Article Reviews

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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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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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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Speed and Strategic Choice: How Managers Accelerate Decision Making

By: Kathleen M. Eisenhardt

Old ways of making strategies in a slow and carefully considered strategic plan are over. The premium now is no moving fast and keeping pace. Even the best strategies are worthless if they take to loge to formulate. Conventional wisdom will only get you so far with out skipping some important details.

A strategic decision is considered to be made “fast” when it take about 2 – 4 months to make, and slow when it takes 12 – 18 months.

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How to Make Values Count in Everyday Decisions

By: Joel E. Urbany, Thomas J. Reynolds and Joan M. Phillips

Johnson & Johnson illustrated how decision-making is traded-off between values; choosing customer safety over short-term financial performance. This article is about how all decisions, whether judged highly ethical, grossly unethical or anywhere in between, are value-based. We need a means for revealing those values and expressly thinking through the trade-offs between them. This article shows a process of decision mapping. It includes choice options, consequences, outcomes, and values and goals. All of theses are intertwined with one another. This article also talks about four principles in choosing well; making good decisions. Leaders can be teachers are shown within this article. First they speak from the context of everyday decisions. They use decision context and analysis in training. Lastly they widely communicate the logic of decisions.

Take Command of Your Growth

By: Michael Treacy & Jim Sims

This article is simple in the fact that it calls for managers to look past the numbers that they see on paper, and actually try and understand the balance and income sheets. The article states that every year the revenue bottom line tells a story, and instead most managers read the bottom line as a positive or negative when in fact no matter what the number is there is something to be learned. Through the practical application of back tracking and identifying and analyzing the five sources of growth a company can generate the knowledge to make decisions that should benefit the company.

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Beyond the Charismatic Leader: Leadership and Organizational Change

By: David A. Nadler Michael L. Tushman

This article is very interesting because it has an unconventional approach to the ideas around adaptation in strategy. The primary premise of the article is that organizations must change and adapt to their surroundings, however, they must do so in a way that is not consistent with much of the historical thought on the subject. Previously, people say that you have to adapt to the environment to push through the same organization and strategy, but they are saying that there must be a change in the actual organization itself to remain successful. The authors say “The executive is a critical actor in the drama of organization change” because the second main premise is that leadership is a driving force behind an organization and without proper or charismatic leadership, there will be nothing but trouble in the organization.

The following articles have been deemed ‘Classics’ in the realm of Strategic Management. As a class we have used these articles to gain information and have been able to see all the theories of Strategic Management in action. Our group has engaged in discussion and then written reviews filled with our critiques, likes, and dislikes. Read the rest of this entry »

Strategology

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Campaigning for Change

From Idea to Innovation: Making Creativity Real

Getting Brand Communities Right

How Local Companies Keep Multinationals at Bay

What’s Needed Next: A Culture of Candor

Speed and Strategic Choice: How Managers Accelerate Decision Making

How to Make Values Count in Everyday Decisions

Take Command of Your Growth

Beyond the Charismatic Leader: Leadership and Organizational Change

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