Managing in a VUCA World


Book Description

This book examines volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) and addresses the need for broader knowledge and application of new concepts and frameworks to deal with unpredictable and rapid changing situations. The premises of VUCA can shape all aspects of an organization. To cover all areas, the book is divided into six sections. Section 1 acts as an introduction to VUCA and complexity. It reviews ways to manage complexity, while providing examples for tools and approaches that can be applied. The main focus of Section 2 is on leadership, strategy and planning. The chapters in this section create new approaches to handle VUCA environments pertaining to these areas including using the Tetralemma logics, tools from systemic structural constellation (SySt) approach of psychotherapy and organizational development, to provide new ideas for the management of large strategic programs in organizations. Section 3 considers how marketing and sales are affected by VUCA, from social media’s influence to customer value management. Operations and cost management are highlighted in Section 4. This section covers VUCA challenges within global supply chains and decision-oriented controlling. In Section 5 organizational structure and process management are showcased, while Section 6 is dedicated to addressing the effects of VUCA in IT, technology and data management. The VUCA forces present businesses with the need to move from linear modes of thought to problem solving with synthetic and simultaneous thinking. This book should help to provide some starting points and ideas to deal with the next era. It should not be understood as the end of the road, but as the beginning of a journey exploring and developing new concepts for a new way of management.




U.S. Army War College


Book Description

We are all familiar with ROTC, West Point, and other institutions that train young men and women to be military officers. But few people know of the U.S. Army War College, where the Army's elite career officers go for advanced training in strategy, national security policy, and military-government policymaking. This book takes readers inside the U.S. Army War College to learn about the faculty, staff, administration, and curriculum.Established in 1901, the school's mission has evolved from teaching the skills of war to training officers to negotiate both the complex world of modern strategy and the civilian bureaucracy in Washington. More like a professional graduate program than an academic graduate school, much of the education takes the form of exercises and simulations.Judith Stiehm, who holds the U.S. Army Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, allows readers to judge whether the U.S. Army War College successfully prepares its students for their many roles. She is skeptical that instructors can fulfill this difficult task in an era where civilians expect our military to be invincible, to win without casualties, and to serve as peacekeepers.The Military answers to the people of the United States and it is our responsibility to know how it operates at all levels. This book is a good place to start.




The Ambiguity Advantage


Book Description

This new work shows that a key factor for great leadership is the ability to recognize, explore and profit from ambiguous situations. Drawing upon his own research and including compelling international cases, the author reveals how to lead others through times of uncertainty so as to create opportunity, innovation and competitive advantage.




Managing Disruptions in Business


Book Description

This volume discusses business disruptions as strategic to gain market competitiveness. It analyzes the convergence of innovation and technology, business practices, public policies, political ideologies, and consumer values to strengthen competitive business practices through disruptions. Bringing together contributions from global experts, the chapters add to knowledge on contemporary business models, business strategies, radical interventions in manufacturing, services, and marketing organizations. Disruptive innovations led by contemporary trends, tend to transform the market and consumers’ landscape. These trends include shifts from closed to open models of innovation, servitization, and moving from conventional manufacturing and marketing paradigms to industry 4.0 business philosophy. Focused on the triadic themes of disruption, innovation, and management in emerging markets, this book serves as a valuable compendium for research in entrepreneurship development, regional business and development, contemporary political ideologies, and changing social values.




Sustainability in a Digital World


Book Description

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to the different emerging concepts in the innovative area of sustainability and digital technology. More than 20 leading thinkers from the fields of digitalization, strategic management, sustainability and organizational development share clearly structured insights on the latest developments, advances and remaining challenges concerning the role of sustainability in an increasingly digital world. The authors not only introduce a profound and unique analysis on the state-of-the art of sustainability and digital transformation, but also provide business leaders with practical advice on how to apply the latest management thinking to their daily business decisions. Further, a number of significant case studies exemplify the issues discussed and serve as valuable blueprints for decision makers.




Brand Relevance


Book Description

Branding guru Aaker shows how to eliminate the competition and become the lead brand in your market This ground-breaking book defines the concept of brand relevance using dozens of case studies-Prius, Whole Foods, Westin, iPad and more-and explains how brand relevance drives market dynamics, which generates opportunities for your brand and threats for the competition. Aaker reveals how these companies have made other brands in their categories irrelevant. Key points: When managing a new category of product, treat it as if it were a brand; By failing to produce what customers want or losing momentum and visibility, your brand becomes irrelevant; and create barriers to competitors by supporting innovation at every level of the organization. Using dozens of case studies, shows how to create or dominate new categories or subcategories, making competitors irrelevant Shows how to manage the new category or subcategory as if it were a brand and how to create barriers to competitors Describes the threat of becoming irrelevant by failing to make what customer are buying or losing energy David Aaker, the author of four brand books, has been called the father of branding This book offers insight for creating and/or owning a new business arena. Instead of being the best, the goal is to be the only brand around-making competitors irrelevant.




The VUCA Company


Book Description

How Indian companies have faced Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity Failure in itself is not a catastrophe, but failure to learn from failure, definitely is. It is not enough to merely train leaders in core competencies, without identifying the key factors that inhibit their use. Rather, it is resilience and adaptability that are vital in order to distinguish potential leaders from mediocre managers. Authors Suhayl Abidi and Dr Manoj Joshi bring to readers The VUCA Company (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity), the first of its kind in India, on original case studies of 12 Indian corporate failures, since the time of economic liberalization. Each study has been the result of meticulous research over the years and provides insights into behavioural and systemic aspects of failures and under-performance. Through these engaging corporate stories, VUCA discusses how individuals and organizations can avoid, minimize and recover from failures. SUHAYL ABIDI is a practitioner of Organizational Learning & Knowledge Management. He has spent the last 25 years with organizations such as Penguin Publishing, The British Council, Reliance Industries, Essar and Piramal Healthcare. DR MANOJ JOSHI, PhD (Strategy), Fellow Institution of Engineers India, is a Professor – Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Amity Business School. He is the Asia Editor for the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Regional Editor, India for the Journal of Family Business Management.




Technical, Economic and Societal Effects of Manufacturing 4.0


Book Description

This open access book is among the first cross-disciplinary works about Manufacturing 4.0. It includes chapters about the technical, the economic, and the social aspects of this important phenomenon. Together the material presented allows the reader to develop a holistic picture of where the manufacturing industry and the parts of the society that depend on it may be going in the future. Manufacturing 4.0 is not only a technical change, nor is it a purely technically driven change, but it is a societal change that has the potential to disrupt the way societies are constructed both in the positive and in the negative. This book will be of interest to scholars researching manufacturing, technological innovation, innovation management and industry 4.0.




Burnout Among Social Workers


Book Description

The phenomenon of burnout first became the subject of public attention in the mid-1970s. This landmark volume is one of the first devoted exclusively to theoretical and empirical work on burnout. Each valuable chapter represents the state of the art in social services research on burnout. Burnout Among Social Workers illustrates and assesses problems with definitions and theoretical orientations to help clarify the overall conceptual vagueness that has plagued burnout research since its beginning. Attention is paid to both personal and job-related variables and coping mechanisms. Expert social work academicians and researchers clearly demonstrate the importance of burnout measurement for theory and practice and establish important guidelines for subsequent research and theory development in this area.