I have recently read "Competitive Strategy" by Michael Porter, following a lead I got on this forum. I loved it as it explains industry competition in such an easy and enjoyable way. Which other strategy classics consultants would suggest? I would be interested in reading something on sales and marketing strategy, any suggestions please?

The 'bible' is usually considered to be "Marketing Management" by Philip Kotler (now on its 12th edition, I think), and a nice complement to Porter is John Kay's "Foundations of Corporate Success" (easier to carry, too!) I would guess that some of the business schools would have their reading lists online, which might give you some other pointers. What would anyone else recommend?

Take a look at Robert Cooper's "Winning at New Products"

Hi. Not sure if this will help but maybe check out the following; Corporate Strategy by Richard Linch, or Exploring Corporate Stratategy by Johnson and Scholls for Strategy. For Marketing, have a look at Marketing Management and Strategy by Peter Doyle. If you are interested in branding strategies check out Keller, but as the previous post suggested, Kotler really is the Marketing ‘Guru’. Only the opinion of a recent grad, but hope it helps!

Hi Strat, thanks for your tips. I just read John Kay’s Foundation of Corporate Success. To be honest with you I didn’t like it as much as Porter. I appreciate the more English perspective, I liked the idea of Added Value to measure success and I now recognise the huge importance of Architecture as a distinctive capability for companies like IBM (with the right Architecture in place, average employees can achieve above average results). Didn’t like when he says, about product positioning, that three party-systems, with a first past the post electoral regime, are unstable and do not persist (what about the Lib-Dem now? I see the book was written in the 90s but still he got it wrong). I now know Mr. Kay is very famous and I see he also writes for the FT, but this book is far from being even comparable to Porter’s Competitive Strategy. I’ll start reading the meaty volume of Marketing Strategy by Mr Kotler this evening, I guess it will take me a bit longer but I’ll let you know. Thanks again. AM