{"title":"The strategist’s view needs to extend beyond planning to execution","authors":"T. Galpin","doi":"10.1108/sl-04-2023-0038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/sl-04-2023-0038","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000The Oxford Strategy Insights Project was designed to assess the current approaches, aims, and focus of strategists across industries and geographies.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000The project received input from 167 executives and managers across twenty-six industries, spanning over thirty countries, regarding their firm’s strategy process.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The biggest gap highlighted by the Oxford Strategy Insights Project is effective strategy execution. An overwhelming majority of respondents indicated that their organization’s strategy execution efforts are ineffective and slow, with accelerated implementation being the exception rather than the norm. In line with these findings, few firms appear to be applying the best practice of establishing an implementation management infrastructure including a “Program Manager” tasked to manage and coordinate the firm’s strategy implementation effort. The one positive element related to strategy execution is that most firms seem to have an effective strategic measurement and reporting process.\u0000\u0000\u0000Practical implications\u0000Organizations that can execute their strategies increase the likelihood of realizing the full potential of their plans. However, the study’s main finding is that effective strategy execution is severely lacking. Strategists need to become more foresighted, with a much greater focus on implementation.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000Although the value of effective strategy execution has been well documented for over five-decades in both academic and management practice literature, new research has found that most strategists are still short-sighted, viewing strategy as primarily planning with a limited focus on implementation.\u0000","PeriodicalId":169963,"journal":{"name":"Strategy & Leadership","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131838131","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Building threat resilience into ecosystem strategy","authors":"Jacob Dencik, Anthony Marshall, Gerald Parham","doi":"10.1108/sl-04-2023-0049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/sl-04-2023-0049","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000As businesses in a wide range of industries increasingly adopt digital ecosystems, the benefits include opening up new and untapped customer segments and channels, enabling access to new and untapped talent pools and expanding previously unexplored modes of innovation. Ecosystems – defined as digitally enabled networks that enhance value propositions by linking business functions, suppliers, distributors, partners, customers and other stakeholders – are now an engine that drives performance. Multiple studies confirm that value creation and competitive advantage are increasingly tied to organizations’ ability to engage partners and stakeholders. IBM Institute of Business Value’s most recent research has found that revenue growth of ecosystem leaders outpaces others by a five-to-one ratio.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000Yet despite these notable successes there is also a dark side to digital ecosystem engagement. Large ecosystems have become a central to business strategy while little attention has been paid to the potential for cyber threats. Increased openness of business operations can result in greater risk.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000Security must graduate into a central enabler of business transformation. If businesses do not fundamentally rethink their security equation, ecosystems and the trust on which they are built, which often take years and billions of investment dollars to build, can be squandered in minutes by ever-growing security threats.\u0000\u0000\u0000Practical implications\u0000Large ecosystems have become a central to business strategy while little attention has been paid to the potential for cyber threats.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000Mature, risk-mitigated ecosystems are starting to resemble a mature supply chain, where some risks are precluded by design, some partners are favored based on established trust criteria and remaining risks are explicitly managed transactionally as part of the partner relationship.\u0000","PeriodicalId":169963,"journal":{"name":"Strategy & Leadership","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115099467","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"IBM's Ginni Rometty: portrait of a leader learning to use “Good Power”","authors":"B. Leavy","doi":"10.1108/sl-04-2023-0048","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/sl-04-2023-0048","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000This masterclass examines former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty's personal memoir of her life and career as a study of authentic leadership in action, and her concept of “good power” through which she distills the major insights on leadership she gleaned along the way.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000This masterclass examines the insights from a former IBM CEO's “memoir with purpose” as an example of the classic perspective on authentic leadership developed in the “True North” series of studies by Harvard's Bill George and his research associates over two decades.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000Ginni Rometty's “good power” concept and principles, as developed in her “memoir with purpose,” represent a practical guide for aspiring leaders seeking to become a positive force for change, and they make a valuable addition to the literature on authentic leadership.\u0000\u0000\u0000Research limitations/implications\u0000Her “good power” concept and experience-based principles, as developed in her “memoir with purpose” make a valuable addition to the literature on authentic leadership.\u0000\u0000\u0000Practical implications\u0000Her “good power” concept and principles, as developed in her “memoir with purpose,” represent a practical guide for aspiring leaders seeking to become a positive force for change.\u0000\u0000\u0000Social implications\u0000Her memoir, with its conception of “good power,” strongly encourages corporate leaders to adopt a “stakeholder perspective” and become more active and outspoken, forces for positive change in the wider societies within which they operate.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000Reflective memoirs as analytical as this one, from someone who has led at the highest level in the business world, are still rare in the genre.