Essentials of Strategic Management responds head-on to the growing requests by business faculty for a concise, theory-driven strategic management concepts and cases text. This first edition text was written with four objectives in mind: 1) Although relatively brief in length, the text would provide students with an up-to-date and thorough understanding of essential strategic management concepts and analytic tools; 2) The text would simplify the task of demonstrating student learning through course embedded assessment; 3) Like our works preceding this text, it would include especially well-written cases involving headline strategic issues; and lastly, 4) The text could serve as the theoretical foundation of a teaching approach incorporating a business strategy simulation.