Systems Thinking Strategy: The New Way to Understand Your Business and Drive Performance

Brown PhD, Jimmy

ISBN 10: 1475957718 / ISBN 13: 9781475957716

Published by iUniverse, 2012

About this Item

In English.

Seller Inventory # ria9781475957716_new

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Systems Thinking Strategy: The New Way to Understand Your Business and Drive Performance
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1475957718
• ISBN 13: 9781475957716
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New
• Weight: 488 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Why are some organizations more successful than others? Is it better products? Is it a superior service model? Is it some mixture of the two? Is it merely a matter of lining up the products and services to meet the needs of the marketplace at a particular time? Or did they just get lucky? Many business leaders believe that the answer to these questions is a matter of strategy.  Find the right strategy and the company is bound to be successful. 

Unfortunately, too many organizations fail to find that right strategy.  The question is why?  Do they not go on enough executive retreats?  Did they hire the wrong consultants? Were their PowerPoint slides just now powerful enough?  While any of these factors could be a contributor, our research shows that the real driver is strategy efforts focusing too much on singular dimensions (e.g., the competition) rather than considering the entire ecosystem.  Without a full view of the complete business environment, it is impossible to make fully informed decisions.  Without being fully informed, we risk making the wrong choices.  

The Systems Thinking Strategy addresses this issue by providing a holistic approach that incorporates multiple domains into the strategy discussion.  By incorporating systems thinking (e.g., Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline) into the strategic planning process, we are able to understand how our Capabilities, our Customers, and the Competitive Environment are all interacting and impacting our business success.  It then provides an approach to making sense of those disparate data points so that we can make the right decisions to drive business success.

About the Author

Jimmy Brown, PhD, is the Strategy Practice Area Lead at Beacon Associates, where he is responsible for change management, organizational assessment/effectiveness, performance improvement, and business strategy consulting engagements. He is a frequent author and speaker onthe topics of business strategy and organizational change, and is regularly sought out for his insights on how to apply cutting-edge theory to solve real-world challenges. Dr. Brown received his master's degree in industrial and organizational psychology from the University of Tulsa, and his PhD from Benedictine University's award-winning organizational development program. In addition to his consulting work, he is a professor in several graduate psychology and management programs. He can be contacted at jimmybrownphd.com.