Book Description

We are at a turning point. Technological breakthroughs and crumbling national barriers are pressuring firms to become more efficient and entrepreneurial in order to compete in globalized markets. At the same time, regulators and activist stakeholders are insisting that firms act more fairly and ethically in their dealings with consumers, with employees, and towards the environment. To meet these contradictory pressures is no simple task. Far-sighted executives are responding by initiating wrenching revisions of their firms' competitive postures, internal controls, and corporate cultures. Turning Points describes in detail how visionary leaders can plan for strategic change and guide their firms through the radical restructurings that such changes entail. As author Charles J. Fombrun puts it:. "Although much has been written about the act of leadership, our firms continue to be managed more like autocracies and fiefdoms than like inspired hotbeds of innovation...Today, the strategic challenge lies in returning to the operating roots from which firms once derived their competitiveness. Achieving vigor will require aggressive redeployments of capital and people to improve timing and differentiation, to exploit synergies, and to mobilize shared interests, both internally with employees, and externally with rivals..." Turning Points shows managers how to become the kinds of transforming leaders the times demand. Dr. Fombrun discusses ongoing changes at prominent companies like AT&T, IBM, General Motors, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Chase Manhattan, Bank America, and many more, to explain how cutting-edge managers identify their firms' true competitors; convert threats into opportunities; break out of obsolete strategic trajectories; cultivate competitive distinctiveness; exploit latent synergies in corporate portfolios; court strategic allies; reshape control structures and work environments; and mobilize the support of all stakeholders. Managers will come away from this book not only with a strong appreciation for how changing environments are likely to affect their firms, but also with fresh insights for how to engineer their firms' passage through such critical turning points.