Winning in Turbulence


Book Description

The current downturn may prove more brutal than most previous recessions. It's already hammering companies in markets around the globe. It will test businesses to their fullest-many won't survive. But downturns present strategic opportunities, too. In fact, many more companies achieve dramatic gains during recessions than in normal times. How to ensure your company emerges successful? In Winning in Turbulence, a new volume in the Memo to the CEO series, Bain & Company downturn strategist Darrell Rigby provides the playbook. He presents a powerful framework and diagnostic tool (available in the book and online) for assessing three dimensions of your situation: Your industry's sensitivity: How hard is it hit by this downturn? Your company's strategic position: Are you an industry leader or follower? Your firm's financial position, including cash reserves. The author then explains how to craft an action plan tailored to the situation you've diagnosed, providing tools for: Cutting costs intelligently-sustaining your margins and brand Boosting revenue by refocusing your sales force on the right customers Channeling resources into your core businesses Preparing for bold moves, such as game-changing acquisitions Timely and practical, this book positions you to survive a downturn and emerge stronger once the recovery begins.




Business Planning for Turbulent Times


Book Description

The world is increasingly turbulent and complex, awash with disruptions, tipping points and knock-on effects. These range from the impacts of warfare in the Middle East on energy futures, investment and global currencies to the vast and unpredictable impacts of climate change. All this threatens established strategic planning methods.This book is for business and organizational leaders who want and need to think through how best to deal with increasing turbulence, and with the complexity and uncertainty that come with it. The authors explain in clear language how future orientation and, specifically, modern scenario techniques help to address these conditions. They draw on examples from a wide variety of international settings and circumstances including large corporations, inter-governmental organizations, small firms and municipalities. Readers will be inspired to try out scenario approaches themselves to better address the turbulence that affects them and others with whom they work, live and do business. A key feature of the book is the exchange of insights across the academic-practitioner divide. Scholars of scenario thinking and organizational environments will appreciate the authors' conceptual and methodological advances. What has previously remained jargon only accessible to the highest level of corporate and government futures planners here becomes comprehensible to a wider business and practitioner community.




Strategic Leadership for Turbulent Times


Book Description

In today’s organizations, it is no longer the CEO who acts as the sole strategic leader. From single individuals to larger teams and networks, leaders at all levels are infiltrating the formal organizational structure and making strategic leadership an increasingly complex endeavor. In Strategic Leadership for Turbulent Times, Kriger and Zhovtobryukh shrewdly describe the true experiences of what employees encounter as internal and external environments evolve, and how to uphold the personal and organizational values which affect both human and social capital. They examine how leadership strategies are used in real situations and highlight the importance of managerial wisdom for sustainable growth. Finally, they offer advice for strategic leaders on leading effectively in highly turbulent economic, social, technological, and multicultural times.




Managing Uncertainty


Book Description

Managing uncertainty has become a new business imperative. Technological discontinuities, regulatory upheavals, geopolitical shocks, abrupt shifts in consumer tastes or behavior, and many other factors have emerged or intensified in recent years and together conspire to undermine even the most carefully constructed business strategies. Managing Uncertainty: Strategies for Surviving and Thriving in Turbulent Times addresses these new challenges, assessing the sources of business turbulence, how to classify uncertainty, and the different ways in which uncertainty can be embraced to allow greater innovation and growth. Drawing on examples from around the world, the book presents the most recent ideas on what it means to manage uncertainty, from practitioners, academics, and consultants. Addresses the challenges of managing uncertainty in business Presents a step-by-step guide to managing business uncertainty Draws examples from major international companies, including Intel, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Boeing, Quinetiq, Philips, China Telecom, Ford, Apple, Shell, Glaxo SmithKline and many more Written for business leaders and managers looking for new ways to ensure that their businesses continue to thrive in a world of increasing complexity, Managing Uncertainty presents new and innovative ideas about reducing risk by understanding difficult-to-predict shifts.




Managing Performance in Turbulent Times


Book Description

Straightforward playbook for executing world-class strategy for tangible results Designed with three key ideas: leverage the tools that are working, simplify the model, and make the content readable for managers, Managing Performance in Turbulent Times is a road map for the modern strategy manager. Through their simplified execution process the authors—performance management experts—show executives how to get results and execute even in the most difficult conditions. Addresses importance of adaptability to change within today's business environment Explores the environmental turbulence that constantly confounds virtually all organizational systems, with workable solutions Provides a streamlined execution process any organization can use to improve business results Managers need tools to do their jobs better. Filled with proven solutions, this book reveals how to get results through successful strategy execution, presenting a process that will help your organization execute strategy in a simplified, efficient manner.




