Download or read book The Strategy Paradox written by Michael E. Raynor and published by Crown Currency. This book was released on 2007-02-20 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling vision. Bold leadership. Decisive action. Unfortunately, these prerequisites of success are almost always the ingredients of failure, too. In fact, most managers seeking to maximize their chances for glory are often unwittingly setting themselves up for ruin. The sad truth is that most companies have left their futures almost entirely to chance, and don’t even realize it. The reason? Managers feel they must make choices with far-reaching consequences today, but must base those choices on assumptions about a future they cannot predict. It is this collision between commitment and uncertainty that creates THE STRATEGY PARADOX. This paradox sets up a ubiquitous but little-understood tradeoff. Because managers feel they must base their strategies on assumptions about an unknown future, the more ambitious of them hope their guesses will be right – or that they can somehow adapt to the turbulence that will arise. In fact, only a small number of lucky daredevils prosper, while many more unfortunate, but no less capable managers find themselves at the helms of sinking ships. Realizing this, even if only intuitively, most managers shy away from the bold commitments that success seems to demand, choosing instead timid, unremarkable strategies, sacrificing any chance at greatness for a better chance at mere survival. Michael E. Raynor, coauthor of the bestselling The Innovator's Solution, explains how leaders can break this tradeoff and achieve results historically reserved for the fortunate few even as they reduce the risks they must accept in the pursuit of success. In the cutthroat world of competitive strategy, this is as close as you can come to getting something for nothing. Drawing on leading-edge scholarship and extensive original research, Raynor’s revolutionary principle of Requisite Uncertainty yields a clutch of critical, counter-intuitive findings. Among them: -- The Board should not evaluate the CEO based on the company’s performance, but instead on the firm’s strategic risk profile -- The CEO should not drive results, but manage uncertainty -- Business unit leaders should not focus on execution, but on making strategic choices -- Line managers should not worry about strategic risk, but devote themselves to delivering on commitments With detailed case studies of success and failure at Sony, Microsoft, Vivendi Universal, Johnson & Johnson, AT&T and other major companies in industries from financial services to energy, Raynor presents a concrete framework for strategic action that allows companies to seize today’s opportunities while simultaneously preparing for tomorrow’s promise.

Download or read book The Platform Paradox written by Mauro F. Guillén and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Platform Paradox, Wharton professor Mauro F. Guillén argues that many platforms misunderstand key aspects of what it takes to succeed globally, from culture and institutions to local competitive dynamics. He offers an integrated framework for digital platforms to identify and implement a strategy on a truly global scale.

Download or read book Summary The Strategy Paradox written by BusinessNews Publishing, and published by Primento. This book was released on 2014-11-12 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The must-read summary of Michael Raynor's book: "The Strategy Paradox: Why Committing to Success Leads to Failure (and What to Do About It). This complete summary of the ideas from Michael Raynor's book "The Strategy Paradox" shows that whenever you develop a strategy to achieve a specific objective, you are also automatically making some implicit assumptions about what the future market forces will be. If that forecast of future market conditions turns out to be incorrect, then your strategy which had a reasonable chance of success might turn out to be an absolute failure. In his book, the author explains that this is the essence of the strategy paradox. This summary explains how to hedge your strategic bets by creating a number of strategic options which can be harnessed depending on the actual marketplace conditions and the four phases of the strategic flexibility process. Added-value of this summary: • Save time • Understand key concepts • Expand your knowledge To learn more, read "The Strategy Paradox" and discover the key to protecting your business from failure.

Download or read book The PR Paradox written by Matias Rodsevich and published by Matias Rodsevich. This book was released on 2020-10-07 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The PR Paradox by Matias Rodsevich is a must-read for startups and scale-ups that are looking to establish and elevate their presence in the saturated tech market. Essentially "a public relations handbook", it is one of the best PR books and a complete guide on the creative foundation of their own PR strategy in a cost-effective and timely manner, to achieve growth-driven integrated solutions. The book offers exclusive insights into the modern PR practice, including tangible advice from renowned PR professionals, and provides real-time solutions on how to achieve significant PR results that will boost business growth in a cost and time effective manner. Unlike other PR books, The PR Paradox acts as a hands-on strategic guide for small businesses to achieve their goal implementing a practical and cost-effective PR strategy. Written for those who are interested in or just starting out in PR, the lessons and examples collected are both entertaining and informative. Readers can expect to take away from The PR Paradox key learnings that will give the initiate a leg up in the frantically paced world of PR.

