Strategy In Turbulent Times

Companies face increasingly turbulent times. Economic and political uncertainty, sustainability developments, and competitors with new business models are just some issues that stretch companies' resilience and adaptability. Strategy in Turbulent Times presents a way of analyzing and fighting turbulent environments. Using four animal metaphors, the Camel, Salmon, Chameleon and Octopus, it shows you how to develop new strategies and how to implement them. It is up to you to discover which animal represents the appropriate turbulence strategy for your organization. 'Strategy in Turbulent Times' is a wonderful and practical book, full of inspiring examples that examines how organizations can respond to turbulence. This excellent book is full of fresh ideas and practical advice. It deserves to be widely read and be on the shelf of every senior executive crafting their organisation's strategy. - Costas Markides | Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship | Holder of the Robert Bauman Chair in Strategic Leadership | London Business School Strategy in Turbulent Times provides a state of the art playbook for the tactics you can use to make sense of and respond to the forces of disruption in your industry. - Julian Birkinshaw | Vice Dean & Professor of Strategy | London Business School Kurt Verweire successfully explains how to understand and tackle a turbulent environment in this highly relevant book. - Marion Debruyne | Dean Vlerick Business School Kurt Verweire offers us practical insights. This is useful material for any manager seeking opportunities in what I like to call The Never Normal. - Peter Hinssen | Author | Keynote-speaker and Serial Entrepreneur Strategy and turbulence... two words that capture the essence of many companies' current transformation efforts. Much akin to a cyclist navigating a mountainous terrain, success lies in balancing the focus on the summit while acknowledging the significance of each pedal's stroke. Profits aren't assured, yet a steadfast strategy and unwavering execution significantly tip the scales toward success. - Erik Luts | Chief Innovation Officer KBC Group

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.

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.

An emergent approach to organizational strategy making assumptions 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 required reading in any course on strategic planning.

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.

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.

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.