Category: Management Theory
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In Praise Of Redundant Capacity
I think evolutionary thinking has a lot to offer strategic discussions. We shouldn’t be too simple and expect perfect matchings from biology. Still, good ideas can carry over neatly to give things to consider. Here I examine a piece in the Harvard Business Review that looks at firm strategy in unpredictable times. I want to…
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What’s With The Alexander Stuff?
There is a cottage industry of people writing about business using the lessons of Alexander the Great. I have only one question: What’s with the Alexander Stuff? The Macedonian king was a terrible bloke, and there are plenty of easier, and much more novel, ways to illustrate business situations. Business As War: Not Really Business…
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Measuring Performance In Multistakeholder Firms
Jonathan Knowles and Tom Hunsaker have an article in the MIT Sloan Management Review that considers the change in thinking needed when a firm is managed for multiple stakeholders. How then to go about measuring performance in multistakeholder firms? When Money Is All that Matters For the past generation or two firms have often been…
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Leadership, Power, And Morality
One of the things that struck me about Jeffrey Pfeffer’s Power was its amorality. Generally speaking, I agree with him but even I was left a bit uncomfortable at times. Pfeffer clearly sees power as something you gain in order to achieve things with it. Power isn’t really anything to do with morality. Leadership, power,…
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Gaining And Using Power
Jeffrey Pfeffer’s Power is a classy version of a self-help book. I know self-help book sounds a bit insulting but I don’t mean it to be. The idea of giving practical advice that is informed by good research is central to what academics should be doing. There are enough complete nonsense self-help books to show…
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Using A Pie-Growing Mindset
Alex Edmans’ Grow The Piece is a useful book trying to refocus business on being beneficial for society. I have noted the key points on this before, see here. Here I’ll tackle a grab bag of points related to Edmans’ book and using a pie-growing mindset. Maximizing Shareholder Value Is Nebulous Often people like the…
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Three Principles To Guide Decision-Making
Alex Edmans, a finance professor, is having a bit of a moment at the moment. His book Grow The Pie that I’m discussing in two posts is a very useful addition to the field. This post will outline the core points of Edmans’ work. The other post will get into a few more finicky points…
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The Three Purposes Of A Purpose
One of the big excitements of business at the moment involves discussions of a company’s purpose. Lots of firms think they should have one but where do you find a purpose? How do you know if you have a good one? What if no one believes you when you say you have a purpose? Jonathan…
