Publication records

The case study 'Madonna - Strategy in Action' explores the theme of strategy by examining the career of Madonna, the world's highest earning female entertainer and one of the best-known women on the planet. Strategy is not a specific plan or set of detailed instructions; but rather a guiding theme that provides coherence and focus to the actions and decisions of an individual or an organization. The case identifies the contribution that strategy can make to successful performance, both for individuals and for organizations. The case study is intended for as an introduction to MBA or executive education programs dealing with key concepts in business strategy. The case clearly distinguishes strategy from planning.

The three cases (Georg, Kati, Mario) can be taught separately or as a threesome devoted to leadership dilemmas/responsible leadership. The cases treat respectively four dilemmas: an ethical dilemma (George); dilemmas concerning personal career goals versus family/spouse goals, and economic versus environmental goals (Mario); and finally a dilemma concerning downsizing and employment (Kati). All three cases at first glance seem to pose rather obvious trade-offs and choices as the student puts himself/herself in the shoes of George, Mario and Kati.

Peer coaching in executive education programs is a developmental approach that uses a number of principles developed in executive coaching practice and research, and the power of work and life experience of fellow participants in helping other members of the class clarify their goals, assess the current reality of their situation and understand the forces that help or hinder goal achievement, elaborate available options or alternatives, identify necessary resources and support mechanisms, and, last but not least, commit to action through development and peer approval of an action plan and agreeing on a follow-up with the peer coach throughout the process of implementation of the action plan. This technical note serves as a resource for participants of leadership development programs involving elements of peer coaching.

In more and more industries it becomes true that value creating networks compete against each other with relatively stable relations between suppliers inside the network. Managers all over the world are searching for the most efficient and effective coordinative forms for their relations with OEM's or suppliers within such a value-creating networks. This paper gives a normative guideline to decide if or if not a partnership is the right coordinative form for OEM-supplier relations within a value-creating network. Based on the existing mainly positivistic research in this field, two aspects are highlighted as the main drivers for the suitability of a partnership as a well working governance mechanism for value-creating networks: (i) individualization vs. standardization of the delivered components combined with the potential of the end customers to identify quality differences or not and (ii) the possibilities to allocate the revenues made by the value-creating network on the several 'partners' within the network. All aspects were integrated in a decision model for managers to find out if partnership as the coordinative form is really the best choice in a given situation.

With permission of Elsevier

The New Europe brings both great expectations and considerable anxiety for organizations and their members. Seen as both an opportunity to develop a powerful economic entity and a danger of diluted national identities and incompatible work practices, it calls for a new type of European leadership. In this article we argue that European organizations face an unprecedented challenge of diversity along the dimensions of culture, language, religion, values, education, political systems, socio-economic experience, and early family and socialization practices. These differences can lead to a plethora of varying and often conflicting preconceptions and attitudes that organizational members bring to work. If the differences are ignored, the development of successful truly European organizations will remain an illusion. To deal with these challenges, executives have to develop a new, "global" approach to leading companies that will combine the features of global and local leadership. This article offers suggestions for corporate executives on how they can develop themselves for the new European leadership roles and successfully deal with the leadership challenges of the New Old World.

With permission of Elsevier

This is the first of a two-case series (306-135-1 and 306-136-1). Fiat's construction equipment (CE) business was extremely weak during the 1990s, and it had considered divesting the entire division (CNH Global, which was then called Fiat New Holland). With very little US market share, no heavy excavators (which accounted for 50% of the total CE market) and no hydraulics technology (crucial for excavators), Fiat's CE business appeared dismal. Ten years later, CNH Global had become one of the world's leading CE manufacturers, with nearly US$4 billion in annual revenues and a complete CE product portfolio, ranking first in light and medium CE, and third in heavy excavators, and was number three in overall market share. It had achieved growth through a series of global acquisitions, joint ventures and alliances on a major scale, involving players on the European, North American and Japanese markets. This enabled it to leverage synergies with its agricultural equipment business, access to key hydraulics technology, an improved market position in Europe and the US, and greater market access for its full range of CE products. Case (A) describes these acquisitions, as well as the development of CNH Global's CE 'Multi-Brand and Multi-Channel' strategy, and makes sense of its mix of multiple brands, national and corporate cultures, customer groups, organisational functions and geographies. Product differentiation was central to its strategy, enabling it to maintain distinct brands and retain market share.