Strategic Thinking Skills

By: Stanley K. Ridgley, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Stanley K. Ridgley

Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Start making savvier decisions and outsmart your competitors with greater confidence and ease with this simple and comprehensive guide to the skills, tactics, techniques, tools, case studies, and lessons behind strategic thinking. Professor Ridgley has crafted these 24 lectures as an accessible way to engage with thinking that will help you think-and act-more strategically in business and in your own life, whether you're the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or you're preparing to embark on a new career path.

These lectures are loosely organized around several key topics central to effective strategic thinking, including: principles of conflict (in which you'll follow the development of strategic theory from its roots in great military campaigns to its modern applications in business); competitive intelligence (which plays an increasingly important role in strategic thinking); and tools of strategy and analysis (which can aid your understanding of the forces that shape our future and can help you make sense of a rapidly changing world).

Central to these lectures are the tools and tricks that strategic thinkers have used to better approach problems and seek lasting solutions. Among those you'll learn how to use are the indirect approach (which offers you a much greater utility in achieving your objectives without approaching your opponent head-on); the value chain (a method that divides your team or organization into its value - producing activities so you can better inform yourself on its internal strengths and weaknesses; and the four actions framework (in which you ask yourself four questions to challenge your established logic in an effort to gain a stronger competitive advantage).

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2012 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2012 The Great Courses

ok not fun, it is priceless insight.

fantastic lectures though it is not a fantasy book, I'll have to go over it again. the script might help for fully grasping the concepts. there are some arguable facts of history, they just add to the entertainment value.

Worth the time

this book although short (it it should be) gave me many insights into the situations in my business, new approaches became visible.
the book is valuable for its dialog with the reader, for the inner dialog it stimulates and creates

Enlightening

An excellent introduction to the world of strategic thinking replete with examples from military and business

A Good Basic Introduction to Strategic Thinking

A little history, basic philosophy, a military, business, social point of view. Politics mixed in and the some tools to work with. Professor Stanley K. Ridgley likes to use American Football (Grid Iron) as a metaphor although even this game uses strategy and even I who has not played team sport since my school days understand his thinking. He makes it interesting and clear and this course is worth the listen to but without follow up reading and practice this would only be a good introduction. Do study more and become better at this skill but if you are content to touch the subject and move on, the time spent with this course isn't misplaced.

historical and business view of strategy

The best part of this course for me were the examples, many drawing from interesting chapters of military or political history, or from the business world. I'm not sure I really learned anything of interest for my business career. However, since I'm a great courses history fan, I actually found this more interesting than I expected.

I know many great courses are used for home schooling and I think this one would be of interest to my teens, despite being categorized as a business title.

I enjoyed the format (typical for the great courses) where each topic was a self-sufficient 30 minute chunk. For me, that's a great format for commuting or before bed.

An excellent way to learn clear thinking and strategy.

As a business owner who has to make clear choices that impact our future, this is what I needed to make some big decisions. It helped me right off. Very well done. Don

Very insightful

I enjoyed the author's delivery and found myself wishing I has the physical copy to make some notes. I'll need to listen again in a space where I can not things down rather than during my commute or treadmill time. Worth every penny (or credit).

Well done!

Patiently lasted out while being detailed when specifics are needed. In the tradition of strategy this is a superior tome.

Enjoyed The Great Courses on Audible

I have viewed many Great Courses but this was my first in just audio form. It was actually a very good experience at a fraction of the cost. I highly recommend it and other Great Courses on Audible.

Great overview - good for the everyday & busines

While I wish there was more in depth exercises to work with, the skills outlined in this audio book come with their historical and business origins as well as ideas for how they apply to everyday life and career goals.

I'm excited to listen to it again and spend more time as an active listener with pen and paper, making my own exercises and applying these insights and skills to my life and ambitions.

My only problem is that the audio book doesn't have listed chapter names in the app for repeat listening and I have to go by the audio that comes at the beginning of each chapter.

There is fluff to contend with often about why we should care throughout the chapters but the context is useful for unfamiliar history and biographies, most of which I haven't studied on my own but are concisely distilled here.