Discover the knowledge and tools that today's most successful firms use to build business and consistently outperform the competition when you open the latest edition of Ireland/Hoskisson/Hitt's UNDERSTANDING BUSINESS STRATEGY: CONCEPTS AND CASES, Second Edition. This concise, hands-on approach by recognized leaders in business strategy clearly demonstrates how solid management strategy equals the decisive, responsive action that prosperous firms use to create sustainable competitive advantage. This edition guides you, step-by-step, through creating strong strategy, planning for success, implementing responsive action, competing effectively with strategy, analyzing the environment and firm, and improving upon results. The authors clearly connect strategy concepts to the real business world, giving you the unique opportunity to examine and learn from strategy that has worked as well as strategy that has failed within familiar companies. The latest research and insights from global business leaders, extensive examples, and practical cases help equip you with the hands-on skills and career tools for your own superior performance and strategic management success.