Preface
What do AT&T, Coca Cola, Digital Equipment, GM, IBM, and McDonald’s have in common? For one thing, they all enjoyed decades of enviable profits and were leaders in their industries. What else to they have in common? They all took unexpected tumbles and fell from grace. Much like Humpty Dumpty – the clumsy, egg-like character in a Mother Goose rhyme – each of these companies “had a great fall.”
Some of them were put back together again but the question remains: why were these great organizations unable to sustain their profitable paths and growth?
The answer to this and other probing questions about how companies do –or don’t – sustain and accelerate growth can be found in the latest compilation of articles that are part of the 2007 Business Strategy Series,formerly known as the Handbook of Business Strategy.
Indeed, achieving continual growth in an increasingly competitive, complex and time-constrained business world has become the primary focus for each and every CEO responsible for running medium to large organizations across the globe.
And succeeding with their strategies in order to stay on top of their game– or wall, as in the case of Humpty Dumpty – is harder than it appears.
According to some of our contributing experts, organizations need to integrate, build and deliver ever better functioning economic growth systems to sustain their competitiveness. Some of these systems are effective technologies and applications, implementation logistics management, critical financial infrastructures, and information/knowledge distribution platforms.
In this series of articles, one group of consultants reminds us of several important steps to achieve momentum:
identify a company’s true internal capabilities and potential competencies;
create meaningful linkages that can lead to compelling and differentiated streams of value propositions and sustainable streams of innovation;
successfully act on opportunities and create company-wide initiatives; and
build effective teams across business units, geographies, and other borders,and create partnerships with customers, suppliers and other players from the outside.
Others in the series remind us that building from the right platform is the key to sustainable success for most organizational leaders.
Whether the goal is improving various internal disciplines or scoping out new external markets in search of growth opportunities, subscribers to this year’s Business Strategy Series will be rewarded with highly detailed and comprehensive advice from a group of 50 international experts.
The bottom line? Subscribers will learn how to grow their enterprises into more prosperous organizations and remain, unlike Humpty Dumpty, solidly perched and steadily balanced on top of their platform-supported wall of sustainable growth and success.
Patricia Coate2007 Series Editor
