Alliance & Strategy Blog

Saturday, February 07, 2009 - Crossing Academic-Practitioner Boundries

Pettigrew, Thomas and Whittington (2002) refer to the primary concerns of the strategist as addressing questions about the ‘purposes, directions, choices, changes, governance, organization and performance of institutions in their industry, market and social, economic and political contexts’.

Concerns of the strategy practitioner and strategy researcher are, by necessity, broad, holistic, complex and action orientated whilst also focusing on the specific, to inquire in depth, to reduce complexity to manageable proportions through frameworks, models and matrices, to provide insights for reflection and prescriptions for practice.

Strategy practitioners make decisions in, for example, market contexts, using preferred tools, methodologies and perspectives to carry out the analysis and make decisions.

Strategy academics research through the lens of their own research contexts and traditions be they qualitative or quantitative, positivist or idealist, based on primary or secondary data.

Both are affected by the national or industry context or, in the case of strategy academics, by the traditions of the academic subject or institution.

An ongoing dialogue between scholars, between practitioners (managers, consultants) and between scholars and practitioners leads to the evolution of the strategy field.

Reference:

Pettigrew, A. Thomas, H. Whittington, R., Strategic Management: The Strengths and Limitations of a Field. In Handbook of Strategy and Management, Eds. Pettigrew, A. Thomas, H. Whittington, R. Sage: London, 2002, Pages 3-30.

Also see:

Johnson, G. Langley, A. Melin, L. Whittington R., Strategy as Practice: Reseach Directions and Resources, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2007.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - Venzin, M. von Krogh, G. Roos, J., Future Research into Knowledge Management, Chapter 2, Pages 26-66, In: v Krogh, G. Roos, J. Kleine, D., Knowing in Firms: Understanding, Managing and Measuring Knowledge, Sage: London, 1998.

Venzin, Krogh and Roos (1998) can provide some insights into the definitions of knowledge. In Table 2.6, page 48, the authors provide a set of classifications, based on the academic literature, of forms of knowledge. All quotes in this section are from this text:

Tacit Knowledge

‘A person knows more than they can express in words. A painter, for example, cannot describe in detail how he goes about drafting a new picture. This category explores the development of knowledge as well as knowledge transfer relative to the interaction of explicit and tacit knowledge’

Embodied Knowledge

‘Knowledge in this category results from experiences of physical presence (i.e. project work). The emphasis lies on the process of knowledge development’

Encoded Knowledge

‘Knowledge that remains in the company after all employees have gone home i.e. notebooks, data banks containing information on customers and employees, product catalogues, codified rules and regulation, itineraries, training materials, etc’

Embrained Knowledge

‘This category of knowledge depends on the cognitive abilities which allow of the recognition of underlying patterns (for example of a new industry) and of the reflection of basic assumptions…or abstractions synthesizing’

Embedded Knowledge

‘The emphasis lies on the process of knowledge construction. Knowledge is here embedded in a variety of contextual factors and not objectively pre-given. Shared knowledge is generated in different language systems, (organizational) cultures and (work) groups’

Event Knowledge

‘This category describes knowledge of events but also trends within and outside the organization (for example, company A buys company B, or the number of accidents has dropped by 20%)’

Procedural Knowledge

‘Contrary to the knowledge of events, this category encompasses knowledge of processes and as opposed correlations. Examples include ‘if…then’ scenarios, knowledge of product processes or procedural knowledge, for example contract negotiations’

Markets, Virtue, Prudence

Monday, April 13, 2009 - Becker, B., Barry, P., Snell, A., Bhutan, Height of Happiness? Film BBTV Ltd, UK, 2008.

The film ‘Bhutan, Height of Happiness?’ stunningly documents the transition of The Kingdom of Bhutan, a small Buddhist Kingdom sandwiched between the giant neighbours of India and China, from a closed community to one open to global forces. The film shows how the first stage of globalization has led to an increase in the challenges of modern society, but still underpinned by a collective desire to ensure that the culture, and most importantly for the Bhutanese leaders, the collective values, are retained and inform Bhutan’s development.

How are these values enacted – Bhutan uses Gross National Happiness (GNH) as its overriding measure and this is made up of nine factors: psychological well being, time use, community vitality, culture, health, education, environmental diversity, living standards, governance (Bhutan 2009).

