scholarship into this book buttressed with real life situations that he came across as part of this life as a faculty and a consultant.

If you haven't read it yet and want to understand the essence of strategy, this is one book you have to have in your library. 

There is a website that you might like to access built based on this book:

http://goodbadstrategy.com/