Editor’s letter

Citation

Randall, R.M. (2021), "Editor’s letter", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 49 No. 1, pp. 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-01-2021-211

In the plainest words, the theme of this issue is, “How to get a grip on change.” Its six articles, using more sophisticated concepts and terminology, propose a new diagnostic tool for fostering a customer-focused approach to management, an “interaction field” business model, an Agile approach to digital transformation, a pivotal change framework, a vigilance system for monitoring weak signals of potential threats or nascent opportunities and a large-scale IBM survey of executives’ strategic responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. The articles and the authors:

• Stephen Denning, the author of The Age of Agile and a senior contributor at Forbes.com, offers “A powerful diagnostic tool for 21st Century management.” Its “Principles, Processes, Practices (PPP) Worksheet” can help firms assess and address their current status in the transition to customer-focused, agile management.

• An interview with author Erich Joachimsthaler, the CEO of Vivaldi and author of The Interaction Field: The Revolutionary New Way to Create Shared Value for Businesses, Customers and Society, discusses how “The principle of shared value drives the success of the ‘interaction field’ business model.” Interviewed by Strategy & Leadership contributing editor Brian Leavy, Joachimsthaler explains, “Interaction field companies or business models create shared value by solving new or intractable problems for customers, the industry or society.”

• “Sprinting to digital transformation: a time boxed, Agile approach” by Haydn Shaughnessy and Fin Goulding, co-authors of Transformation Sprint: How to fix big transformation problems in just 4 weeks, describes “The Transformation Sprint methodology, that provides a customer-focused environment in which leaders can learn about how their operating model should and can evolve.”

• “A framework for confronting a pivotal change challenge” is presented by Syntegrity consultants David Komlos and David Benjamin, the authors of Cracking Complexity: The Breakthrough Formula for Solving Just About Anything Fast. They maintain that “To rapidly course correct, leaders need an experience-tested framework for confronting defining moments of high complexity, low clarity and weak alignment.” The case of LPL Financial illustrates their methodology in practice.

• “How vigilant leaders prepare for a turbulent future,” by George S. Day, Wharton’s Geoffrey T. Boisi Emeritus Professor and Karissa Kruse, president of the Sonoma County Winegrowers, details how “Vigilance is rewarded when an organization is able to move faster than rivals once the ambiguities shrouding the weak signals of potential threats or nascent opportunities are clarified.” The case of Sonoma County Winegrowers offers an example of how to exercise vigilance in response to the looming threat from climate change and other risks.

• “How business is adapting to COVID-19: Executive insights reveal post-pandemic opportunities” by The IBM Institute for Business Value authors Cindy Anderson, Christian Bieck and Anthony Marshall reports on a large-scale survey of senior executives during the pandemic. “The research highlights a gaping chasm between what executives think they are offering their employees and how those employees feel.”

Good reading,