Download or read book The Innovation Paradox written by Tony Davila and published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. This book was released on 2014-06-30 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than twenty years, major innovations—the kind that transform industries and even societies—seem to have come almost exclusively from startups, despite massive efforts and millions of dollars spent by established companies. Tony Davila and Marc Epstein, authors of the bestselling Making Innovation Work, say the problem is that the very processes and structures responsible for established companies’ enduring success prevent them from developing breakthroughs. This is the innovation paradox. Most established companies succeed through incremental innovation—taking a product they’re known for and adding a feature here, cutting a cost there. Major breakthroughs are hard to achieve when everything about the way your organization is built and run is designed to reward making what already works work a little better. But incremental innovation can coexist with breakthrough thinking. Using examples from both scrappy startups and long-term innovators such as IBM, 3M, Apple, and Google, Davila and Epstein explain how corporate culture, leadership style, strategy, incentives, and management systems can be structured to encourage breakthroughs. Then they bring it all together in a new model called the Startup Corporation, which combines the philosophy of the startup with the experience, resources, and network of an established company. Breakthrough innovation no longer has to be the nearly exclusive province of the new kids on the block. With Davila and Epstein’s assistance, any company can develop paradigm-shifting products and services and maximize the ROI on its R&D.

Download or read book CIO Paradox written by Martha Heller and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-10-21 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Regardless of industry, most major companies are becoming technology companies. The successful management of information has become so critical to a company's goals, that in many ways, now is the age of the CIO. Yet IT executives are besieged by a host of contradictions: bad technology can bring a company to its knees, but corporate boards rarely employ CIOs; CIOs must keep costs down at the very same time that they drive innovation. CIOs are focused on the future, while they are tethered by technology decisions made in the past. These contradictions form what Martha Heller calls The CIO Paradox, a set of conflicting forces that are deeply embedded in governance, staffing, executive expectations, and even corporate culture. Heller, who has spent more than 12 years working with the CIO community, offers guidance to CIOs on how to attack, reverse, or neutralize the paradoxical elements of the CIO role. Through interviews with a wide array of successful CIOs, The CIO Paradox helps readers level the playing field for IT success and get one step closer to bringing maximum value to their companies.

Download or read book The Personalization Paradox written by Val Swisher and published by XML Press. This book was released on 2021-03-08 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to Infosys, 86% of consumers surveyed indicated that personalized content has some impact on what they purchase and 25% said that personalization plays a large role in their purchases. And yet, looking at the data, two things stand out: Most companies say that personalizing the customer experience is a critical "must have," and they have the statistics to back it up. Very few companies believe they are delivering enough personalized content, or deliver it well. What's holding these companies back from their personalization goals? And how can you avoid the pitfalls and make personalization possible with your own enterprise content? In this book, global content strategy expert Val Swisher and senior content strategist Regina Lynn Preciado show you exactly what it takes to deliver personalized experiences at scale. You'll learn: Why personalized content is imperative to the enterprise Why so many companies fail to deliver - and how to avoid the pitfalls The five dimensions of content standardization How to bring people, technology, and process together The impact of big data and artificial intelligence The only way to deliver personalized content at scale is to automate the process at the point of delivery. And for that to work, you've got to change how you "do" content. The Personalization Paradox: Why Companies Fail (and How to Succeed) at Delivering Personalized Experiences at Scale shows you how.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Paradox written by Wendy K. Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-07 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The notion of paradox dates back to ancient philosophy, yet only recently have scholars started to explore this idea in organizational phenomena. Two decades ago, a handful of provocative theorists urged researchers to take seriously the study of paradox, and thereby deepen our understanding of plurality, tensions, and contradictions in organizational life. Studies of organizational paradox have grown exponentially over the past two decades, canvassing varied phenomena, methods, and levels of analysis. These studies have explored such tensions as today and tomorrow, global integration and local distinctions, collaboration and competition, self and others, mission and markets. Yet even with both the depth and breadth of interest in organizational paradoxes, key issues around definitions and application remain. This handbook seeks to aid, engage, and fuel the expanding interest in organizational paradox. Contributions to this volume depict how paradox studies inform, and are informed, by other theoretical perspectives, while creating a resource that enables scholars to learn about and apply this lens across varied organizational phenomena. The increasing complexity, volatility, and ambiguity in our world continually surfaces paradoxical dynamics. Thus, this handbook offers insights to scholars across organizational theory.

