Book Review: Winning $trategies

Winning $trategies: Secrets to Clinching Multimillion-Dollar Deals
Anirban Dutta and Hetzel W. Folden
John Wiley & Sons (2009)

I commend Dutta and Folden on the scope and depth of their understanding of how to locate, obtain, and then manage high value outsourcing opportunities as well as their skill in organizing and then presenting their material within twelve chapters, any one of which is worth much more than the cost of the entire book.

They respond to questions such as these:

1. How to create and then strengthen the foundation for “Big Deals” based on “some essential concepts of the human element of management”?

2. How to locate and evaluate prospective “Big Deals” that offer high value?

3. How to use a Third-Party Advisor (TPA) to achieve strategic objectives?

4. How to influence the process by “leading from the rear”?

5. How to use “the art of pricing” to structure deals appropriately?

6. How to formulate a contract to best advantage?

7. How to close on a “Big Deal”?

8. How to manage transitions and changes by following the right “stepping stones”?

9. How to manage integrated programs effectively?

10. What are the most frequent mistakes made when attempting to clinch a “Big Deal”?

11. How to avoid or overcome those mistakes?

After carefully identifying the “what,” Dutta and Folden focus almost entirely on explaining how to achieve the desired objectives. They offer evidence-driven insights and recommendations, based on a wealth of real-world experience with research, due diligence, all phases of negotiation, and then program leadership and management once a “Big Deal” has been consummated. I again suggest that much (most?) of the information and advice provided in this book will be helpful to those involved in competitive deal making, whatever the size, nature, and context of the given deal may be.