Editor's note

Citation

(2005), "Editor's note", Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 26 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jbs.2005.28826aaa.001

Editor's note

We begin our new volume of the Journal of Business in 2005 by adding a distinguished columnist to our roster. Rick Wise of Mercer Management Consulting and co-author of How to Grow When Markets Don’t, and his colleagues, will write a bi-monthly column, “The growth agenda,” geared toward the majority of companies for whom pursuing new growth opportunities should be the number-one priority. Over the next year, the column will lay out a practical growth program for managers, balancing short-term moves with new-business building. The discussion will cover subjects such as smart customer segmentation, profitability de-averaging, sales and marketing effectiveness, and how to make strategic planning truly useful in making growth happen on an ongoing basis.

In a departure (we hope) from the expected, this issue features a roundtable discussion on reading poetry and business strategy. Participating in the roundtable are two consultants from The Boston Consulting Group – one from Munich, one from Boston – and an Oxford professor, so the discussion is international in scope and ranges from philosophical musings on the nature of poetry to the practical implications of its applicability to real business situations. The Strategy Institute of The Boston Consulting Group has fostered many projects outside the realm of management consulting in an effort to collect ideas from a wide range of experts, from neurobiologists, anthropologists, mathematicians and artists to businesspeople to see how they break the bounds of their disciplines and innovate.

Critics of the failure of much strategic decision-making share the belief that too many strategists are now concentrating on tools and techniques rather than genuine thinking. Mark Chusill, head of Advanced Competitive Strategies consulting, suggests that bad strategic decisions are often made despite the obviously qualified and talented people who make those decisions. He proposes changes in process and attitudes that will allow creativity to assume a larger role (not unlike the effects of reading poetry).

In a teaming of practical research and academic scholarship, Donald Minnick and Duane Ireland share the results of their study of what is needed to survive in the new organization. It may sound straightforward to refer to the needed mix of an ability to accept teamwork and an independent mindset, but balancing the two is a continuing challenge. The authors delve deeply into the interpersonal skills their study participants identify as critical and share their insights on surviving and flourishing in almost any organization today.

Continuing in the vein of creativity and innovation is an article from Marakon Associates’ David Meer on a new and much-needed role in organizations that seek robust organic growth: the chief growth officer. Companies such as Heinz and Honeywell have recently experimented with the position to reduce obstacles to growth, which are surprisingly more daunting than one might think in many industries. While it may take some time for the chief growth officer role to catch on, those companies that embrace it early on may have an advantage over their competitors.

Pieter Klaas Jagersma, professor of international business at Universiteit Nyenrode in the Netherlands, and a leading authority on global competitive strategy, with 12 books and over 150 articles to his name, has conducted new research among executives of over 200 companies on cross-border alliances.