Since Agrippa, Consul of Rome, in the 5th Century B. C. , first mentioned synergy ever, it has remained an elusive concept. Most specialy in the corporate world, where frequently at best the whole (company) is merely equal to the sum of the parts (divisions), plus a handful of... nothing. Worse, not seldom, anergy (negative synergy : 2 2=3) prevails, as several empirical studies indicate that often parent companies destroy value : businesses in corporate portfolios would be better off as independent companies, or as part of other corporate portfolios. The challenge uptaken by this book is how to create synergy, an organization where businesses are better-off within the company than outside ? This is achieved by an eleven step system on how to go about defining corporate strategy, where each step is illustrated by using a real case study. As the reader goes through this book, it will become clear that this book owes much to Peter Drucker. Although Drucker wrote more than fourty books, the present one comes closer to none in being the book that he would likely have written on corporate strategy.
