A reference that may be useful to those wrestling with this issue is:
Baghai, Coley & White
The Alchemy of Growth: Kickstarting and Sustaining Growth in Your
Company.
Orion Business 1999 ISBN 0-75281-361-7 (The US publisher may be
different from this).
Here is an extract from a review on the BookWatch database.
As you would expect of a book out of the McKinsey stable, this is on an
issue of importance to business, is well researched and analysed and very
readable and well presented. As you would also expect, it is focused on
large corporates, and on strategies for their business success, as
measured by exceptional growth and returns to stockholders.
As such, it provides one important perspective on the issue of corporate
growth and development, to be compared with other perspectives - see the
article Perspectives on Growth
There are obvious comparisons with Collins James C. & Porras, Jerry I.
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. both in the
concern with continuing exceptional performance over an extended period
and in the care taken to explain the research base from which the findings
are derived. However, whereas Collins & Porras are concerned primarily
with values and culture, Baghai et al are primarily interested in
strategies for the selection, development and management of the portfolio
of businesses and the implications of those strategies for structuring,
staffing and operations.
The fundamental thesis is simple and can be stated in a few propositions:
1.The companies that have been successful in maintaining high
rates of growth with superior profitability are those that have learnt to
manage well to three different time horizons at the same time - today's
business, the next generation of emerging businesses and the longer term
options out of which the next generation of businesses will arise.
2.In order to develop longer term options into 'core profit
engines', a series of measured steps (concerned with finding ways of
profitably building core capabilities and markets) are required, which the
authors call 'stairways'. In the nature of things, not all stairways will
lead to future core businesses, so a variety of initiatives need to be
carried forward together. Management of the 'stairways' should receive
significant senior management attention.
3.The skills and temperaments required to manage current
business, to develop new business and to search out viable future options
are widely different one from the other. The key to maximising the
profitability of today's business is excellence of execution. Emerging
businesses require business builders - the typical entrepreneurial
temperament, while the identification of future options requires lateral
thinkers and visionaries.
4.In consequence, the style of organisation and internal culture
most appropriate to each of these foci are also different. Large
corporates tend to find difficulty in encompassing these very different
cultures. The authors discuss in some depth the resulting issues of
internal culture, recruitment, structuring and transition, and their
strategic management. .............
Bill Godfrey
Bill Godfrey & Associates Pty Ltd
8 Reibey Place, Curtin, ACT 2605, Australia
Tel: (61) 2 6282 2256
Fax: (61) 2 6282 2447
email: bgodfrey@ozemail.com.au
BookWatch site: http://www.BookWatch.com.au
PLEASE NOTE NEW SITE URL, but previous site at
http://webtrax.com.au/BB/BookWatch.bbd will remain for some time
--Bill Godfrey <bgodfrey@ozemail.com.au>
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