Download or read book The Ostrich Paradox written by Robert Meyer and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Ostrich Paradox boldly addresses a key question of our time: Why are we humans so poor at dealing with disastrous risks, and what can we humans do about it? It is a must-read for everyone who cares about risk." —Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and author of Thinking, Fast and Slow We fail to evacuate when advised. We rebuild in flood zones. We don't wear helmets. We fail to purchase insurance. We would rather avoid the risk of "crying wolf" than sound an alarm. Our ability to foresee and protect against natural catastrophes has never been greater; yet, we consistently fail to heed the warnings and protect ourselves and our communities, with devastating consequences. What explains this contradiction? In The Ostrich Paradox, Wharton professors Robert Meyer and Howard Kunreuther draw on years of teaching and research to explain why disaster preparedness efforts consistently fall short. Filled with heartbreaking stories of loss and resilience, the book addresses: •How people make decisions when confronted with high-consequence, low-probability events—and how these decisions can go awry •The 6 biases that lead individuals, communities, and institutions to make grave errors that cost lives •The Behavioral Risk Audit, a systematic approach for improving preparedness by recognizing these biases and designing strategies that anticipate them •Why, if we are to be better prepared for disasters, we need to learn to be more like ostriches, not less Fast-reading and critically important, The Ostrich Paradox is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand why we consistently underprepare for disasters, as well as private and public leaders, planners, and policy-makers who want to build more prepared communities.

Download or read book The Proximity Paradox written by Kiirsten May and published by ECW Press. This book was released on 2020-03-24 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You’re too close to your business, and it’s killing your creativity Traditional business structures love stability and predictability. Yet many organizations believe the two essential ingredients for long-term success are creativity and innovation. Kiirsten May and Alex Varricchio, founders of the marketing agency UpHouse, call the relationship between these two opposing expectations the Proximity Paradox™ — the belief that those who are closest to a subject are best-qualified to innovate for it, when, in reality, intense proximity limits creativity. Instead, people need to create distance from challenges in order to see the best way forward. May and Varricchio believe that until we can separate innovation and execution within ourselves, we will only innovate to the level at which we can execute the idea. To be effective, we need to create distance between our innovation brain and our execution brain. Unpacking ten common Proximity Paradoxes that affect a company’s people, processes, and industry, the authors share some practical ideas to create the distance necessary for your next great idea. An especially valuable book for creatives, and non-creatives in creative industries, but equally applicable to all businesses that depend on innovation, The Proximity Paradox encourages us to ask hard questions about how we work, how our businesses are structured, and why we routinely find our creativity at odds with what’s asked of us as executors and stewards of the bottom line.

Download or read book The Prosperity Paradox written by Clayton M. Christensen and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Clayton M. Christensen, the author of such business classics as The Innovator’s Dilemma and the New York Times bestseller How Will You Measure Your Life, and co-authors Efosa Ojomo and Karen Dillon reveal why so many investments in economic development fail to generate sustainable prosperity, and offers a groundbreaking solution for true and lasting change. Global poverty is one of the world’s most vexing problems. For decades, we’ve assumed smart, well-intentioned people will eventually be able to change the economic trajectory of poor countries. From education to healthcare, infrastructure to eradicating corruption, too many solutions rely on trial and error. Essentially, the plan is often to identify areas that need help, flood them with resources, and hope to see change over time. But hope is not an effective strategy. Clayton M. Christensen and his co-authors reveal a paradox at the heart of our approach to solving poverty. While noble, our current solutions are not producing consistent results, and in some cases, have exacerbated the problem. At least twenty countries that have received billions of dollars’ worth of aid are poorer now. Applying the rigorous and theory-driven analysis he is known for, Christensen suggests a better way. The right kind of innovation not only builds companies—but also builds countries. The Prosperity Paradox identifies the limits of common economic development models, which tend to be top-down efforts, and offers a new framework for economic growth based on entrepreneurship and market-creating innovation. Christensen, Ojomo, and Dillon use successful examples from America’s own economic development, including Ford, Eastman Kodak, and Singer Sewing Machines, and shows how similar models have worked in other regions such as Japan, South Korea, Nigeria, Rwanda, India, Argentina, and Mexico. The ideas in this book will help companies desperate for real, long-term growth see actual, sustainable progress where they’ve failed before. But The Prosperity Paradox is more than a business book; it is a call to action for anyone who wants a fresh take for making the world a better and more prosperous place.

