No / This article brings strategy back to managers and their organizations. It argues and demonstrates empirically that what managers do, and the kind of organization they lead, matter in terms of achieving stated objectives. Managerial action involves a set of activities from assessing the problem to prioritising action, and takes place within an organizational context which has two important elements for decision-making. First, organizations have an accumulated stock of experience, and the more managers can access and utilise this experience base the better. Secondly, the culture and structure of an organization may exhibit more or less readiness for the changes that decisions bring about, and contexts less ready for change pose problems for managers in the implementation of decisions. This long-term study of 55 decisions in UK firms shows that careful managerial planning does not of itself guarantee successful outcomes: the organizational context is crucial in framing actions and influencing achievement, and decisions may send a firm on a trajectory beyond the point at which it can plan with confidence. Where experience and readiness are strong, decisions achieve stated objectives¿where both are lacking, decisions tend to fail. But, as examination of two illustrative cases indicates, strength in either domain may be enough: sound experience may win out in comparatively unreceptive situations, and decisions may still succeed where experience is lacking but the organization is ready for change. The article closes with some implications for managers.

As part of an on-going process of centralizing control of government science and technology (S&T) after World War II, in 1966 the Navy went through a major reorganization that was intended to centralize the strategic management of the Navy laboratory system. This centralization was to be accomplished by placing the major Navy research and development activities in a single systems command - the Naval Material Command - and establishing the position of Director of Navy Laboratories. Organizational studies and reorganizations continued for the next 25 years until the Naval Material Command and the Director of Navy Laboratories were disestablished in 1985 and 1991, respectively. This dissertation is, in part, an historical study of the Navy from 1946 to 1966 that focuses on the bureaus and laboratories. It summarizes the organizational changes related to strategic management and planning of science and technology. The 1966 reorganization was a critical event because it created the first formal Navy laboratory system. It is proposed that the 1966 reorganization was not successful in centralizing the strategic management of the Navy laboratory system. Classical organization theory offers an explanation of this failure. What can complexity theory add? The overarching contribution is in recognizing that a "Navy Laboratory System" existed before one was formally established in 1966. This argument is developed by considering two specific aspects of complexity theory. First, there is the notion that strategic management of the laboratory system resulted from the complex interactions of the smaller units that comprise the system (rather than the result of organization and process choices by senior leadership). Second, there is the theory that an organization will exhibit different behaviors at different times or in different parts of the organization at the same time. This translates into the idea that at particular times and places, the formal structure was dominant in strategic management, but at other times the "emergent" organization was dominant. In fact, if power law theory is applicable, then the periods of stability (where the formal structure was dominant) ought to be more prevalent than the turbulent periods where the emergent organization was dominant in strategic management. This case is made by describing agent-based models of the Navy laboratory system at two points in time and using them to identify the expected performance characteristics of the system. Historical and organizational artifacts are then used to make the case that the postulated system existed. / Ph. D.

O presente trabalho tem o objetivo de investigar a influência dos fatores estratégicos no desenho do sistema de gestão estratégica de custos em uma entidade fundacional. Para melhor compreender as especificidades das fundações, desenvolve-se um referencial teórico sobre suas principais características: patrimônio, fontes de recursos e estrutura de governança. Em seguida, tratou-se dos fatores estratégicos nestas organizações, com base no referencial teórico sobre a formulação e a implementação de estratégias de Almeida (2003). Sobre a Gestão Estratégica de Custos, apresenta-se a conceituação de artefatos de gestão de custo proposta por Soutes (2006), na qual os seus arranjos determinam o desenho do sistema de gestão de custos. Apresenta-se então um estudo de caso, de cunho exploratório, aplicado à Fundação Instituto de Administração, fundação privada que atua na área de educação, pesquisa e extensão no Estado de São Paulo. A aplicação do estudo de caso se deu através de entrevistas pessoais realizadas junto ao Diretor Financeiro e ao Gerente de Orçamento e Controle da fundação, e permitiu o levantamento de insights sobre os fatores estratégicos que determinaram a seleção dos artefatos de gestão de custo dentro do sistema de gestão de custos da organização nos últimos anos. Conclui-se então que alterações no sistema de gestão de custos devem ocorrer tão somente quando ocorrerem revisões no posicionamento estratégico da organização. Além disso, conclui-se que as fundações privadas devem perseguir princípios fundamentais de sustentabilidade e transparência a fim de garantir o atingimento a seus objetivos sociais. Finalmente, sugere-se que testes sejam realizados para adaptar o modelo de cadeia de valor de Porter (1985) para uma melhor aplicação a fundações privadas. / This main goal of this study is to investigate the influence of strategic factors in the conception of the strategic cost management system in a foundational entity. To better understand the specificities of foundations, a theorical referential on its mains aspects is developed: patrimony, resource sources and governance structure. After that, strategic factors were considered on these organizations, based on Almeidas´s theorical referential (2003) about strategy formulation and implementation. Concerning strategic management cost, it´s presented Soutes´ definition (2006) of management cost tools, in which its arrangements/fits are responsible for the conception of the Strategic Cost Management system. Then, this study presents an exploratory case study applied on Fundação Instituto de Administração, a private foundation that works on education, research and extension on the state of São Paulo. The application of the case study was made personally by the researcher with the Finance Director and Budget and Finance Manager of the foundation, and managed to contribute with insights about strategic factors that were considered in the management cost tools selection for the strategic cost management system in the last years. One may conclude that cost management system changes must occur only when strategic positioning changes happen. Besides, as a conclusion, private foundations must follow fundamental principles of sustainability and transparency so that they can assure their social main goals are met. Finally, it suggests that tests may be done in order to adapt Porter´s value chain model (1985) to a better functioning in private foundations.

