For all those who are interested in topics like high performance organizations, organizational structure, and organizational culture I would recommend a new scientific paper by Dr. André A. de Waal of the Maastricht School of Management. The title is “The Characteristics of a High Performance Organisation”. In this paper Waal analyses the “secret of success” [...]

In his last post, Oliver wrote about some potential strategic problems at the former Siemens mobile phone business. At the moment I read a book about what great companies do differently (Bailom, Matzler, Tschemernjak: Was Top-Unternehmen anders machen). As it happened, I bumped into a quote from Michael Mirow, head of strategic planning at Siemens [...]

Yes, this phrase segment is a small adaptation to another big slogan. But I think it is a very appropriate one… A long time ago one of the major players in the German technology industry, SIEMENS, developed, designed and produced mobile phones in Germany. In 1996 the market share of SIEMENS mobiles is 40 %. [...]

Contrary to the United States, where Toyota and their luxury brand Lexus have gained a considerable market share, both brands have been struggling for years in Germany. According to official statistics, both brands together have a market share of new cars sales of only 4 %. Although Toyota had been enjoying a reputation for superior [...]

In terms of strategic planning issues, new survey results have been published by McKinsey. In July and August 2006 McKinsey Quarterly conducted a survey and received 796 responses from a worldwide panel of executives. According to this survey, most companies have a formal strategic planning process but do not use it to make major business [...]

There is no doubt that change and change initiatives play an essential role for every organization in our days. An organisation that refuses to change in order to adapt to new situations will most probably fail sooner or later. However, my theory is that organisations can successfully cope with only a limited number and frequency [...]