* learn from the gurus how to develop your strategic thinking * * review your grasp of contemporary management thinking * * learn how to change the mindsets, deal with the power holders and encourage dialogue in your organization * * become confident to work with uncertainty and ambiguity * * learn how to think and act like an entrepreneur * Strategic thinkers must be sense-makers; they must be custodians of the organizational consciousness. This book is a must for anyone wanting to excel at framing or reconciling the inherent contradictions that arise when formulating strategy; or for anyone needing to master the strategic thinking process. As well as summarizing the gospels of management gurus, The Influential Strategist dispels the myths of strategic thinking. It identifies the ideas encapsulated in a universal set of organizational paradoxes, creating the map that will lead you to a breakthrough in contemporary strategic thinking. You will gain a deep understanding of how a paradoxical statement can be used to frame arguments; and learn how to harness the resulting tension within an organization, to promote new thinking and drive growth and success. The Influential Strategist will challenge you; it will confront many of the "truths" of contemporary management thinking, and it will lead you towards a mastery of strategic thinking. Author: Patrick J Thurbin is the Director of the Management and Business Development Research Unit and Principal Business Consultant at the Business School, Kingston University in the UK. He combines a wide range of consulting assignments in national and multinational organizations with research and lecturing at the University. His academic activities provide an exposure to management thinking from many cultures. He is a Director of the well-established Open Learning MBA programme at the University, lecturing in strategy; a Visiting Professor in Management at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, USA; and lectures on innovation on the Open University MBA programme and in business strategy at the prestigious Academy of National Economy in Moscow, Russia. His research on ways in which business growth can be supported by leveraging organizational knowledge is extensive. His book Leveraging Knowledge (also published by Financial Times Pitman Publishing) provides an international benchmark in this area. Consulting activities range over industries as diverse as aerospace, retail and distribution, software development and civil engineering where business growth is the main focus. Before becoming an academic he spent some 20 years working in the UK, Europe and the USA, gaining practical management and business experience in production, research and systems development.