O presente trabalho tem o objetivo de investigar a influência dos fatores estratégicos no desenho do sistema de gestão estratégica de custos em uma entidade fundacional. Para melhor compreender as especificidades das fundações, desenvolve-se um referencial teórico sobre suas principais características: patrimônio, fontes de recursos e estrutura de governança. Em seguida, tratou-se dos fatores estratégicos nestas organizações, com base no referencial teórico sobre a formulação e a implementação de estratégias de Almeida (2003). Sobre a Gestão Estratégica de Custos, apresenta-se a conceituação de artefatos de gestão de custo proposta por Soutes (2006), na qual os seus arranjos determinam o desenho do sistema de gestão de custos. Apresenta-se então um estudo de caso, de cunho exploratório, aplicado à Fundação Instituto de Administração, fundação privada que atua na área de educação, pesquisa e extensão no Estado de São Paulo. A aplicação do estudo de caso se deu através de entrevistas pessoais realizadas junto ao Diretor Financeiro e ao Gerente de Orçamento e Controle da fundação, e permitiu o levantamento de insights sobre os fatores estratégicos que determinaram a seleção dos artefatos de gestão de custo dentro do sistema de gestão de custos da organização nos últimos anos. Conclui-se então que alterações no sistema de gestão de custos devem ocorrer tão somente quando ocorrerem revisões no posicionamento estratégico da organização. Além disso, conclui-se que as fundações privadas devem perseguir princípios fundamentais de sustentabilidade e transparência a fim de garantir o atingimento a seus objetivos sociais. Finalmente, sugere-se que testes sejam realizados para adaptar o modelo de cadeia de valor de Porter (1985) para uma melhor aplicação a fundações privadas. / This main goal of this study is to investigate the influence of strategic factors in the conception of the strategic cost management system in a foundational entity. To better understand the specificities of foundations, a theorical referential on its mains aspects is developed: patrimony, resource sources and governance structure. After that, strategic factors were considered on these organizations, based on Almeidas´s theorical referential (2003) about strategy formulation and implementation. Concerning strategic management cost, it´s presented Soutes´ definition (2006) of management cost tools, in which its arrangements/fits are responsible for the conception of the Strategic Cost Management system. Then, this study presents an exploratory case study applied on Fundação Instituto de Administração, a private foundation that works on education, research and extension on the state of São Paulo. The application of the case study was made personally by the researcher with the Finance Director and Budget and Finance Manager of the foundation, and managed to contribute with insights about strategic factors that were considered in the management cost tools selection for the strategic cost management system in the last years. One may conclude that cost management system changes must occur only when strategic positioning changes happen. Besides, as a conclusion, private foundations must follow fundamental principles of sustainability and transparency so that they can assure their social main goals are met. Finally, it suggests that tests may be done in order to adapt Porter´s value chain model (1985) to a better functioning in private foundations.

Sustainable strategic management emerged from the coevolution of strategic thinking in today's sustainability challenging business environment. Business ecosystems, designed to create socially and ecologically responsible economic opportunities for their members, have emerged as excellent structures for implementing sustainable strategic management strategies along the whole pyramid of coevolving developed, developing, and undeveloped markets. Both the business ecosystem leaders and niche players in these whole pyramid business ecosystems have critical roles to play in formulating and implementing potentially profitable strategies that help reduce the human footprint and improve the quality of human life. Ecosystem leaders need to be responsible for creating and shepherding their business ecosystems' visions of a sustainable future, and niche players need to be responsible for providing the ecosystem with an innovation trajectory designed to make those visions a reality.

