Book excerpt: 'Tales from the Marketplace: Stories of Revolution, Reinvention and Renewal' is a highly innovative approach to building an understanding of the realities of market-led strategic change in companies. It provides an engaging, honest, and effective understanding of real market strategy in major organizations by focussing on the forces behind value-driven strategy. Nigel Piercy provides new and incisive insights into strategy and marketing through business "stories" that are contemporary and provocative. These new "stories" depict how major organizations have experienced revolution in their traditional markets - created by new types of competitors with new business models. The search for superior value is overtaking traditional brand and relationship strategies. The challenge to companies is reinvention and renewal and the alternative is obsolescence and decline. After all, did the major banks really expect to be competing with supermarkets, car companies, Virgin and internet-based companies to provide retail bank services? The book is based on the author's view that: · Business is exciting, turbulent and unpredictable - the "stories" we read and study should be too! · From Dell Computers and easyJet to Amazon.com and Skoda Cars, it is the most innovative companies that have most to teach us about reinvention and new business models · The inflexible analytical frameworks of the past no longer apply - "stories" of reinvention and renewal show the creative strategies developed by companies to cope with threats and exploit opportunities around them. 'Tales from the Marketplace' is essential, timely and designed to be highly readable for managers. It also provides an innovative approach for undergraduate and MBA level teachers and students, and for participants on executive programmes in marketing and strategic management.