The Flexible Enterprise

The need for enterprise flexibility in an era of rapidly advancing technology, increasing competition, and globalization, is apparent. Flexibility can be thought of as an ability of the enterprise to quickly and efficiently respond to market changes and to bring new products and services quickly to the market place. Beyond this definition, a truly flexible enterprise should proactively change the market through its ability to create new and innovative products and services. The proposed book is intended to provide a conceptual framework of ‘Flexible Enterprise’ supported by researches/case applications in various types of flexibilities exhibited by a flexible enterprise. The selected papers from a variety of issues concerning the planning and operation of a flexible enterprise are organized into following four parts: I Enterprise and Strategic Flexibility II Organizational Flexibility III Business Process and Information Systems Flexibility IV Operations Flexibility

The Practical Guide to Business Change Companies need to continually adapt to changing conditions in order to survive. If you want more for your company than mere survival, if you want your firm to grow, thrive, and dominate its markets, you'll need to grow beyond knee-jerk responses and conventional wisdom. You'll need the flexibility to change again and again—not just to compensate for tough turns in the business cycle, but to take full advantage of the things your company does best. In The Flexible Enterprise, you'll find a proven methodology for managing repeated change and building on your company's strengths as you adjust to changing market needs. This highly practical guide recognizes the problems of doing business in a recession-prone economy and offers battle-tested strategies and tactics for creating growth through reinvention. Using his own successful small business as a case study, David Gewirtz vividly recounts how the narrow market for his company's products collapsed, forcing him to reinvent his entire organization in a matter of months. The lessons he learned enabled him to keep his company going, expand his client base, market his products more effectively, and grow! Now, you can learn those same lessons—without having to live through them—and discover how a more flexible enterprise enables you to: Develop your own, unique-to-your-company tools, skills, and processes for managing—and even causing—change Redefine your company based on its strengths Reduce your dependency on a single product line or marketing channel Develop new products that are more finely tuned to market needs Manage cash more effectively Streamline operational and manufacturing processes Motivate and inspire your staff Business is more than just surviving. Flexibility gives you the opportunity to change to meet market needs. The Flexible Enterprise can give you the skills to start reshaping your company's future today.

The proposed book is intended to provide a conceptual framework of ‘Organisational Flexibility and Competitiveness’ supported by research studies in various types of flexibilities exhibited by an organisation. The need for enterprise flexibility in an era of rapidly advancing technology, increasing competition, and globalization, is apparent. Flexibility can be thought of as an ability of the enterprise to quickly and efficiently respond to market changes and to bring new products and services quickly to the market place. Beyond this definition, a truly flexible enterprise should proactively change the market through its ability to create truly new and innovative products and services. The book applies the concept of flexibility to various functional areas: strategy and competitiveness, organization and HR management, information systems, finance and risk management, operations and supply chain management.

Living with uncertainty is an everyday reality for most business entities today. This is especially the case for knowledge-intensive enterprises, such as those in technology, financial services, biotechnology and telecommunications, where new innovations and shifting customer preferences can radically change competitive dynamics. The focus of the book is on how knowledge enterprises can harness uncertainty by becoming super-flexible. Based on over 20 years of field research and practical experience in Silicon Valley’s technology ecosystem, the authors present conceptual frameworks, illustrative examples and practical lessons for strategizing, organizing and managing knowledge-based enterprises in turbulent settings.

This book focuses on the challenges of capacity building for flexible work organizations in Asia, and demonstrates how business enterprises practice reactive flexible capacity (in the form of adaptiveness and responsiveness) to cope with changing and uncertain business environments. The book provides examples of how this can be achieved by means of various organizational change initiatives, leadership strategies, re-engineering, innovation in products and processes, the use of information and communication technology, reshaping learning orientations, and more. As these topics are supported by research and case studies situated in different sectors and countries across Asia, the book will provide a useful resource for a broad readership including: management students and researchers, practicing business managers, consultants, and professional institutions.

strategy, but we also focus on execution. We talk about organizational design, and also refect on leadership practices. Our assumption is that in a dynamic world, leaders at all levels, have to constantly switch gears, wear different hats, and na- gate at different altitudes. They have to think about the “total” enterprise, not in terms of compartmentalized silos or felds of functional expertise. Much like a g- eral contractor, they have to draw on specialized expertise, as and when needed, yet keep the big picture in mind. Our hope is that our diagnostic tools can help teams develop a shared frame of reference and generate cross-functional dialogue. The third driving force behind this second edition is the gradual convergence between the worlds of entrepreneurial start-ups and challenges facing established corporations. Innovation, agility, and initiative are no longer the exclusive preserve of start-ups. Established companies are looking for ways to re-invent themselves, to innovate, to think creatively, and to make their enterprises more fexible, agile and entrepreneurial. We have had the good fortune to sit at the intersection of these two worlds. We hope our ideas can beneft both groups. We set out to provide a “buffet table”, a menu of options that can be helpful for the two ends of the spectrum.