Sustainable strategic management emerged from the coevolution of strategic thinking in today's sustainability challenging business environment. Business ecosystems, designed to create socially and ecologically responsible economic opportunities for their members, have emerged as excellent structures for implementing sustainable strategic management strategies along the whole pyramid of coevolving developed, developing, and undeveloped markets. Both the business ecosystem leaders and niche players in these whole pyramid business ecosystems have critical roles to play in formulating and implementing potentially profitable strategies that help reduce the human footprint and improve the quality of human life. Ecosystem leaders need to be responsible for creating and shepherding their business ecosystems' visions of a sustainable future, and niche players need to be responsible for providing the ecosystem with an innovation trajectory designed to make those visions a reality.

Notable in strategic management research is a paradigm shift from industry/market factors as determinants of competitive strategy to a resource-based view. This study focuses on the extent to which firms in the reinsurance industry use resources for strategic positioning and differentiation. A qualitative case study approach has been adopted for this study. On the basis of open-ended questions, interviews were conducted with 6 executives of the 6 chosen non-life reinsurance companies. In addition to interviews, company annual reports were used. Results obtained point to similarities in broader categorisation of resources, namely human capital, financial resources, information systems and organisational culture. Despite similarities in the broader grouping of resources, uniqueness in resources and competitive advantage derived therefrom is in the attributes of each of the resources that a reinsurance firm own. The main driver for basing positioning and differentiation strategies is that resources are controllable and manipulative compared to industry factors. Though the results support the underlying principles of the resource-based view, it is notable that its prescriptive nature with regard to resource characteristics, does not hold for some of the resources such as human resources, which are not perfectly immobile. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBL

The tension uncovered during this study is between two worlds: the very pragmatic and enormously challenging world of managing in a rapidly changing and highly competitive global market, and the scientific world of strategic management thinking and the concern that contemporary strategic management is unable to deal effectively with the modern dilemma of globalisation. This dilemma is as a result of change; before a current scenario can be solved, the next evolution of scenarios is upon the business community. In today's turbulent world, globalisation is sweeping away the market and industry structures that, historically, have defined competition. Swept away with them are the classic approaches to strategic management, nearly all of which mistakenly assume that a predictable path to the future can be paved from the experiences of the past. The solution: Strategy should be dynamic and should change constantly in order to contend with external turbulences. Organisations should brace themselves for a future of hyper-competition. They should respond to these rapid changes in the business environment by adopting a new approach to strategy, one that combines speed, openness, and flexibility. Organisations need: an ability to sense changes in their environment; an ability to understand the impact, of this change, on the whole; a willingness to adapt to change; and an ability to adapt. Experimenting with new strategies is also important. Constant testing, adaptation and building on what is found to be successful with customers is the way ahead, especially when one is trying to re-invent the value provided, or the way in which it is produced and delivered. The overall purpose of this experimental strategic learning and management process is to establish which strategic options or elements thereof are robust across the possible competitive scenarios, and use the healthiest elements to develop your strategic intent - your core strategic focus or theme.

