Brief Outline

This text is a comprehensive guide to strategic operations management. From our international research and teaching it has become clear that the strategic issues involved in operations management are assuming greater importance in many commercial sectors (both public and private).

As the title of this book suggests, operations strategy holds the key to competitive advantage for many organizations. Indeed, it is increasingly recognized as a significant contributor to the effective strategic management of firms, large and small, domestic or international and both profit and non-profit.

The book is intended to help students of business and management; both under-graduate and postgraduate, to discover exactly what building blocks underpin an operations strategy. The text provides the reader with a clear understanding of the importance and nature of operations strategy. Further, we demonstrate how this knowledge, when combined with the correct strategic implementation, allows firms to provide a diverse range of services and goods in their increasingly demanding, complex and dynamic market places or market spaces. The text will also appeal to the practising manager who may wish to explore how conceptual and theoretical perspectives can be employed in a practical setting.

Strategic Operations Management fully supports both students and lecturers and is accompanied by web-based guides, case studies, downloadable presentation material and details of the latest research in the field.