This book investigates the phenomenon of strategic myopia, which refers to important cognitive distortions that managers systematically display. It captures narrow views and preferences, which are likely to hurt firms’ long-term prospects. Instead of accusing managers of imperfections, opportunism, or blindness, this book explains how strategic myopia stems from individual dispositions, how it is shaped by team contingencies, and encouraged by organizations’ design. The reader will learn how a metaphor introduced to explain business failure evolved over decades to become a concept useful in understanding intertemporal choices, technology substitution, competitive advantage erosion, competitive blindspots, and missed opportunities. In addition to explaining the mechanisms that encourage myopic behaviors, readers are offered a set of effective ways to address strategic myopia. A key benefit of this work is that the structure of the book allows the use of chapters separately. The core message is that eliminating strategic myopia is hardly possible, and may actually hurt the firms’ short-term efficiency. However, organizations may develop capabilities, and implement designs that favor balancing the short-term benefits of myopia and alleviate its long-term drawbacks. This book will be of interest to scholars, researchers, advanced students and experienced managers in the fields of strategic management and organizational behavior.
SILOS IN BUSINESS ARE NOT BAD--STOP BREAKING SILOS DOWN! Over the years, I've witnessed organization after organization struggle to improve its operational excellence. Most fail! Companies that fail to bridge the gap between strategy and execution are seriously suffering. One thing often resides at the heart of the problem -- silos in an organization. Throughout my career, I've examined the shortsightedness, or myopia, that can develop because of silos and discovered ways to overcome it. Silos exist in every organization larger than a small business startup. They must exist for an organization to operate. - We want silos! - We need silos! - We naturally form silos! So why are we taught that silos are bad? Because of the myopia, that can affect any organization in which silos are not managed properly. There are nine root causes that occur within silos that, without identification and management, can cause any organization to become myopic. Shortsighted organizations--those that fail to see the big picture or fail to have a strategic long-term vision -- suffer from Organizational Myopia (OM). An organization suffering from OM is less effective or efficient at fulfilling its mission, or is simply unable to do so at all. All organizations are naturally susceptible to OM. Most suffer from it. Unfortunately, the normal quick-fix methodologies employed by leaders and managers to deal OM -- restructuring or tearing down silos -- are almost always ineffective and only short-term solutions. So, how do we solve OM? Any leader can take actions to solve the negative effects of OM. The nine root causes must be identified and managed through a consistent and systematic application of a full-spectrum of strategic and organizational improvement methods. OM can be overcome, and silos can be good! From a technical and teaching perspective, this book provides you with the tools to break through silos and improve any organization facing OM-related issues. As a guide, reference, and roadmap, this book is designed to provide you with strategic and organizational methods that you can apply, like a surgeon, to identify and eradicate specific OM issues within your organization. This book is based on 30 years of business improvement experience. It is already proven through several executive, business consultant, and educator pre-reviews. Written for Presidents, CEOs, Executives, and Business Leaders, this book is something everyone should have dogeared and tape-flagged on their bookshelf! However, anyone in the business world, concerned about improving operations, should own a copy. John Knotts is a strategic business advisor with 30 years of experience in military, non-profit, and commercial leadership and consulting. He has an extensive background in strategy, change, process, leadership, management, human capital, training and education, innovation, design, and communication. John believes strongly in a holistic and no-nonsense approach to establishing operational excellence. Overcoming Organizational Myopia is John's initial work, highlighting the many areas of expertise where he has worked to break through siloed organizations. This book forms a platform for several future business titles related to many of the nine areas addressed.
What business is your company really in? That's a question all executives should all ask before demand for their firm's products or services dwindles. In Marketing Myopia, Theodore Levitt offers examples of companies that became obsolete because they misunderstood what business they were in and thus what their customers wanted. He identifies the four widespread myths that put companies at risk of obsolescence and explains how business leaders can shift their attention to customers' real needs instead.
Now available as a 60 day review copy in Paperback! ISBN: 1-4129-2121-X"Finally! We have a comprehensive, reflective and critical overview of the field of strategy in the new Handbook of Strategy and Management." -Cynthia Hardy, Head of Department of Management, University of Melbourne Presenting a major retrospective and prospective overview of strategy, this Handbook is an important benchmark volume for management scholars worldwide. The Handbook frames, assesses and synthesizes the work in the field. Chapters are grouped under four specific areas of strategy and management: Mapping a Terrain; Thinking and Acting Strategically; Changing Contexts; and Looking Forward. Within these parts, leading international scholars provide historical overviews of the key themes, address the central approaches which have characterized these themes, critically assess the quality of current theory and knowledge, and set out agendas for future theoretical and empirical development. The resulting volume is a unique overview of the inputs and dynamics to shape strategy and management and will be crucial reference for academics and students.
The bursting of the ‘dotcom bubble’ and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have brought into question received wisdom about strategy. This volume reviews the lessons to be learnt from these events, and proposes that, as a result, strategy in the twenty-first century will have to develop along new lines. Comprising a series of outstanding contributions by experts in the field, the collection focuses on changes that are occurring in how strategy is viewed, formulated and analysed, and looks forward to the future of strategic management. It discusses the emergence of new modes of thinking, new models, and new processes, and lays foundations on which strategy can build in future.
The authors analyse the New Economy from a scientific point of view. The success and the failure of enterprises of the new economy form a challenge to the modern business management and to the theory of the firm. This conference transcript answers the question in which way well-established concepts of the theory of the firm should be modified or new approaches should be created, in order to run enterprises of the new economy successfully. The discussion includes various fields of the theory of the firm and is therefore divided into the six essential disciplines of economic research, which are Production and Procurement, Finance, Marketing, Accounting, Human Resource Management and Economic Organization and Corporate Governance. The international orientation of the book addresses the world-wide scientific community.
Research in Social Stratification and Mobility continues its tradition of publishing the best and most innovative research on the changing landscape of social inequality the world over. This issue focuses on different dimensions of social closure and their relationship to social inequality processes, including the changing role that education plays in sorting people into favorable and unfavorable labor market positions across a global diversity of cultural settings. This issue also examines the fluid boundaries of race and ethnicity in contentious political settings, relationships between attitudes and collective action, and the role that technology and political context plays in promoting economic development and well-being. These topics and the research methodologies they represent display the vitality of social science research dealing with social stratification and the wide array of methods, contexts, and policies that directly affect the life chances of most of the world's peoples. This issue also marks a continuation of the ties developed between RSSM and the Social Stratification and Mobility section of the International Sociological Association (RC-28). This collaboration promises to promote and disseminate social inequality research throughout the world through an established network of distinguished international contributors and commentators.
Changing business environments challenge established management ideas and practices. This volume draws on competence-based theory to identify and elaborate some important ways in which organizational competences are evolving - or should evolve - to respond to some fundamental forms of change in business environments.
