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by: Robert Simons  List Price: $39.95 Amazon.com's Price: $30.36 You Save: $9.59 (24%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 658.4012 EAN: 9780875845593 Edition: 1 ISBN: 0875845592 Label: Harvard Business School Press Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 215 Publication Date: 1994-11 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Studio: Harvard Business School Press Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: Based on a ten-year examination of control systems in over 50 U.S. businesses, this book broadens the definition of control and establishes a critical bridge between the disciplines of strategy and accounting and control. In addition to the more traditional diagnostic control systems, Simons identifies three new control systems that allow strategic change: belief systems that communicate core values and provide inspiration and direction, boundary systems that frame the strategic domain and define the limits of freedom, and interactive systems that provide flexibility in adapting to competitive environments and encourage organizational learning. These four control systems, according to Simons, will provide managers with the basic levers for pursuing strategic objectives. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Verbose and ObscureI was looking forward to reading this book but gave up after the first few chapters. The book starts off on solid footing but quickly shifts into a maze of verbosity so cumbersome that eventually I gave up. For example, if you like sentences such as "belief systems empower and expand opportunity seeking" or "By guiding an organization's search behavior, interactive control systems may divert attention from cues that would enable successful adaptation", then by all means, go ahead and buy this ... Read More Rating:  - Innovative thinking about how control systems can drive strategic renewalI read this book when it was first published in 1994 and recently re-read it, curious to see how well it has held up. My conclusion? Very well indeed. What I find especially noteworthy is the fact that, only decade ago, there was nowhere near the understanding and appreciation of innovation that we have today. As I compose this brief commentary, Amazon offers 40,135 books on the general subject and 8,707 on innovation management. That is amazing. In any event, Robert Simons wrote ... Read More Rating: - Fantastic book on how to focus your organizational efforts One of the key concepts in this book is how difficult it is to balance the company's need for predictable results with its need for innovation. How do you stay on track while being able to identify new opportunities? Dr. Simons emphasizes the scarcity of management attention and the importance of realizing there are too many "good ideas" to pursue. The countervailing levers he has identified, allow management to reduce risk in the right areas thus freeing the organization to achieve higher levels ... Read More Rating: - A great book for big picture seekersLevers of Control presents a comprehensive theory illustrating how managers control strategy using 4 basic levers: belief systems, boundary systems, diagnostic systems, and interactive control systems (the whole book is based on these 4 levers). Simons shows how these control levers complement each other when used together and how effective top managers use these levers to stimulate and guide the search for strategies in the futures. Rating: - Focus on strategy implementationThe book is far more interesting than the title suggests. "Levers of control" makes one think of man/woman being reduced to robots directed by the pulling of levers. The book is exactly about the opposite, how one can have his cake and eat it. It provides a practical framework on how to combine opposing forces in managing a company. Opposites like creativity and meeting profit objectives, precise objectives and alertness to the necessasity of changing course, reward and punishment, control and freedom. ... Read More 
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