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Erim - 04 omslag mandele Pagina 1 Bleed: 10 mm Scale: 100% Leadership and the Inflection Point 42 L. MARTIN VAN DER MANDELE - A Longitudinal Perspective - Once in a while, many corporations of this world are threatened by DER MANDELE VAN L. MARTIN changes in their markets and environment that threaten their existence. These changes can be characterized by their severity, their sudden occurrence and by their origins outside the company, which usually makes it impossible to predict them. They are life-threatening and call Leadership and for a dramatic change in the strategy and structure of the corporation. The deregulation of air transport was such an event. The rapid expansion of the telecommunications industry with the simultaneous the Inflection Point introduction of new wide-band technologies was another. The same can be said for the enlargement of the European Union and the addition A Longitudinal Perspective of a number of low wage-cost countries. This book focuses two aspects of the inflection point. The first is the leadership viewpoint – it looks at the transition from the perspective Leadership and the Inflection Point of the CEO and his executive board, and considers what they can, and cannot, do. The second is the longitudinal perspective – it does not consider an inflection point as a single event, but rather a process that unfolds over a number of years. This book provides an analysis of what the leadership of a firm can do in each of the development phases of an inflection point. It also tests these ideas against a case example, the transition of the publishing industry into the Internet era. ERIM The Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM) is the Research School (Onderzoekschool) in the field of management of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. The founding participants of ERIM are the Rotterdam School of Management and the Rotterdam School of Economics. ERIM was founded in 1999 and is officially accredited by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The research undertaken by ERIM is focussed on the management of the firm in its environment, its intra- and inter-firm relations, and its business processes in their interdependent connections. The objective of ERIM is to carry out first rate research in management, and to offer an advanced graduate program in Research in Management. Within ERIM, over two hundred senior researchers and Ph.D. candi- dates are active in the different research programs. From a variety of academic backgrounds and expertises, the ERIM community is united in striving for excellence and working at the forefront of creating new business knowledge. www.erim.eur.nl ISBN 90-5892-067-4 leadership and the inflection point – A Longitudinal Perspective – Leiderschap en het inflectiepunt – Een longitudinaal perspectief – proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus Prof. dr. S.W.J. Lamberts en volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties. De openbare verdediging zal plaatsvinden op donderdag 3 juni 2004 om 16:00 uur door Leonard Martijn van der Mandele geboren te Wassenaar promotiecommissie Promotoren: Prof. dr. H.W.Volberda Prof. dr. H.R. Commandeur Overige leden: Prof. dr. P.H.A.M.Verhaegen Prof. dr. B.A. Bakker Prof. dr. ir. Ph. A. Naert Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM) Rotterdam School of Management / Rotterdam School of Economics Erasmus University Rotterdam Internet: http://www.erim.eur.nl ERIM Electronic Series Portal: http://hdl.handle.net/1765/1 ERIM Ph.D. Series Research in Management 42 ISBN 90 – 5892 – 067 – 4 © 2004, Martin van der Mandele All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical,including photocopying,recording,or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author. Contents Foreword 5 1 Introduction 7 1.1: Introduction: the Age of Discontinuity 7 1.2: Issue and Relevance of the Study 10 1.3: The Scope of our Work 12 1.4: Approach to the Issue – Concepts and Cases 13 1.5: The Structure of the Study 16 2 Describing the Inflection Point: Available Concepts 19 2.1: Introduction: Describing the Inflection Point 19 2.2: Grounding Theories of the Inflection Point 19 2.3: First Conclusions:Views on the Three Dimensions 31 2.4: Three Phases of the Inflection Point 37 2.5: Conclusions: Literature Supports the Three Dimensions of the Inflection Point 40 3 Three Leadership Approaches to the Inflection Point 43 3.1: Introduction:The Leadership Perspective 43 3.2: The Grounding Theories of the Analysis 44 3.3: Towards a Typology of Leadership Approaches 51 3.4: The Leadership Approaches and Anchor Points of Management Practice 53 3.5: Conclusions about the Three Leadership Approaches 62 3.6: The Directive Approach 64 3.7: The Conditional Approach 77 3.8: The Ecological Approach 92 3.9: A Dynamic Framework of Leadership Approaches to the