March » 2010 » Strategology

Campaigning for Change

By: Larry Hirschhorn

The article starts out by saying, “Large-scale change initiatives often collapse under the weight of their own complexity. To bring order to the chaos,organize the effort into three coordinated campaigns:political, marketing, and military”. This is basically saying that most organization that strives for change is overwhelmed because of how complex their change strategy is. It is undoubtedly a complex and difficult task, but it is doable. “Change programs that did work had one thing in common: They were managed as discrete projects, not as monolithic efforts.” The article recommends three distinct but linked campaigns in their initiatives: Political, marketing, and military.

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Chapter 9 – Final Food For Thought

Strategy Bites Back

By: Henry Mintzberg

“Be Your Body’s Boss” By: Lucy Kellaway

Wow, this is a very interesting article about a diet book. The premise behind the book is that diets should be ran as a business. The person is the CEO and the body is his organization. Their needs to be a plan in place to stick to, complete with a mission statement and committees. This is relatable to strategy because she brings it back to how making money and losing weight are both very difficult to do, but they are both attainable if you work hard enough and stay focused. It is encouraging to fit business owners because she says losing weight is statistically more difficult. Read the rest of this entry »

From Idea to Innovation: Making Creativity Real

By: Bolko von Oetinger

This article shows two patterns of behavior that were common to their innovations. The first innovation obstacle is finding something new is not the problem, but getting rid of the old presents the real threat. The newcomer has no laws to break, nothing to get rid of, nothing to loose, nothing to forget. He is free. He writes his own new laws. The dominant players, to the contrary, are caught up by their own successes. Most of them have lost the ability to “unlearn” to forget. The “art of forgetting” is necessary for innovation. But neither is there a course in business schools that will teach you that art, nor is there an established practice in business. This can be done by: forgetting but also respecting the past. It is also done escaping from your existing model. The other obstacle is that since innovation creates anxiety, you have to open up your organization. Allowing innovation to emerge can let this happen in the organization. You have to step back from the biggest picture. You also need to have an open exchange: external and internal. This article gives more details in each of these obstacles.

Getting Brand Communities Right

By: Susan Fournier & Lara Lee

This insightful article was about brand communities, which is something I’ve never really heard of. I’ve studied branding in marketing classes and such, but I don’t remember learning about brand communities. The authors define a brand communities as a, ‘a group of ardent consumers organized around the lifestyle, activities, and ethos of thebrand.’ A good example, and the one that the authors use, is Harley-Davidson. In the early 1980′s, Harley-Davidson was struggling. But after a big turn-around, the company is flourishing. They used the idea of brand communities to build the community within their followers and made Harley-Davidson a culture of it’s own.

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Chapter 8 – Strategy With The Gloves Off and The Halo On

Strategy Bites Back

By: Henry Mintzberg

“Chess in the Real World” By: Felix Holt

The real world takes lot of thinking before implementing making sure every move to be made is the right one.

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“Bees in the Real World” By: Edward O. Wilson

We need to be able to accomplish our strategies with out always having the help of executives and leaders. We have to be able to accomplish these things on our own when executives and leaders are not able to help us. Read the rest of this entry »

Chapter 7 – Strategy a Step At a Time

Strategy Bites Back
By: Henry Mintzberg

“Good Managers Don’t Make Policy Decisions” By: H. Edward Wrapp
The idea behind this “bite” is the fact that strategy that is too planned out can bind managers into a certain mindset that they cannot escape. In a perfect world, managers would be able to rid themselves of biases and look at their work each day with a fresh opinion. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world and we all fall into the trap of sticking to the plan, even if it is clearly outdated. The strategy of a company should be founded around a loose plan that may be remolded over and over again to fit the environment and current situations in the marketplace. Read the rest of this entry »

How Local Companies Keep Multinationals at Bay

By: Arindam K. Bhattacharya and David C. Michael

This article talks about some of the way that smaller companies keep larger multinational companies at bay in developing countries. The first argument is that the larger companies and they are so used to being able to charge a premium for their product. This makes it difficult because the smaller more local companies can charge less for the same product and from there it is simple economics. Consumers will choose the lowest priced item. The second reason is the larger companies rely on different properties that developed countries have such as consistent telephone communication and internet access. Without these elements the bases of the larger companies begin to crumble and lose its efficiency, which allows the smaller companies to compete. Lastly, the larger companies have a tendency to be rigid and remain in the strategies that worked for developed countries when they need to realize that developing countries wants and need are very different. It is because of this that the larger companies lose touch with their consumer base and offer them what they think they should want. The smaller companies however are very close to the consumer and aren’t hindered by rules and preconceived notion; therefore, they can provide the consumer with exactly what they want.

What’s Needed Next: A Culture of Candor

By: O’Toole & Bennis

The main premise of this article is that organizations have to focus on building an atmosphere, or culture, that inspires honesty and integrity. Only then will more people have more faith in corporate America. In the past the main measurement of the success of a company was just by their economic status. But now, as times are getting harder and more competitive, it’s key for a company to be well rounded, which means economically successful and integral.

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Chapter 6 – Inside the Strategist’s Head

Strategy Bites Back

By: Henry Mintzberg

“Biases and Limitations of Judgment: Humans and Animals” By: Spyros G. Makridakis

This article proved a thought we’ve had for awhile. It’s the thought that when managers, or anyone, research something to answer one of their hypothesis’ they are more likely to find information that supports their claim. we also learned that a human is more likely to remember information that would help them prove the point they are trying to make. This fault is evident in humans across the board, no matter which field of work you pursue. It’s good that we can be aware of this natural bias so we can try and monitor it when we need to make a big decision. Read the rest of this entry »

Chapter 5 – A Vision of Strategy

Strategy Bites Back

By: Henry Mintzberg

“To See or Not to See”

We really liked this first quote about what happens when a person gets inspired by a vision. It’s like nothing else matters- all you can think of is accomplishing your goals that you have set to get your vision to come to fruition. We thought the author described those feelings very well and it was clear that he has had come visions himself that he has been working on.

The second quote upset us. It seems like maybe that communications executive needs to understand his industry better or find a new job. It’s completely understandable to feel like you can’t see well because no one can see the future. But it was the part about forgetting where he’s going and eating grass that bothered me. Having your plans change down the road or having to turn around is understandable but stopping to eat grass just seems like he gave up. Or, maybe we’re just not understanding the analogy. Read the rest of this entry »

Strategology

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Campaigning for Change

Chapter 9 – Final Food For Thought

From Idea to Innovation: Making Creativity Real

Getting Brand Communities Right

Chapter 8 – Strategy With The Gloves Off and The Halo On

Chapter 7 – Strategy a Step At a Time

How Local Companies Keep Multinationals at Bay

What’s Needed Next: A Culture of Candor

Chapter 6 – Inside the Strategist’s Head

Chapter 5 – A Vision of Strategy

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