\u0000","PeriodicalId":169963,"journal":{"name":"Strategy & Leadership","volume":"51 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134027191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Using “CEO-speak” to prioritize a safety culture","authors":"R. Craig, J. Amernic","doi":"10.1108/sl-03-2023-0033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/sl-03-2023-0033","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000This paper points to five features that CEO language should have to help enable a robust safety culture.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000The paper draws empirical support mainly from the CEO-speak of the CEO of Norfolk Southern Railway in the year prior to the major derailment of a company train and subsequent toxic chemical spill in East Palestine Ohio in February 2023.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000CEOs should incorporate the following five features into their CEO-speak. They should actually use the word safety but “in doing so” avoid platitudes about safety. They should exude genuine commitment to safety “cite meaningful safety performance measures” and not ignore operating risks.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000Safety is a critically important aspect of corporate endeavor. Yet discussion of it is grossly under-represented in the professional and academic literature. This paper offers sound suggestions that reinforce the need for CEOs to write and speak in a way that ensures their company’s commitments to a strong safety culture are not merely platitudinous buzzwords but are genuinely key strategic elements of their company’s business model.\u0000","PeriodicalId":169963,"journal":{"name":"Strategy & Leadership","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128454548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Determining which CEO candidates will lead growth through innovation","authors":"John J. Oliver","doi":"10.1108/sl-03-2023-0030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/sl-03-2023-0030","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000This paper argues that certain CEO characteristics are a significant predictor of relative firm R&D spending and innovation performance and that executive boards need to be remain vigilant of their CEO’s performance by ensuring that they have the capabilities to drive innovation-led growth strategies.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The successful economic recovery from the global pandemic will be founded on the type of innovation-led growth that takes advantage of opportunities presented by a profoundly different competitive landscape. This paper demonstrates that certain CEO characteristics (age, education, career experience) are a significant predictor of relative firm R&D spending and innovation performance.\u0000\u0000\u0000Practical implications\u0000CEO performance is an increasingly important issue for many executive boards who are tasked with assessing whether or not incumbent CEOs and potential new CEO hires are equipped with the skills to drive innovation-led growth strategies. The findings will help executive board members and headhunting agencies to assess a CEO’s orientation toward innovation.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000This paper presents a review of how certain CEO characteristics act as a predictor of relative firm R&D spending and innovation. It presents the main findings from both academic and business sources in a way that is easily accessible to executive boards, senior management and headhunting agencies.\u0000","PeriodicalId":169963,"journal":{"name":"Strategy & Leadership","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114167318","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Opportunity mapping: locating the upside of risk through visual mapping","authors":"T. Case","doi":"10.1108/sl-02-2023-0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/sl-02-2023-0017","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000The increasing prevalence of enterprise risk coupled with global competition requires a strategic link to the way forward through measured outcomes determined in a collaborative and visual manner.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000The model was conceptualized and validated through strategic management deficiencies encountered in venture ownership, management consulting and teaching practice and was augmented with extensive stakeholder input and existing scholarly research.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000Managing risk is a complex and somewhat dark task that can happen everywhere or nowhere within a firm and requires mitigating strategies developed with stakeholder consensus. In practice with three distinct audiences of entrepreneurs, senior managers and capstone student strategists, the model does facilitate linked risk and opportunity identification as well as the quantification and/or qualification of variables. The process is as impactful as the outcomes when individual risk “appetites” and a collective risk culture emerge.\u0000\u0000\u0000Practical implications\u0000Innovative organizations must regularly scan their external environment and assess internal resources and capabilities in a structured and actionable manner while understanding their risk culture. Valuable outcomes emerge from facilitating strategic risk management discussions, particularly in growing and informal organizations. Risk communications with stakeholders are complex and increasingly important.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000Opportunity mapping offers a novel process to identify prioritized strategies that may be otherwise determined intuitively with limited input or absent altogether. The process facilitates actionable outcomes as a supplement to the known practice of risk assessment while contributing to a competitive advantage.\u0000","PeriodicalId":169963,"journal":{"name":"Strategy & Leadership","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121869343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Launching the strategic plan: a critical but missing piece of strategic management education and practice","authors":"K. Cory","doi":"10.1108/sl-11-2022-0112","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/sl-11-2022-0112","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000Numerous core concepts in the field of strategic management lack a clear definition or receive relatively little attention in most traditional strategic management classes with the concept of “implementation” being chief among them. The authors explore and describe one of the most important steps of implementation, the strategic plan launch project. It is the first impression that stakeholders have of what changes the company will be making to its business model, which businesses or departments will receive increased or decreased financial support, and the sense of urgency and prioritization the company is attaching to its new program.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000Based on extensive executive and consulting experience, plus a review of existing scholarly literature, a seven-step model is described and explained that includes best practices for the final steps of formulation through the initial phase of implementation.