Creating Organizational Advantage

Creating Organizational Advantage presents a critical appraisal of fashions and fads in management theory. It exposes the strategic weaknesses of change programmes such as Total Quality Management and Business Process Re-Engineering and explains why so many companies fail to become 'market-led' or 'customer-focused'. An examination of global competitive forces and the internationalization pressures faced by companies provides insight into key strategic challenges as we approach the 21st century. Creating Organizational Advantage analyses: how globalization is forcing organizations to address their 'strategic sloppiness', why companies seek 'panacea' solutions to basic business problems, the strategic dimensions of organizational change programmes, the role of joint ventures and strategic alliances in compensating for shortfalls in core competencies. These key themes are integrated within a framework which proposes balanced solutions for organizational survival and strategic prosperity. Many of the ideas for the book came from the author's research consultancy and executive development experience with international organizations, including: Bass Taverns, British Steel, BT, Burmah Castrol, Cadbury Schweppes, CAMAS, Coopers & Lybrand, Coral, ECC, GPT, Grace Dearborn, Hitachi, Kodak, KPMG, Lucas Aerospace, Northern Telecom, Philips, Raychem, Reed Elsevier, Rolls-Royce plc, Shell Chemicals, Siemens-Nixdorf.

Colin Egan