CHAPTER 12

STRATEGIC ACTIONS: STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION

Leadership

Strategic Management Management of Strategy

Competitiveness and Globalization: Concepts and Cases Seventh edition Concepts and Cases
Michael A. Hitt R. Duane Ireland Robert E. Hoskisson

PowerPoint Presentation by Charlie Cook The University of West Alabama 2007 Thomson/South-Western. All rights reserved.

KNOWLEDGE OBJECTIVES Studying this chapter should provide you with the strategic management knowledge needed to:

1. Define strategic leadership and describe the importance of top-level managers.

2. Define top management teams and explain their effects on firm performance. 3. Describe the managerial succession process using internal and external managerial labor markets. 4. Discuss the value of strategic leadership in determining the firms strategic direction.

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KNOWLEDGE OBJECTIVES (contd) Studying this chapter should provide you with the strategic management knowledge needed to:

5. Describe the importance of strategic leaders in managing the firms resources, with emphasis on exploiting and maintaining core competencies, human capital, and social capital. 6. Define organizational culture and explain what must be done to sustain an effective culture.
7. Explain what strategic leaders can do to establish and emphasize ethical practices. 8. Discuss the importance and use of organizational controls.
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FIGURE 12.1

Strategic Leadership and the Strategic Management Process

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Strategic Leadership and Style

Strategic leadership requires the ability to:
Anticipate and envision. Maintain flexibility. Empower others to create strategic change as necessary.

Strategic leadership is:

Multi-functional work that involves working through others. Consideration of the entire enterprise rather than just a sub-unit. A managerial frame of reference.
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Strategic Leadership (contd)

Effective strategic leaders:
Manage the firms operations effectively. Sustain a high performance over time. Make better decisions than their competitors. Make candid, courageous, pragmatic decisions. Understand how their decisions affect the internal systems in use by the firm. Solicit feedback from peers, superiors and employees about their decisions and visions.

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Managers as an Organizational Resource

Managers often use their discretion when making strategic decisions and implementing strategies. Factors affecting the amount of decision-making discretion include:
External environmental sources Characteristics of the organization Characteristics of the manager

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FIGURE 12.2

Factors Affecting Managerial Discretion

Source: Adapted from S. Finkelstein & D. C. Hambrick, 1996, Strategic Leadership: Top Executives and Their Effects on Organizations, St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company. 2007 Thomson/South-Western. All rights reserved.

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Factors Affecting Managerial Discretion

External Environment

Industry structure Rate of market growth Number and type of competitors Nature and degree of political/legal constraints Degree to which products can be differentiated

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Factors Affecting Managerial Discretion

External Environment Characteristics of the Organization

Size Age Culture Availability of resources Patterns of interaction among employees

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Factors Affecting Managerial Discretion

External Environment Characteristics of the Organization Characteristics of the Manager

Tolerance for ambiguity Commitment to the firm and its desired strategic outcomes Interpersonal skills Aspiration level Degree of self-confidence

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Factors Affecting Managerial Discretion

External Environment Characteristics of the Organization Characteristics of the Manager

The degree of latitude for action when making strategic decisions, especially those concerned with effective implementation of strategies. How managers exercise discretion when determining appropriate strategic actions is critical to the firms success.
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Managerial Discretion

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Top Management Teams

Composed of the key managers who are responsible for selecting and implementing the firms strategies. A heterogeneous top management team:
Has varied expertise and knowledge. Can draw on multiple perspectives. Will evaluate alternative strategies.

Builds consensus.

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Firm Performance and Strategic Change

Heterogeneous top management teams:
Have difficulty functioning effectively as a team. Require effective management of the team to facilitate the process of decision making but Are associated positively with innovation and strategic change. May force the team or members to think outside of the box and be more creative. Have greater capacity to provide effective strategic leadership in formulating strategy.

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CEO and Top Management Team Power

Higher performance is achieved when board of directors are more directly involved in shaping strategic direction. A powerful CEO may:
Appoint sympathetic outside board members. Have inside board members who report to the CEO. Have significant control over the boards actions.

May also hold the position of chairman of the board (CEO duality).

