Instructors’ Manual to Accompany Contemporary Strategy Analysis (9th edn. Wiley, 2016)
CHAPTER 16. CURRENT TRENDS IN STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT
Introduction
I devote the final session of the course to considering emerging trends in strategic management. Inevitably, this
means addressing whatever is happening at the time—but hopefully the content of this chapter 16 written
during early summer 2015 will still be relevant to the circumstances at the time of your final class!
My primary goal for this session is to encourage students to recognize two factors. First, that the business
environment is in constant change and new circumstances will require new strategies and new approaches to
implementing those strategies. Second, that strategic management is a young subject that is still in its early
In my final chapter I address the following themes:
• The outlook for the future. I view the succession of crises (economic, political and natural) of the
21st century as inevitable consequences of a highly interconnected world—with the implication
that turbulence and instability will continue to be defining features of business environment.
• To reaffirm the usefulness of the basic tools of strategic analysis—notably industry analysis and
the analysis of resources and capabilities—while acknowledging that new tools and concepts of
Class Outline
I use one of two approaches to the final class:
[1] A case study that exposes students to an innovatory approach to management—preferable one that might
provide a model of other firms. Companies I find suitable for this purpose include W.L. Gore and Associates,
Zappos, —an example of a non-hierarchical firm structure where employees have an unusual freedom to
organize themselves and pursue innovation.
• AES—under its founders Roger Sant and Dennis Bakke, AES developed a highly unusual
[2] A general class discussion where I pose the following questions for students:
(a) What will be the key developments in the global environment of business during the next five
years?
(b) On the basis of these, what will be the greatest challenges that firms from the advanced
industrialized countries will face?
Cases
W.L. Gore & Associates: Who’s In Charge Here? (R. M. Grant, Contemporary Strategy Analysis: Text
Under the leadership of Tony Hsieh, on-line footwear company, Zappos has developed an enterprise that
not only satisfying customers’ needs faster and more simply than ever but established a novel approach to
management with unprecedented opportunities for employee fulfillment.
Despite its unglamorous industry (electricity generation), AES is a remarkable company. Founded by two
civil servants, the company’s established its primary goals as social responsibility and fun for employees:
what the Wall Street Journal described as “empowerment gone mad.” Under Sant and Bakke specialist
staff were almost non-existent – finance, human resource management, purchasing, and health and safety
were devolved to ad hoc task forces. The basic guideline for managers was not to make decisions, but to
delegate. However, AES was caught up in the ripples that followed the collapse of Enron crisis. Its
founders were forced out and with them their radical management principles. The case offers students the
opportunity to discuss whether radical new approaches to management are possible or desirable, or
whether tried and tested management principles will prevail, either because they are inherently superior or
because of the inherent conservatism of financial markets.
St. Luke’s Advertising Agency (Diane L. Coutu, “Creating the Most Frightening Company on Earth: An
Interview with Andy Law of St. Luke’s,” Harvard Business Review, September 2000).
The article outlines the development of the innovative, employee-owned, London advertising agency and
its unusual approach to recruitment, incentives, organization, and the management of creativity. Chairman