Developing a Business Strategy: How to Use Strategic Planning to Start Up or Grow Your Business (The FT Guides)

'This is the most succinct and most practical handbook on business strategy on the market. In just a couple of hundred well-written pages, it synthesizes the most important ideas in the field. What sets it apart - and brings it to life - is that every concept that is introduced is immediately illustrated in practice through the use of a real-life case study.'

Jules Goddard, Fellow, London Business School and author, with Professor Tony Eccles, of Uncommon Sense, Common Nonsense: Why Some Organisations Consistently Outperform Others

'A concise and highly practical guide to the fundamentals of strategic analysis and strategic planning.'

Robert M. Grant, ENI Professor of Strategic Management, Bocconi University, Milan, Visiting Fellow at Georgetown University, Washington, and author of Contemporay Strategic Analysis, now in its eighth edition

'This is the ideal companion to Evans's The Financial Times Essential Guide to Writing a Business Plan. A plan worthy of investment is only as sound as its underpinning strategy. This terrific little book shows the manager just what he or she needs to do to build that strategy. Where has this book been for the last fifty years?'

Jonathan Derry-Evans, Partner, Manfield Capital Partners

'It will be an enormous help to busy managers who are developing a business strategy for the first time, or trying to improve on previous attempts. This is another Evans book to be kept to hand on the desktop, not to be shelved!'

Grahame Hughes, Founding Director, Haven Power Ltd

'If you are a small business or start up, this is an excellent guide to help you get your strategy right. Business strategy is all too often discussed in the context of big business. Vaughan Evans, on the other hand, makes it relevant to SMEs, demonstrating not only why but

how to develop the right strategy to succeed.'

Anthony Karibian, CEO, bOnline Ltd. and serial entrepreneur

'This is a really good and practical guide - clear, insightful, straightforward and practical. It is a must-have guide for anyone setting out to build or grow a business. If strategy can be likened to charting a wise and successful course though challenging waters, then Evans proves

once again that he is a master mariner.'

James Courtenay, Global Head, Advisory and Infrastructure Finance, Standard Chartered Bank

'Vaughan Evans is doing himself and his ilk out of the day job. With this easy-to-follow manual on how to develop a winning strategy, managers and investors won't need to engage pricey strategy consultants any more. Thanks!'

Ken Lawrence, Partner, Gresham Private Equity

'A seminal business strategy manual, as invaluable to the entrepreneur, manager or business advisor as to the student of strategic planning.'

James Pitt, Partner, Lexington Advisors UK Limited

Vaughan Evans is an independent strategy consultant (www.managingstrategicrisk.com) with a background in industry economics. He worked at management and technology consultants Arthur D. Little and at investment bank Bankers Trust. Vaughan graduated from Cambridge and has a Sloan Fellowship with distinction from London Business School. He is the author of four previous books, including the best-selling Financial Times Essential Guide to Writing a Business Plan.