Managerial Strategies for Business Sustainability During Turbulent Times


Book Description

As the economy fluctuates, so does the need for resilient business practices. If organizations can remain strong and steady during difficult times, they will be more fruitful during successful periods as well. Managerial Strategies for Business Sustainability During Turbulent Times is a crucial resource that discusses successful methods and techniques for building sturdy company practices. Featuring pertinent topics such as sustainable supply chains, knowledge management, information sharing, and performance evaluations, this is an ideal scholarly reference source for CEOs, managers, business students, and researchers that would like to discover more unique and engaging ways to build a strong business foundation.




The New Global Road Map


Book Description

What Globalization Now Means for Your Business Executives can no longer base their strategies on the assumption that globalization will continue to advance steadily. But how should they respond to the growing pressures against globalization? And what can businesses do to control their destinies in these times of uncertainty? In The New Global Road Map, Pankaj Ghemawat separates fact from fiction by giving readers a better understanding of the key trends affecting global business. He also explains how globalization levels around the world are changing, and where they are likely to go in the future. Using the most up-to-date data and analysis, Ghemawat dispels today's most dangerous myths and provides a clear view of the most critical issues facing policy makers in the years ahead. Building on this analysis, with examples from a diverse set of companies across industries and geographies, Ghemawat provides actionable frameworks and tools to help executives revise their strategies, restructure their global footprints, realign their organizations, and rethink how they work with local governments and institutions. In our era of rising nationalism and increased skepticism about globalization's benefits, The New Global Road Map delivers the definitive guide on how to compete profitably across borders.




Rethinking Public-Private Partnerships


Book Description

The global financial crisis hit the world in a remarkable way in late 2008. Many governments and private sector organizations, who had considered Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to be their future, were forced to rethink their strategy in the wake of the crisis, as a lot of the available private funding upon which PPPs relied, was suddenly no longer available to the same extent. At the same time, governments and international organizations, like the European Union, were striving to make closer partnerships between the public sector and the private sector economy a hallmark for future policy initiatives. This book examines PPPs in the context of turbulent times following the global financial crisis (GFC). PPPs can come in many forms, and the book sets out to distinguish between the many alternative views of partnerships; a project, a policy, a symbol of the role of the private sector in a mixed economy, or a governance tool - all within a particular cultural and historical context. This book is about rethinking PPPs in the wake of the financial crisis and aims to give a clearer picture of the kind of conceptual frameworks that researchers might employ to now study PPPs. The crisis took much of the glamour out of PPPs, but theoretical advances have been made by researchers in a number of areas and this book examines selected new research approaches to the study of PPPs.




Strategic Decision Making


Book Description

Making strategic decisions is a fundamental skill for leaders and managers. However, in a business environment that is in a constant state of change, making strategic decisions has never been more difficult. Strategic Decision Making addresses this challenge by providing a framework that can be used to make sound decisions in an uncertain world. Structured around the core concepts of framing, experimenting and scaling, this book will ensure that efforts are focused where the need is greatest, that interventions are tested, evaluated and revised if necessary and that successful initiatives are effectively rolled out across the business. Packed with real world examples and backed up by academic research, Strategic Decision Making will allow today's leaders and the leaders of tomorrow to make successful and defensible business choices. It shows how to: avoid decision-making bias, overcome organizational inertia, manage the difficulties of rigid organizational structures and avoid being side tracked by outdated or irrelevant experience. Essential reading for business practitioners and management students alike, this comprehensive guide provides a robust approach to achieving strategic success.




Thinking Strategically in Turbulent Times


Book Description

An emergent approach to organizational strategy making assumes that few organizations actually realize the goal of deliberative, top-down strategic planning, and that effective strategy making occurs on a continual basis and is a shared activity of the entire organization. This innovative book provides the first in-depth look at how real organizations are formulating and implementing strategic change under this new paradigm. The authors have dug deep into three large and varied organizations (Hewlett-Packard, the California State University system, and the County of Los Angeles) and identified each one's efforts to develop a new strategic planning process better-suited to match the current pace of change and environmental unpredictability. The book is filled with vignettes, quotes, and real-world examples that illustrate the trend toward faster, more adaptive strategic planning processes. It is relevant for a wide range of business, governmental, and non-profit settings, and should be reguired reading in any course on strategic planning.