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"Julia's got a great imagination, amazing global insight, razor-sharp intellect, and a unique perspective on strategy. Her strategy theory has worked brilliantly for our six global businesses."
Global Investment Bank
Managing Director -
"Riveting — listening to her, I felt my brain begin to thaw. I'd actually never thought about strategy like this and it makes perfect sense."
Global Financial Consulting Firm
Executive Vice President, New Business Development -
"Julia is a premier thought leader in the area of strategy. She brings conceptual clarity and true originality to a topic that is enormously complex. Her wealth of global experience and strategy insight is exceptionally rare."
Medical Technology Company
CEO -
"Julia genuinely 'gets' the big picture on strategy . . . and pulls together missing pieces of the puzzle in a very creative way. This new way of looking at the complexity of strategy saved our business $3 million."
Global R&D, Pharmaceutical
Executive Vice President -
"Her way of framing strategy is brilliant. We’ve had her return again and again because her ideas really apply to a global arena."
Major Oil Company
Executive Vice President, Business Development -
"We credit Dr. Sloan's strategic thinking approach to our successful Japanese and German acquisitions, and to saving one of our US business lines."
Manufacturing Company
Global Director of Marketing -
"I sat mesmerized for 45 minutes straight as she cleverly connected history and theory and globalization — and suddenly, our current strategy problems became crystal clear."
Consumer Products Company
CEO
About Julia
Author of the definitive book Learning To Think Strategically (Elsevier, 2006), Dr. Julia Sloan is widely recognized for her pioneering work in the application of complex cognitive theory to everyday global strategic thinking practice.
Julia's work draws upon more than two decades of her own expatriate corporate experience in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the United States working on strategy to align the business agenda with prevailing economic, cultural and social issues.
Julia has lectured at some of the premier academic institutions including: Columbia University, MIT and Harvard University (U.S.); Nanjing University (China); Tokyo University and Keio University (Japan); Singapore University and India Institute of Management (India).
Julia is the author of a forthcoming strategy book, expected in 2009. She is also a contributing author to Democratic Practices as Learning Opportunities (Sense, 2007).
A resident of New York City, Julia’s educational background includes a doctorate from Columbia University; master’s studies at Yale University and University of Alaska; and undergraduate studies from Kent State University.
About the book
In this authoritative book, Dr. Julia Sloan presents a previously unexamined account of the relationship between strategic thinking and the learning process involved — taking learning from the academic to the everyday.
- Why developing strategic thinkers is a business imperative
- How successful global strategists learn to think strategically
- The five essential attributes of successful strategic thinkers
- The role of culture on strategic thinking
- The 'rational rut' we're stuck in — and how to get out of it
- Tips for improving strategic thinking
The book traces the history of strategy, differentiates strategic thinking from planning, describes the influence of culture, streamlines the roles of rationality and intuition and identifies five key attributes for learning to think strategically.
Learning To Think Strategically is based on research that draws upon real-life lessons of global business strategists and the application of those lessons for corporations, consultants and academics.
ORDER THE BOOK
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"Sloan has written a superb book that should be on the required reading list for every business school. It offers a compelling argument to avoid over-reliance on linear thinking, formal planning rituals, and simple exhortations to 'think outside of the box' . . . She is exceptionally clear in her analysis of the underlying drivers of this process."
— Willie Pietersen, Professor
The Practice of Management
Columbia Business School -
"Julia Sloan lays out in a comprehensive manner, how strategic thinking can be learned. Therefore, this is a must read for all organizations and executives who genuinely consider human capital as not only a valuable asset but, the most significant competitive differentiator in today’s constantly changing and extremely challenging global arena."
— Raj Tatta, Partner
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP -
"...offers a new perspective for both students and business executives and is an indispensable roadmap for everyone willing to learn strategic thinking."
— Karl Nigl, Former CEO
Raiffeisen Ware, Austria AG -
"In an increasingly competitive business environment where the ability to develop distinct, adaptive strategies is a basic requirement for sustainable success, this book is highly recommended reading for executives and consultants interested in a new, comprehensive approach to strategic thinking."
— Marcus Sieberer, Partner
McKinsey & Company, Inc.