Inflection Point 102 3.10: A Methodology for Case Research and the Units of Analysis 110 3.11: Conclusions regarding the Framework 119 4 Case Research: Catching up with Internet in the Publishing Industry 121 4.1: Introduction: Case Studies 121 4.2: Elsevier Science: Continuing Success through Internet 126 4.3: Wolters Kluwer – the Track of Gradual Change 136 4.4: VNU – Rapid Focus to Business Information 141 4.5: Wegener – the Pioneer 148 4.6: De Telegraaf – Attempting Evolution 155 4.7: Conclusions of the Case Studies 162 5 Conclusions and Closing Remarks 189 5.1: Introduction 189 5.2: The Four Questions and their Underlying Propositions 189 5.3: Scientific Contributions 193 5.4: Further Research Topics 197 5.5: Management Implications 202 5.6: Epilogue 203 Appendices 207 Summary in Dutch 211 References 220 List of Case Study Questions 245 List of Case Study Interviews 247 Biography 249 Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM) 251 4 Foreword Writing a doctoral dissertation on major change after spending twenty-five years advising firms on major change is a process fraught with challenges. The author, it must be presumed and hoped, has a lot of experience to offer, which has to be encapsulated in a few hundred pages. The same author has not been exposed to academic analysis, thinking and writing. Challenges thus to the author, challenges to his reviewer. Hence, this was not an easy project . Not for the author, and not for the supervisors. This study can be seen as an inflection point in professional learning.I am grateful for the seeds that were sown by my many,eminent teachers – professional seniors,university and school instructors, friends and family elders. On my own, I was fortunate to benefit immensely from three superb consulting teachers who taught me logic and clarity of thinking: Stephen Hargreaves, Prafulla Gupta and Kamal Saad.Without them, I would not have been the strategist I am, nor would I have enjoyed it as much as I do. In the academic effort, my godfathers were Henk Volberda and Harry Commandeur, without whose insight and patience this study would have not been completed,and never in the depth it was. The study also owes a lot to the senior managers of the five publishing companies who took the time to tell and retell me about their experiences of the internet inflection point. I can mention Herman Spruyt ,Herman Bruggink and Derk Haank, originally all at Elsevier, Rob Pieterse and Caf van Kempen, originally of Wolters Kluwer, Hans Swart and Hans Elekan of De Telegraaf, Jan Houwert, Peter Nientker and Joachim Driessen of Wegener, and,finally, Peter Tordoir and Ed Penninx, originally of VNU. A lot of work had to be done to turn awkward, unsubstantiated phases bereft with typographical errors and poor graphics into the readable papers that follow. If there ever was a Sancho Panchez to this Don Quichote fighting the windmills of strategy theory, it was Frans Swarttouw who was tireless in searching the library for the latest theories. Jean Bovenberg was my support in turning my awkward prose into legible and elegant intelligence. And finally the graphics of this document owe their correctness and esthetics to the tireless efforts of Ingeborg Vonk, Lucy van Erkel and Mariese Kleiwegt in Rotterdam, Jerene Kelly in Santa Monica and, last but not least, Pien Dermois in Leiden The Monks of Clervaux (Luxemburg), in particular frère Bernard, should be thanked for providing the author with a place for contemplation and work. Finally in her special role in my life, Klaske would not appreciate it if I dwelt on my gratitude to her. Suffice to say that an explanation would be, and is, a story without end. To K.E. and K.P. 5 6 1 Introduction: Perspectives on the Inflection Point 1.1: Introduction:The Age of Discontinuity One can claim that strategy as a business and academic topic had its heyday in the second half of the last century.Fundamental work was undoubtedly carried out before that time, witness the seminal writings on economic growth and entrepreneurship by Schumpeter (1928) that show business strategy as a much older intellectual process. But the wave of academic publications on business strategy (particularly Chandler (1962), Ansoff (1965) and Porter (1980)) and the growth of strategy as a business function took place in the 1960s. By the end of that decade, the strategy methodology, the planning function and strategy were well established in most of the larger corporations and as an academic research topic. At that time, strategic management philosophies could be classified into three main schools: 1) Management by control of performance (after the fact), which was adequate when change was slow, 2) Management by projection, when the future could be predicted by extrapolation from the past, and 3) Management by anticipation, when change was slow enough to permit timely anti- cipation and response to discontinuities.