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The authors could not find any academic literature on how companies finish the formulation process and transition into an efficient and effective deployment of the plan. It is critical to clarify at least two kinds of budgets and clearly designate authorities prior to gaining board approval. Thereafter, a well-developed dissemination and launch project is necessary for clear communication of strategic intent and objectives.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000This paper fills in a critical gap in scholarly literature while providing practitioners with a foundational model to help organize and monitor the successful launch of a new organizational strategy.\u0000","PeriodicalId":169963,"journal":{"name":"Strategy & Leadership","volume":"106 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132494212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Effective creativity: how to manage it to achieve extraordinary business value","authors":"Anthony Marshall, Jacob Dencik, Cindy Anderson","doi":"10.1108/sl-02-2023-0020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/sl-02-2023-0020","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000To better understand the role of creativity and its impact on business, IBM Institute for Business Value (IBM IBV) surveyed 400 United States-based CEOs across 11 industries in 2022.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000Average organization size of these businesses was a little over $26 billion in annual revenue. The survey covered a range of questions on the role and impact of creativity in their organization. Then survey data was analyzed to reveal the key drivers and success factors of creativity.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000When the CEOs were asked to describe an organizational structure most conducive to perpetuating creativity, as many as one quarter of them identified a hierarchical structure – a structure typically considered antithetical to free-flowing creativity, and one highly susceptible to micro-management and bureaucracy.\u0000\u0000\u0000Practical implications\u0000CEOs identify fear of failure as the most significant barrier to creativity.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000Tapping into ingenuity and creativity has been critical to navigating recent market disruption – and going forward, effective creativity is becoming even more central to business success. Study identifies best practices of leading organizations that believe that. creativity is not a skill solely for a few selected innovators and makers, it’s a quality required across the workforce.\u0000","PeriodicalId":169963,"journal":{"name":"Strategy & Leadership","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127996461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bill George: Guiding two decades of the authentic leadership movement","authors":"B. Leavy","doi":"10.1108/sl-02-2023-0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/sl-02-2023-0022","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000Over the last two decades Bill George has been researching the basic ingredients of authentic leadership through one of the most extensive empirical studies of leadership ever undertaken. He and his team have extended their research to include both international and rising generation leaders and parlayed their findings into a development process aimed at helping current and aspiring leaders to become both more authentic and effective. His latest book, True North: Leading Authentically in Today’s Workplace (Emerging Leader Edition), is co-authored with Zach Clayton.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000Interview with authors Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic, and Zach Clayton, CEO of Three Ships, conducted by Brian Leavy, Emeritus Professor of Strategy at Dublin City University Business School, a Strategy &Leadership contributing editor and author of the S&L masterclass, “ Effective leadership today – character, not just competence.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000Authentic leaders engender trust and develop genuine connections, which enables them to motivate people to achieve high levels of performance.\u0000\u0000\u0000Practical implications\u0000“I believe the hardest person you will ever have to lead is yourself.” -- Bill George\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000“The authors interviewed hundreds of CEOs and found that the self-awareness that they develop in the process of self-discovery is the most essential determinant of their effectiveness as a leader.”\u0000","PeriodicalId":169963,"journal":{"name":"Strategy & Leadership","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116529974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Build resilient enterprises with resilient people: the case of ASK Consulting","authors":"Nkosi Leary, Lorry Perkins, Umang Thakkar, Gregory Gimpel","doi":"10.1108/sl-01-2023-0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/sl-01-2023-0012","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000While strong risk management and contingency planning are important for building capabilities useful for quick adaptation to foreseeable disruptions, they may not be useful for preparing for black swan-type events or situations that lack sufficient precedent to understand how they impact businesses. The key to creating a resilient organization relies most on resilient human capital, who are capable of withering whatever changes Chance may throw at them and the organization.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000Using company data and semi-structured interviews, this paper presents the case study of ASK Consulting, a medium-size entrepreneurial enterprise that learned that human resources are the cornerstone of a resilient organization.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000Resilient people exhibit three common traits: discipline, open-mindedness to change, and a sense of service to the team rather than themselves. Insights about these traits can be elicited by asking prospective employees three questions during their interview.\u0000\u0000\u0000Practical implications\u0000This case provides an illustrative case study and straightforward guidance for identifying whether a job candidate has the traits of a resilient person.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000Much of the research into organizational resilience focuses on scenario planning, contingencies, and building organizational capabilities. This provides a much more straightforward and actionable approach that focuses on only one type of resource and is not contingent on the availability of slack time and money to implement.\u0000","PeriodicalId":169963,"journal":{"name":"Strategy & Leadership","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121642333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}