Editor’s letter

Citation

Randall, R.M. (2020), "Editor’s letter", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 46 No. 4, pp. 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-07-2018-141

There are some relationships between the articles in this issue that deserve mention. There are two articles and a book review on the new challenges of talent management, three articles on methodologies for promoting growth and a case and a book review on achieving sustainable development goals. The conscientious reader’s reward: multiple perspectives on some of the most pressing issues in strategic management.

• Finding talent for Agile teams: HR’s new challenge

In “The emergence of Agile people management,” author Stephen Denning predicts that “Transformation will involve, not merely HR process improvements, but a fundamentally different kind of management…. Picture a leading multinational where employees decide for themselves which team they’d like to join, and which projects they’d like to attack.”

• McKinsey interview: five proven strategic moves that spur growth

In “Escape the ‘Hockey stick’ trap: five potent strategic moves that spur growth,” three McKinsey consultants tell Prof. Brian Leavy that “Companies that shift more than 50 percent of their capital spending across their businesses over 10 years create 50 percent more value than counterparts that move resources at a slower clip.”

• Rejuvenating your business model for growth

In “Your winning business model agenda: four questions to shape growth,” researchers Vladyslav Biloshapka and Oleksiy Osiyevskyy found that

“The most successful companies in our study have institutionalized processes and systems that facilitate fast and correct evaluation of the contribution of each profit driver to overall financial performance.”

• Evidence based management for “ambidextrous” organizations

What if businesses that routinely employ Evidence Based Management, which incorporates scientific principles, systematic review of facts and decision aids, must adapt to rapid market disruption? How can firms strike a balance between running current operations while also innovating to remain competitive? This dual challenge is called “ambidexterity.” Researchers Nicole C. Jackson and Opal M.C. Leung note that “While Evidence Based Management (EBM) seems well suited for firms aiming to exploit their existing competencies – as opposed to firms experimenting with game-changing new products or services – leading innovative firms have learned to use EBM in creative ways.”

• How China updates its tech skills resources

In “Competitors take note: how China manages its tech skills resources,” IBM researchers and consultants Anthony Marshall, Lucy Qu, Po Yang, Dave Zaharchuk and Ying Zhan assess hundreds of interviews with Chinese practitioners and educators and conclude that “Chinese leaders have an opportunity to better prepare their workforce for rapid evolution of businesses and industries and, by so doing so, to re-envision and redefine the global economy.”

• Case: An inventive Israeli non-profit’s startup strategy

In “A startup’s strategy: doing good sets the stage for doing well,”

Kenneth Alan Grossberg, an Advisor, Knowledge Center for Innovation, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology tells how inventor Maor Zlotzever, a 32-year-old Israeli entrepreneur, “began working on the development of Axios’ hydroponics division as a way to maximize the production capacity of facilities for growing food plants without soil. He and his team designed a simple modular system that requires no computer.”

And don’t miss the two nifty book reviews:

• The strategist’s bookshelf

Motivating strategically and empathetically

Harvey A. Hornstein reviews The Motivational Toolkit: How to Align Your Employees’ Interests with Your Own by David M. Kreps.

Altruistic strategy: doing better by doing good

Gayle C Avery reviews The Trillion Dollar Shift: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals; Business for Good is Good Business by Marga Hoek.

Good reading,