In Germany there is a political discussion going on about women’s quota for positions in management boards and top management. This is a political discussion and mainly refers to large businesses, i.e. for DAX-companies, for the time being. Currently, political parties and even ministers have varying opinions about this topic. Ideas range from critical positions [...]

As discussed in the previous posts strategic discourses support organizations in ambiguous situations. Creativity and imagination might have an impact on strategy formation as well. HURST, RUSH and WHITE (1989) criticize the emphasis of analytical thinking, rationality and objectivity and present a contrast model with the four attributes intuition, emotion, thinking and feeling. STRONG (2005) [...]

Strategy formation can be understood as a communicative process or at least as a process that is attended by communication. In particular in ambiguous situations with justification of decisions and demands for legitimacy, communication can play a major role. Various sources in the academic literature have the assumption in common that human reality is a [...]

During the research for my thesis I found this very interesting article concerning “behavioral strategy”. It addresses the impact of the subconscious mind on strategic management. Left unchecked, subconscious biases have the ability to undermine strategic decision making. This does not mean that top managers assume their strategic decisions are perfect. In a 2009 study [...]

This post has the objective to analyze and to discuss one selected problem and barrier related to the strategic planning process; those problems and barriers for a sound strategic planning process have been indentified in both the academic and the business literature. In the last two decades a large number of articles and books related [...]

As you might remember, our team was completed by our baby last year. Our little daughter is now 14 months old and makes us very happy. Looking back at the time with her, I see some parallels between living with a baby and strategic management: Let’s start with the time before the baby arrives. The [...]

From time to time I receive mails from MBA-students asking me some more or less specific questions that are related to management and strategy. Normally, I reply to such mails with only a few sentences since I am not going to help them out with significant parts of their MBA assignments. However, the last one [...]

No, I don’t want to post a blog about the change which is related to the presidency of Mr. Obama. I guess that there are articles enough available in the media which discuss this issue. In the case that you would like to employ the “we can change” in order to improve your organization this [...]

A couple of days ago I was involved in a discussion concerning the sense of strategy in the times of financial crisis. I think that is a very interesting question, whether organizations should “think strategically” in a situation with a very dynamic and unstable environment (e.g. like the current financial crisis and global economic recession). [...]

“Some companies make things happen. Some companies see things happen. Some companies wonder that things happen.” This is one of my favourite management quotes because this is all strategy is about. I heard it in a lecture during my MBA course back in 2000. This was the time when the Internet was said to change [...]