Download or read book The Paradox of Control in Organizations written by Philip Streatfield and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-09-02 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Business leaders are expected to be 'in control' of the situation in which their businesses find themselves. But how can organizational leaders and managers control matters entirely out of their hands; such as the next action a competitor takes, or the next law a government may pass? In this book, Philip Streatfield reflects on his own experience as a manager to explore the question: who, or what is 'in control' in an organization? Adopting the perspective of complex responsive processes developed in the first two volumes of this series, the author takes self-organization and emergence as central themes in thinking about life in organizations. He focuses on the tension between spontaneously forming patterns of conversation and intentional actions arguing that the order of organizations emerges through a combination of collective interaction and individual intentions. The argument is developed by considering the day-to-day experiences of life in a large pharmaceutical organization, SmithKline Beecham. In today's organization, managers find that they have to live with the paradox of being 'in control' and 'not in control' simultaneously. It is this capacity to live with paradox, and to continue to participate creatively in spite of 'not being in control', that constitutes effective management.

Download or read book Complex Adaptive Leadership written by Nick Obolensky and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-11-01 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since its publication, Complex Adaptive Leadership has become a Gower bestseller that has been taught in corporate leadership programmes, business schools and universities around the world to high acclaim. In this updated paperback edition, Nick Obolensky argues that leadership should not be something only exercised by nominated leaders. It is a complex dynamic process involving all those engaged in a particular enterprise. The theoretical background to this lies in complexity science and chaos theory - spoken and written about in the context of leadership for the last 20 years, but still little understood. We all seem intuitively to know leadership 'isn't what it used to be' but we still cling to old assumptions which look anachronistic in changing and challenging times. Nick Obolensky has practised, researched and taught leadership in the public, private and voluntary sectors. In this exciting book he brings together his knowledge of theory, his own experience, and the results of 19 years of research involving 2,500 executives in 40 countries around the world. The main conclusion from that research is that the more complex things become, the less traditional directive leadership is needed. Those operating in the real world, nonetheless, need ways of coping. The book is focused on helping practitioners struggling to interpret and react to increasingly VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) times. The book will particularly appeal to practitioners wishing to improve their leadership effectiveness as well as for students and researchers in the field of leadership.

Download or read book What Really Works written by William Joyce and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-07-26 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on a groundbreaking study, analysing data on 200 management practices gathered over a 10 year period. Reveals the effectiveness of the 4+2 practices (4 primary and 2 of 4 possible secondary) practices that really matter –– the ones that, if followed rigorously, ensure sustained business success. With a new introduction by the authors. With hundreds of well–known management practices and prescriptions promoted by consultants and available to business, which are really effective and contribute to the growth and continued success of a company? Which do little or nothing? Based on the "Evergreen Project," a massive, 5 year study involving the business school faculties of ten universities, the authors set out to find the management practices that truly promote long–term growth and success. Their findings will revolutionize the art and practice of business management.The book shows that there are essentially six management practices that all successful companies must master simultaneously. They range from focusing on a strategy of growth to maintaining the depth and quality of human talent in the organization.