"Can you define 'plan' as 'a loose sequence of manifestly inadequate observations and conjectures, held together by panic, indecision, and ignorance'? If so, it was a very good plan." Jonathan Stroud, The Ring of Solomon Jonathan Stroud knew that a plan cannot stand alone and needs more. Every business needs a strategy. Academics in the field of strategic management have bewailed the field's disparate, ambiguous nature. The question arises: how can these concerns be compliant with the substantial success that strategic management experienced in the past? The weaknesses of strategic management seem to be its strengths. In their study, Nag, Hambrick and Chen (2007) suggest that strategic management acts as an intellectual dealer entity, which thrives by enabling the simultaneous pursuit of multiple research orientations by a variety of disciplinary and philosophical regimes. The Bain and Company Management Tools and Trends, (Rigby & Bilodeau 2011) indicated the importance of management tools and how these tools can enhance an organisation's ability to strategise for the future. Mankins and Steele (2005) identified factors resulting in a strategy-to-performance gap and made recommendations on how an organisation can minimise such gaps. Tait and Nienaber (2010) came to the conclusion that the use of management tools could reduce challenges of formulation, implementation and evaluation resulting in closing or minimising the strategy-to-performance gap. In view of the findings of these three above-mentioned studies, this study of SAEO aimed to explore (identify, describe and understand) what factors top, middle and frontline managers perceived to hinder strategy implementation at SAEO during the 2009/10-2010/11 financial years, resulting in a strategy-to-performance gap and to determine how these factors affect the organisation. This study was conducted as a qualitative case study that used empirical evidence from real people in a real-life organisation. Data was collected from a South African electronics organisation (henceforth referred to as SAEO) involving 14 managers at three different hierarchical levels (top, middle and frontline managers). They were required to answer semi-structured questions on to how these strategy-formulation-implementation-evaluation phases affect their working environment. The interviews were conducted at the premises of the organisation and permission was sought from the CEO who granted permission for the researcher to request the managers to participate. Information was used from previous authors and a replication study was conducted using the Mankins and Steele (2005) and Tait and Nienaber (2010) studies. The purpose of this study was to identify, describe and understand "what factors, if any, hinder strategy implementation" (Ehlers & Lazenby, 2004; Mankins & Steele, 2005; Tait & Nienaber, 2010). Ehlers and Lazenby (2004:117) and Mankins and Steele (2005:66) have indicated that strategy implementation is the most difficult part of the strategic management process. In the Mankins and Steele (2005) and Tait and Nienaber (2010) studies, although the order differed, the most prevalent performance factors contributing to the strategy-to-performance gap were identified as a lack of focus/conflicting priorities and no resources, inadequate skills and capabilities, unclear accountabilities for execution, insufficient rewards and consequences and poorly communicated strategies. The results of this SAEO study confirmed that ineffective communication, followed by inadequate monitoring; insufficient leadership and no approved strategy were the main reasons for the strategy-to-performance gap. It seemed as if SAEO had a bigger challenge in communicating its strategy to employees than was the case in the Mankins and Steele (2005) and the Tait and Nienaber (2010) studies. Although the biggest challenge at the four South African Life Insurers (Tait & Nienaber, 2010) was inadequate or unavailable resources, the challenge at SAEO was ineffective communication and it was evident that it should be addressed to close the strategy-to-performance gap. Both challenges are part of the strategy implementation phase although communication could be related to formulation, implementation and evaluation of strategy. Although the results (ranking of factors indicated to contribute to the strategy-to-performance phenomenon) of this study did not entirely concur with the studies of Mankins and Steele (2005) and Tait and Nienaber (2010), the important fact remains that without a formulated strategy on how to ensure survival and growth of an organisation, challenges such as ineffective communication and/or inadequate or unavailable resources which were found in the three studies (Mankins & Steele, 2005; Tait & Nienaber, 2010; and the SAEO study) will have a negative effect on an organisation's future growth and prosperity. It became evident from this (SAEO) study that every member of an organisation will be affected should a strategy-to-performance gap exist. Therefore it is crucial that each organisation timeously identify possible factors that can result in a strategy-to-performance gap and determine what can be done to close or narrow those performance gaps. Lear (2012) contends that even if an organisation has the most outstanding strategy, the strategy will mean nothing if it is not understood at all levels within the organisation. That includes all processes to be aligned to achieve the organisation's objectives. / Business Management / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

Purpose - The purpose of this thesis is to describe and explain how Swedish gazelle firms, as representatives of high growth SMEs, respond to challenges in their economic and social contexts in sustaining growth. Furthermore, the purpose is to provide relevant and valuable recommendations to managers of rapidly growing companies. Finally, this thesis aims at providing suggestions for further research. Method - This research was conducted following a multiple case study research design, constituting four companies. Data derives particularly from semi-structured interviews, held with the owners/CEOs of the four case companies. Findings – Taking a combined resource-based and institution-based view, the study shows that even though the importance of commitment to social issues for SMEs increases through periods of rapid growth, the importance is still somewhat limited for the overall success of the firm. Hence, mainly focusing on the economic context is essential for the firm‘s success, albeit the social context becomes an increasingly important factor to bear in mind for runners of SMEs, particularly when it comes to future expansion. Practical implications - For owners and managers of rapidly growing SMEs, it is vital to form a profound understanding of the challenges that can emerge after a period of rapid growth as well as how to how to most adequately respond to those challenges. For this, it greatly helps if a long-term vision on how and how much to grow is developed before the firm enters its period of rapid growth. Moreover, firm owners need to have or develop significant leadership capabilities in order to deal with the increasing amount of and diversity regarding employees. Keywords - Rapid growth firms, Gazelles, Strategic management, CSR, Growth, SMEs