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CEO and Top Management Power

Duality often relates to poor performance and slow response to change.
CEOs of long tenure can also wield substantial power.
CEOs can gain so much power that they are virtually independent of oversight by the board of directors.

The most effective forms of governance share power and influence among the CEO and board of directors.

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Managerial Succession
Organizations select managers and strategic leaders from two types of managerial labor markets:
Internal managerial labor market Advancement opportunities related to managerial positions within a firm. External managerial labor market Career opportunities for managers in organizations other than the one for which they currently work.

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Managerial Labor Market (contd)

Advantages of internal managerial labor market include:
Experience with the firm and industry environment.
Familiarity with company products, markets, technologies, and operating procedures.

Lower turnover among existing personnel.

Advantages of the external managerial labor market include:

Long-tenured insiders may be stale in the saddle outsiders may bring fresh perspectives.
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FIGURE 12.3

Effects of CEO Succession and Top Management Team Composition on Strategy

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FIGURE 12.4

Exercise of Effective Strategic Leadership

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Key Strategic Leadership Actions: Determining Strategic Direction

Determining strategic direction involves developing a long-term vision of the firms strategic intent.
Five to ten years into the future

Philosophy with goals

The image and character the firm seeks

Ideal long-term vision has two parts:

Core ideology
Envisioned future
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Key Strategic Leadership Actions: Exploiting and Maintaining Core Competencies

Core competencies
Resources and capabilities of a firm that serve as a source of competitive advantage over its rivals.

Leadership must verify that the firms competencies are emphasized in strategy implementation efforts.
Firms must continuously develop or even change their core competencies to stay ahead of competitors.

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Key Strategic Leadership Actions: Developing Human Capital and Social Capital
Human capital
The knowledge and skills of the firms entire workforce are a capital resource that requires investment in training and development.

Social capital
Relationships inside and outside the firm that help it accomplish tasks and create value for customers and shareholders.

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Key Strategic Leadership Actions: Sustaining an Effective Organizational Culture

Organizational Culture
The complex set of ideologies, symbols and core values shared through the firm, that influences the way business is conducted.

Entrepreneurial Orientation
Personal characteristics that encourage or discourage entrepreneurial opportunities.
Autonomy Innovativeness Proactiveness Risk taking

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Key Strategic Leadership Actions: Sustaining an Organizational Culture (contd)

Changing a firms organizational culture is more difficult than maintaining it.
Effective strategic leaders recognize when change in culture is needed.

Shaping and reinforcing culture requires:

Effective communication Problem solving skills Selection of the right people Effective performance appraisals Appropriate reward systems
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Key Strategic Leadership Actions: Emphasizing Ethical Practices

Effectiveness of processes used to implement the firms strategies increases when based on ethical practices. Ethical practices create social capital and goodwill for the firm.

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Key Strategic Leadership Actions: Emphasizing Ethical Practices (contd)

Actions that develop an ethical organizational culture include:
Establishing and communicating specific goals to describe the firms ethical standards.

Continuously revising and updating the code of conduct.

Disseminating the code of conduct to all stakeholders to inform them of the firms ethical standards and practices.

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Key Strategic Leadership Actions: Emphasizing Ethical Practices (contd)

Actions that develop an ethical organizational culture include:
Developing and implementing methods and procedures to use in achieving the firms ethical standards. Creating and using explicit reward systems that recognize acts of courage. Creating a work environment in which all people are treated with dignity.

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Key Strategic Leadership Actions: Establishing Organizational Controls

Controls
Formal, information-based procedures used by managers to maintain or alter patterns in organizational activities.

Controls help strategic leaders to:

Build credibility Demonstrate the value of strategies to the firms stakeholders Promote and support strategic change

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Key Strategic Leadership Actions: Establishing Balanced Organizational Controls

The Balanced Scorecard
A framework used to verify that the firm has established both strategic and financial controls to assess its performance.

Prevents overemphasis of financial controls at the expense of strategic controls

Four perspectives of the balanced scorecard

Financial Customer
Internal business processes Learning and growth
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FIGURE 12.5

Strategic Controls and Financial Controls in a Balanced Scorecard Framework

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