Download or read book Porter s 1980 Generic Strategies Performance and Risk written by Jan Eldring and published by Diplomica Verlag. This book was released on 2009-05 with total page 83 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Porter's (1980) book Competitive Strategy has received a great deal of attention in the strategic management literature. Here Porter claims that competitive strategy is the search for a favorable competitive position in the industry, which can erode or improve, depending on a firm's choice of strategy. He derived a conceptual typology of three generic strategies that has already become a classic among scholars. They are cost leadership, differentiation and focus strategies. Just recently Michael Raynor (2007) challenged Porter's widely accepted typology, by including another dimension in the discussion that previously did not find consideration: risk. He claims that firms that execute pure strategies are much more exposed to corporate risk than firms that execute hybrid strategies. Two arguments support his view. First Porter's and other studies include what is called a "survivor bias," meaning that firms that went bankrupt during the investigation (with a pure strategy) do not play a role in the analysis. Second firms that have hybrid strategies are much more flexible when market preferences shift and are therefore less exposed to strategic uncertainty. Raynor's work is a valuable extension to the strategic management literature that leads to an assessment of strategic choice on at least two dimensions: profitability and risk. The contribution of the study is then twofold. First Porter's typology is tested with German data. Secondly Raynor's argument is tested, whether the very same firms that are more successful have a higher risk of running into corporate bankruptcy. In order to have the necessary information, the first section of the study reviews the literature. Here the generic strategies are explained and the most important studies on the topic are summarized in a table. Then the "Strategy Paradox" is presented that describes Raynor's argumentation for an increase in risk with pure strategies. Two conflicting theories are mentioned that deal with the question

Download or read book The Profit Paradox written by Jan Eeckhout and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-25 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A pioneering account of the surging global tide of market power—and how it stifles workers around the world In an era of technological progress and easy communication, it might seem reasonable to assume that the world’s working people have never had it so good. But wages are stagnant and prices are rising, so that everything from a bottle of beer to a prosthetic hip costs more. Economist Jan Eeckhout shows how this is due to a small number of companies exploiting an unbridled rise in market power—the ability to set prices higher than they could in a properly functioning competitive marketplace. Drawing on his own groundbreaking research and telling the stories of common workers throughout, he demonstrates how market power has suffocated the world of work, and how, without better mechanisms to ensure competition, it could lead to disastrous market corrections and political turmoil. The Profit Paradox describes how, over the past forty years, a handful of companies have reaped most of the rewards of technological advancements—acquiring rivals, securing huge profits, and creating brutally unequal outcomes for workers. Instead of passing on the benefits of better technologies to consumers through lower prices, these “superstar” companies leverage new technologies to charge even higher prices. The consequences are already immense, from unnecessarily high prices for virtually everything, to fewer startups that can compete, to rising inequality and stagnating wages for most workers, to severely limited social mobility. A provocative investigation into how market power hurts average working people, The Profit Paradox also offers concrete solutions for fixing the problem and restoring a healthy economy.

Download or read book The Strategy Paradox written by Minghai Zheng and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2023-08-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1. Are you struggling to achieve success despite your best efforts? Check out "The Strategy Paradox" to learn why committing to success can lead to failure. #StrategyParadox #Success #Failure 2. Want to avoid the pitfalls of traditional success strategies? "The Strategy Paradox" offers a fresh perspective on achieving your goals. #StrategyParadox #Success #Failure 3. Ready to break free from limiting beliefs and achieve true success? "The Strategy Paradox" provides the tools and insights needed to do just that. #StrategyParadox #Success #Failure 4. Don't let commitment to success hold you back - learn how to navigate the strategy paradox with "The Strategy Paradox". #StrategyParadox #Success #Failure 5. Are you tired of feeling like a failure despite your best efforts? "The Strategy Paradox" can help you understand why, and what to do about it. #StrategyParadox #Success #Failure "The Strategy Paradox: Why Committing to Success Leads to Failure (And What to Do About It)" is a thought-provoking and insightful book that challenges traditional approaches to strategic planning. The book explores why committing to success can often lead to failure, and offers practical strategies and techniques for avoiding the pitfalls of the strategy paradox. Through a combination of real-world examples, case studies, and expert analysis, the book provides readers with a fresh perspective on achieving lasting success. Rather than simply advocating for traditional approaches to strategic planning, the book encourages readers to think critically and creatively about the challenges they face, and to embrace change and innovation as key drivers of success. Whether you're a business leader, entrepreneur, or anyone looking to achieve long-term success in your personal or professional life, this book has something to offer. It provides practical advice and guidance on how to navigate the twists and turns of strategic planning, and offers valuable insights into the mindset and behaviors needed to achieve lasting success. Overall, "The Strategy Paradox: Why Committing to Success Leads to Failure (And What to Do About It)" is an essential read for anyone looking to challenge their assumptions about success and achieve their goals in a rapidly-changing world. MingHai Zheng is the founder of zhengpublishing.com and lives in Wuhan, China. His main publishing areas are business, management, self-help, computers and other emerging foreword fields.