confessionsofabookgeek.com

After posting about the books I picked up for the first module of my Masters programme, I officially started the course last week, and it’s fair to say that it’s pretty intense. While the book does use ten outlier companies as examples, as well as drawing on some more well-known strategy successes and failures, there does seem to be a lack of significant evidence and statistics to back-up the “new” theories presented, and rather than providing any evidence that the more traditional strategy frameworks are obsolete (Porter’s 5 Forces, PEST/SWOT analysis), instead it could be argued that they are just as relevant today, but due to the pace of change in modern business, could do with being reviewed, and taken seriously by business decision makers, much more frequently. As an introduction-to book, The End of Competitive Advantage hits the spot – it definitely shook up my thinking, got me out of my comfort zone, and provided a strong foundation for my assignment. Interestingly, McGrath includes a section at the back of the book on how the idea of transient advantage and change strategy can be applied to the individual, and a person’s career path, as seamlessly as it can be applied to business.

In my last blog post, When You Fall Out of Love With Reading, I explained what’s been going on in my life that has massively affected my ability to blog, and even read, on a regular basis. The programme I’m doing is very practical – real-life management experience is a prerequisite – and it’s delivered in immersive three-day bursts roughly every quarter. But considering I never wanted this blog to be as abandoned as it has become, I’m hoping I can make use of the reading I’ll be doing by blogging about it as I go along. I appreciate that the content may not be for everyone, but I’m hoping some of you may find it interesting or insightful, and I may even attract some new Book Geeks who have a love for business that matches my own.

I don’t think I would have been as absent from the book blogging community lately if it weren’t for the fact that for the past six months, I’ve really struggled to enjoy reading. As a result, I haven’t been reading much lately, which means I don’t have book reviews to post. Book reviews are the bread-and-butter of a book blog, so without reading I haven’t had a lot of inspiration for content. And lastly, if this IS my new normal, then I’m hoping to continue posting sporadically about books I add to my collection and other interesting goings-on, even if I’m not able to post book reviews every week.

Many Book Geeks know that Hollywood gets a lot of its inspiration from publishing – Harry Potter, Twilight, the Bourne movies, James Bond, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Atonement, Bridget Jones’ Diary, the list really is endless. But there are a lot of people, Book Geeks included, who won’t know that the following famous movies are also based on books: Originally a book titled Madame Doubtfire written by Anne Fine for a YA audience in 1987, the movie adaptation starring the late Robin Williams has become a favourite with audiences both young and old over the last 25 years. The amazing Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, and Joe Pesci made the infamous and Academy Award winning, GoodFellas, in 1990, but before it became a classic Mafia movie, it was a non-fiction book that was released in 1986 by crime reported Nicholas Pileggi that chronicled the story of Mafia mobster-turned-informant, Henry Hill. We may think of the beautiful Julia Roberts when we think of this 1991 Hollywood release, but the book also titled Sleeping With The Enemy, has had some great reviews on Amazon.