Cambridge Handbook Of Strategy As Practice

Now in its second edition, this extended and thoroughly updated handbook introduces researchers and students to the growing range of theoretical and methodological perspectives being developed in the vibrant field of strategy as practice. With new authors and additional chapters, it shows how the strategy as practice approach in strategic management moves away from disembodied and asocial studies of firm assets, technologies and practices to explore and explain the contribution that strategizing makes to people working at all levels of an organization. It breaks down many of the traditional paradigmatic barriers in strategy to investigate who the strategists are, what they do, how they do it, and what the consequences or outcomes of their actions are. This essential work summarizes recent developments in the field while presenting a clear agenda for future research.

The Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice provides a comprehensive overview of an emerging and growing stream of research in strategic management. An international team of scholars has been assembled to produce a systematic introduction to the various epistemological, methodological and theoretical aspects of the strategy-as-practice approach. This perspective explores and explains the contribution that strategizing makes to daily operations at all levels of an organization. Moving away from a disembodied and asocial study of firm assets, technologies and practices, the strategy-as-practice approach breaks down many of the traditional paradigmatic boundaries in strategy to investigate who the strategists are, what strategists do, how they do it, and what the consequences or outcomes of their actions are. Including a number of detailed empirical studies, the handbook will be an essential guide for future research in this vibrant field.

This is an analysis of what managers actually do in relation to the development of strategy in organisations.

The first of its kind, this Handbook mobilizes research on an emerging phenomenon, Open Strategy. As new technologies and societal pressures have precipitated employees, business partners, shareholder groups and other stakeholders into deeper involvement in strategy, various Open Strategy initiatives now promise greater transparency and inclusion in the strategy process. Providing a wide-ranging introduction to the concept of Open Strategy and its various dimensions, the chapters of this Handbook detail key practices, discuss the roles of technology, and propose various theoretical perspectives for researching Open Strategy. Finally, this Handbook addresses the ongoing challenges and politics involved in Open Strategy. It will appeal to organization and strategy scholars, master's students in business and management, practitioners, such as consultants and strategy staff in established firms, and anyone concerned with new trends in strategy development and its implications for organizations and their members.

How smart companies are opening up strategic initiatives to involve front-line employees, experts, suppliers, customers, entrepreneurs, and even competitors. Why are some of the world’s most successful companies able to stay ahead of disruption, adopting and implementing innovative strategies, while others struggle? It’s not because they hire a new CEO or expensive consultants but rather because these pioneering companies have adopted a new way of strategizing. Instead of keeping strategic deliberations within the C-Suite, they open up strategic initiatives to a diverse group of stakeholders—front-line employees, experts, suppliers, customers, entrepreneurs, and even competitors. Open Strategy presents a new philosophy, key tools, step-by-step advice, and fascinating case studies—from companies that range from Barclays to Adidas—to guide business leaders in this groundbreaking approach to strategy. The authors—business-strategy experts from both academia and management consulting—introduce tools for each of the three stages of strategy-making: idea generation, plan formulation, and implementation. These are digital tools (including strategy contests), which allow the widest participation; hybrid digital/in-person tools (including a “nightmare competitor challenge”); a workshop tool that gamifies the business model development process; and tools that help companies implement and sustain open strategy efforts. Open strategy has an astonishing track record: a survey of 200 business leaders shows that although open-strategy techniques were deployed for only 30 percent of their initiatives, those same initiatives generated 50 percent of their revenues and profits. This book offers a roadmap for this kind of success.

Strategy is becoming more 'open' - more transparent and more inclusive. Opening Strategy tells the story of how corporate strategists and strategy consultants have worked since the middle of the last century to open up the strategy process. First strategic planning, then strategic management, and now 'open strategy' have all brought more people into the strategy process and provided more strategic information, for the benefit of both business and society at large. Informed by interviews with corporate strategists and consultants at leading firms such as General Electric and McKinsey & Co, and drawing on the historical archives of strategy's pioneers, this book provides vivid insights into the trials and tribulations of practice change in the strategy profession. Above all, it stresses the hard work of the little recognized and sometimes eccentric individuals who have been leaders in practice change. By building on a wide range of illustrations, covering both successes and failures, the book draws out general lessons for practice innovation in strategy. Those studying the topic will be able to set standard strategy techniques in historical and social context and develop new areas for investigation, while practising executives and consultants should gain a sense of how to innovate in strategy - and how not to.

`An important and extremely welcome addition to the strategic management field. In this book the author builds on the work of an emerging community of scholars to lay out theoretical and methodological underpinnings of an activity-based framework for applying the practice lens to strategy' - Academy of Management Review `Paula Jarzabkowski has astutely signaled an agenda for future scholarship that will no doubt fuel the continued growth of this subfield' - Organization Studies `Pioneering work. As the first book in the new strategy-as-practice field, it offers readers both innovative models and exemplary field research' - Richard Whittington, Professor of Strategic Management, Said Business School, Oxford 'Extends and develops the emerging fields of strategy and practice as well as activity theory. It also demonstrates empirically, using University settings, how activity theory is itself bounded by the wider contexts of organisation, embedded routines and the heavy hand of history' - David C. Wilson, University of Warwick `An insightful book that would be of use to people interested in the actual practices of strategy and strategizing' - Organization Bridging the gap between what managers actually do and organizational strategies, this book provides an activity-based framework for studying strategy as practice, with empirical evidence to illustrate the dynamics of this framework in real terms.

This book is not available as a print inspection copy. To download an e-version click here or for more information contact your local sales representative. Shortlisted for the 2013 Chartered Management Institute textbook award Practicing Strategy broke new ground when it first published by focusing on the strategy-as-practice approach, which considers strategy not only as something an organisation has but something which its members do. The new edition deals with a selection of topics that have been central in recent academic debates in the strategy-as-practice area and includes 7 New chapters on topics such as Chief Executive Officers, Middle Managers, Strategic Alignment and Strategic Ambidexterity in line with developments in the field New case studies throughout including Narayana health, the turnaround of Reliant group and relocating a business school Tutor and student access to online resources inlcude additional readings, an Instructor's Manual, PowerPoint slides, author podcasts and videos. Aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students taking advanced strategy modules and practitioners alike.