Don’t surrender to uncertainty!
I hope senior management do not get persuaded to divert their attention to studying ‘complexity’ in the hope of understanding recent economic turmoil. ”‘Power curves’: What natural and economic disasters have in common” argues that “parallels between financial crises and natural disasters–such as earthquakes or forest fires–suggest that the economy, just like complex natural systems, is inherently unstable and prone to occasional huge failures that are very hard or impossible to foresee. Proponents of this school of thinking are bringing new ideas grounded in complexity theory to economic forecasting, strategic planning, and risk management.” This contributes little to the quest for skilled strategic management. Read more
How firms are coping
Mixed news from a recent S+B survey of execs. 75% say they do not need extra financial support – as I suspected – though that may change of course. More worrying is that most seem not to be taking the correct actions, given their specific situations. Read more
A calmer view of the crisis
To look past the panic see Taking a Calmer View in strategy+business, which explains how financial institutions that move beyond short-term solutions and focus on restructuring, tightening risk, and working together with regulators might emerge from the crisis with business management strategies for sustainable growth.
Ethics vs. competence
I took the trouble to post a query on one of the Academy of Mgmt discussion lists, asking what colleagues felt we had failed to do to allow professionals to graduate with the basic strategic incompetence [as well as financial] to bring about the current global crisis. Replies so far seem to focus almost entirely on the issue of ethics – not at all on what those people actually learned or didn’t whilst in our tender care. Read more