Having read this book: You will have a basic understanding of strategy and the process of strategic management. You will know the most important strategy tools (incl. the respective original literature) and how they interact. You will be aware of the focal areas and considerations of strategy in practice. You will be able to analyze and interpret business information with regard to the underlying strategic notions.

Prof. Dr. Philip Kotler (M.A., University of Chicago, Ph.D., M.I.T.) is the S.C. Johnson Dis-tinguished Professor of Interna-tional Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, North-western University. He pub-lished his 13th edition of Mar-keting Management, the worlds leading textbook in teaching marketing to MBAs.  He has also publishedMarketing Mo-dels, Principles of Marketing, Strategic Marketing for Non-profit Organizations, Social Marketing, Marketing Places, Kotler on Marketing, Market-ing Insights A to Z, Lateral Marketing,  Museum Strategies and Marketing, Standing Room Only, Corporate Social Responsibility, Chaotics, Up and Out of Poverty, Marketing 3.0and several other books. His research covers strategic marketing, innovation, consumer marketing, business marketing, services marketing, distribution, e-marketing, and social marketing. He has been a consultant to IBM, Bank of America, Merck, General Electric, Honeywell, and many other companies. He hasreceived 12 honorary doctorate degrees from major universities in the U.S. and abroad.

Prof. Dr. h. c. Roland Berger is Honorary Chairman of Roland Berger Strategy Con-sultants. Roland Berger Strate-gy Consultants has grown to become the number 5 among the world's leading strategy consultancies with 36 offices in 25 countries. Since 1996 he has been a lecturer and since 2000 Honorary Professor of Business Administration and Management Consulting at the Brandenburg Technical Uni-versity in Cottbus. He is Chair-man of the Board of Trustees of his private Roland Berger Foundation. Roland Berger is a member of various super-visory and advisory boards of national and international companies, foundations and organizations. These include Fiat Group, Turin, Italy; Telecom Italia, Milan, Italy; Fresenius SE (Chairman Audit Committee), Bad Homburg; Prime Office AG, Munich (Chairman). He is also a member of various international advisory boards, including Deutsche Bank AG, Frankfurt,Germany; MillerBuckfire New York, USA; Sony Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, and The Blackstone Group, New York, USA.

Prof. Dr. Nils Bickhoff holds an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in business ad-ministration and began his career as a consultant with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in 1995. He advised international clients on matters of strategy, organization, branding, and corporate finance, and was also responsible for Roland Bergers global research& development activities. In 2005 he founded his own company and has since been advising top managers on all issues of strategic management. Nils Bickhoff has authored and published several management books, is editor of the "Quintessence series, gives lectures and seminars, and is Professor of Strategy and Marketing at the European Distance University in Hamburg.

Strategy and Strategic Management: A First Basic Understanding.- Strategic Frames of Reference: The Key Tools of Strategy Determination, their Principles, and How they Interact.- Current Focal Areas in Strategy Practice: Four Significant Management Concepts of the Past 20 Years.