Creating Organizational Advantage

From the back cover

" a critical map, for the inquisitive manager, of the dynamic world of global strategic management"

Professor Peter McKiernan,

Dean of the Department of Management, St Andrews University, Scotland.

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This book 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 internationalisation 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 many international organizations.

To view the contents of the book please click on the following link:

View Contents

To read the introduction to the book, it's context and philosophy please click on the following link:

The big picture...

To read a review of the book by Professor Robert Galliers published in the Financial Times please click on the following link:

Financial Times Book Review

Background

This was the first sole-authored book I wrote, just four years into university life, an academic rookie. I was counseled not to do it, the advisory metaphor being along the lines of putting my head above the parapet, a soft target amongst the predatory culture of academia. Typical of my persona, I ignored the advice, a life-long personality trait which has served me well and badly, roughly in equal measure.

Initially my book proposal was titled Organizational Advantage and the central thesis was that 'marketing' and 'strategic management' were subjects which were easy to 'talk' about but which embodied extraordinarily difficult principles to put into practice. Since extensive cumulative research had suggested quite logical foundations for securing and maintaining competitive advantage it seemed odd, when working with managers and executives, that companies found relatively simple concepts so difficult to deploy. In short, I was writing a book which had a central tenet that while products and processes were easy to copy, an advantage based on superior organisational design was more sustainable. Not a new idea, but one rooted in the context of the globalisation of the world economy. In a nutshell, a statement of 'fact' as far as that can be claimed in the post-modern managerial science prevalent at the time. My publisher wanted a doing word, a verb. Verbs sell. I suggested 'Seeking', since the central thesis was about endeavour and frustration in organisational life. In the end we chose 'Creating' since the final Chapter did indeed offer cautious recommendations for organizations chasing the Holy Grail of sustainable competitive advantage.

Colin Egan,

Rugby, December 2011