At first glance Gross National Happiness (GNH) seems to be at odds with the overriding concept of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) which is used by the rest of the world to measure its success.

The key foundations of globalization are Ricardo (1817) and the concept of comparative advantage (in short, specialize and trade) and Smith (1776) and the concept of free trade (in short, division of labour and exchange) and these seem to be out of line with the foundations of Bhutan’s GNH ideas.

Adam Smith’s earlier book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), does, however, provide the concept of ‘virtue’ and states:

‘when we consider the character of an individual, we naturally view it under two different aspects: first, as it may affect his own happiness; and, secondly, as it may affect that of other people’ (p309).

‘the care of the health, of the fortune, of the rank and reputation of the individual, the objects upon which his comfort and happiness in this life are supposed principally to depend, is considered as the proper business of that virtue which is commonly called prudence’ (p311)

‘the character of every individual , so far as it can affect the happiness of other people, must do so by the disposition either to hurt or to benefit them’ (p319)

At the foundations of globalization are the Smith concepts of ‘virtue’ and ‘prudence’, though varied in application. The newly open society of Bhutan’s guiding principles of Gross National Happiness may well provide a micro-case of the dynamic between ‘markets’ and ‘virtue’ and the well educated leaders of Bhutan will need to make decisions on what is the best balance between these for the Bhutanese.

As the impacts of the credit crunch and the global (GDP) recession hit, perhaps Smith’s ideas of ‘virtue’ and ‘prudence’ and Bhutan’s ‘Gross Domestic Happiness’ should be brought to the fore in the deliberations of the G20 in structuring the best future balance between the ‘lexus and the olive tree’ (Friedman 1999).

References:

Bhutan, Gross National Happiness, The Centre for Bhutan Studies, Thimpbu, Bhutan, 2009. http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/gnhIndex/gnhIndexVariables.aspx

Friedman, T., The Lexus and the Olive Tree, London: Harper Collins, 1999.

Ricardo, D., On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, London: John Murry, 1817.

Smith, A., An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1796.

Smith, A., The Theory of Moral Sentiments, London: A. Miller, 1759. (Note: All page numbered quotes above from the Prometheus Books, 2000 ISBN 1-57392-800-3 reprint).

MNCs, Sustainability, Development, Pricing

Saturday, August 08, 2009 – Khurrum Mahmood, Waseem Mahmood, Insha’allah, Dirty Duck Productions and Lincoln School of Media, Film: England, 2009.

Globalisation in trade is generally considered as a force for good which can lift sections of developing world populations out of poverty. Examples include the 100 Million or so who have made this transition in India and China over the last 10 years echoed by increasing numbers in Brazil.

At the core of globalisation are multinational corporations (MNCs) which provide goods and services to Government, household and individual consumers while sourcing raw materials and labour from local and developing world sources as appropriate. The MNC faces a complex task of balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders – increased government legislation, employee costs, institutional (mainly pension funds) shareholders return on investment – while meeting seemingly insatiable developed world consumer demands for more for less.

The latter leads the MNC to search for even lower cost of labour and raw materials and further increasing the fragility and venerability of local and global supply chains. This may lead to major pressures to reduce labour (often indirectly employed) costs in developing world locations to levels that are unsustainable.

The rural poor in the developing world have access to subsistence farming, the urban poor look to MNCs to provide work which would allow upward mobility. Increasingly the MNCs are desirous, through corporate responsibility programmes and fair-trade arrangements, to assist in micro-development goals.

A major portion of the wealth of developed nations is embedded in its tangible and intangible infrastructures (transportation arteries, utilities provision, access to education and health care, legislation and individual protections, un-bias legal systems, discernible and transferable property rights) while the developing country urban poor have limited rights and protections.

To development, and related, workers operating ‘in the field’ (be they aid or NGO employees, doctors or health workers, legitimate micro-credit providers or foreign correspondents) much of the reality of the urban developing country poor is known.

The true value of this exceptional film is in the insight it provides of this reality through the lens of one family and;

1. The understanding it delivers to the developed world consumers that MNCs should provide products and services at a ‘sustainable price’, one that allows all the MNCs stakeholders to benefit.
2. The understanding it delivers to the developed world consumers that the days of ‘more for less’ are over, rather ‘what I need for a sustainable price’ is becoming at the forefront of modern thinking.