Putting it All Together: A Guide to Strategic Thinking and Decision-Making. (Bookshelf).

Marshall, Jeffrey

Putting it All Together: A Guide to Strategic Thinking and Decision-Making. By William E. Rothschild. Rothschild Strategies Unlimited LLC, 254 pages. $49.95.

Obviously, a book written a generation ago can have some eternal verities -- but it almost certainly needs updating, too. William Rothschild wrote the first version of this book in 1976, and it has gone through 20 printings since then. Originally published by AMACOM, it has recently been self-published.

This paperback volume covers a lot of territory, roaming through a litany of topics revolving around the core of business strategy: customers, competitors, leaders, investments, management, objectives and much more.

Rothschild, a former General Electric Co. strategic planner who has been consulting since 1984, takes a conversational approach to much of the material -- "I" and "my" appear frequently -- and it seems at times that a good editor with a sharp pen might be a blessing.

Rothschild draws from some current events, such as the Sept. 11 attacks and recent turmoil at General Electric and HewlettPackard, but much of the material stands on its own logic and could have been (and probably was) written in the 1970s. His voice is wise and the advice sound, but many pages are text-heavy and can be challenging to get through -- though some sections benefit from well-conceived charts and tables. Still, Putting It All Together takes more of a textbook approach -- something for business school students -- than one that might be compelling for working executives.