VUCA

What are some benefits of time pacing?

Topic 3: Time pacing 1. Counteracts the natural tendency of managers to wait too long, move too slow and lose momentum 2. Ensures that managers persist long enough to avoid overreacting to the "noise" that accompanies most new ventures (vs event pacing) 3. Powerful psychological impact. Creates a relentless sense of urgency around meeting deadlines and concentrates individuals and team energy around common goals. 4. Disciplines managers to excel at managing transitions and managing rhythms

How does time pacing help managers with managing rhythm?

Topic 3: Time pacing 1. Synchronise with marketplace a) Aligning with customers e.g. seasonal demands b) Aligning with retailers e.g. retailers' shelf-planning cycles c) Aligning with complementers, e.g. Intel and PC manufacturers, chip maker and key equipment supplier 2. Synchronise rhythm with internal capabilities

What are the four levels of uncertainty facing firms in a VUCA world?

Week 2: What is VUCA? (1) A clear enough future (2) Alternate futures (3) A range of futures (4) True ambiguity

What is the portfolio of actions a firm can take in an uncertain business context?

Week 2: What is VUCA? (1) No regrets moves (2) Options (3) Big bets

What are the different types of strategic postures a firm can take in times of uncertainty?

Week 2: What is VUCA? (1) Shape the future (2) Adapt to the future (3) Reserve the right to play

What are the four organisational abilities to foster rapid adaption?

Week 3: Adaptability, the new competitive advantage. 1. Ability to read and act on signals 2. Ability to experiment 3. Ability to manage complex multi-company systems 4. Ability to mobilise

What are some tactics for big businesses to be adaptable?

Week 3: Adaptability, the new competitive advantage. 1. Look at the mavericks 2. Identify and address the uncertainties: Distinguish false knowns, underexploited knowns, unknown knowns 3. Put an initiative on every risk (portfolio of strategic options) 4. Examine multiple alternatives 5. Increase clock speed

What are first order and second order capabilities and which topic are they relevant in?

Week 3: Adaptability, the new competitive advantage. First order: Favourable positioning or resources Second order: Being good at learning how to do new things, rather than being very good at doing something

What are slow cycle, fast cycle and standard cycle markets?

Week 3: Adaptability, the new competitive advantage. Slow cycle: Competitive advantage is shielded from imitation for long periods of time and is costly when done. Focus: Build one-of-a-kind competitive advantage then protect, maintain and extend that CA. Fast cycle: Competitive advantage is not shielded from imitation, imitation is often rapid and inexpensive. Focus: Learn how to rapidly and continuously develop new competitive advantage (through innovation)

How should managers create capabilities to cope with change and when should they use each method?

Week 4: Meeting the challenge of disruptive change 1. Create new capabilities internally. Use when challenges requires new processes. [keywords: heavyweight teams, pull the relevant ppl out of the existing organisation and draw a new boundary around new group] 2. Creating capabilities through a spinout organisation. Used when challenge requires new values (problems with cost structure and with size of opportunity relative to growth needs). [keywords: should not be forced to compete for resources with other projects, CEO's personal, attentive oversight] 3. Through acquisitions -> If capabilities lie in processes & values: let business stand alone, infuse parent's resources into acquired company's processes and values -> If capabilities lie in resources: integrate

Where do organisational capabilities reside?

Week 4: Meeting the challenge of disruptive change 1. Resources 2. Processes 3. Values

Explain the migration of capabilities as a company expands.

Week 4: Meeting the challenge of disruptive change Resources-->Processes&values-->Culture Start up stage: Capabilities are mostly resources (people) Over time: Shifts towards processes and values. Processes-> As ppl address recurrent tasks, problem-solving and decision-making methods that are repeatedly proved to be valid will become defined as processes. Values-> As the business model takes shape and it becomes clear which types of business need to be accorded highest priority, values coalesce. Finally: Culture: When employees decide priorities by assumption rather than conscious choice, processes and values come to constitute the organisation's culture

What is the difference between sustaining and disruptive innovation?

Week 4: Meeting the challenge of disruptive change Sustaining innovation: innovations which make a pdt or svc perform better in ways that customers in the mainstream mkt already value Disruptive innovations: create an entirely new mkt through introduction of a new kind of pdt or svc. Sometimes it's actually worse, initially, as judged by the performance metrics that mainstream customers value (e.g. Chotukool)

What are values of a company and why do they make companies progressively less capable of addressing disruptive change successfully?

Week 4: Meeting the challenge of disruptive change Values are the standards by which employees set priorities which help them judge whether an order is attractive, a customer is important or unimportant, and whether an idea for a new product is attractive or not. They guide prioritisation decisions, which are daily occurrences for employees who must make independent decisions consistent with the strategic direction and business model of the company. They also define what an organisation cannot do by reflecting its cost structure or business model. Reasons: 1) Dictates the way the company judges acceptable gross margins (e.g. Toyota) 2) Dictates how big a business opportunity has to be before it can be interesting (as companies become large, they lose the ability to enter small, emerging markets)

What are the three criteria for finding new customers in an industry facing the threat of disruption?

Week 4: The Disruption Opportunity 1. Disruptive innovation must be undervalued by current customers 2. Must compete against nonconsumption 3. Must help people accomplish things they are already trying to do but cannot with the available products or services

What are some keys to navigate the growth path in a market facing the threat of disruption?

Week 4: The Disruption Opportunity 1. Recognise that established players have more time than they think, provided that they can see beyond their current customers 2. Find new customers who are eager to be served by disruption 3. Build an organisation that is capable of serving new customers. Let new customers dictate the business model by which they can be served.

Explain the three phases of disruption with reference to a real-life example.

Week 4: The Disruption Opportunity E.g. Minicomputers vs mainframe computers 1. Innovation creates a new, noncompetitive market independent of established business 2. New market expands and slows the growth of the established business 3. Disruptive innovation, having improved greatly over time, significantly reduces the size of the market

How do firms miss out on new growth when faced with disruption in their industries? Support your answer with real-life examples.

Week 4: The Disruption Opportunity Root: New markets grow in a space in the market not traditionally served by the established players Result: 1) Managers see a market develop but incorrectly conclude that it is outside their company's scope for products or customers, thus there is no opportunity (e.g. IBM and minicomputers) 2) Incumbents often mistakenly assume that the disruption will immediately displace their established businesses (e.g. Kodak and digital photography)

What are the five types of boundaries in a firm?

Week 5: Flat world, hard boundaries: How to lead across them 1. Vertical 2. Horizontal 3. Stakeholder 4. Demographic 5. Geographic

What is the boundary spanning leadership model and what are the 6 boundary spanning practices?

Week 5: Flat world, hard boundaries: How to lead across them A model that recommends tactics for leaders to increase intergroup collaboration in order to transition from the Great Divide to the Nexus Effect. 6 boundary spanning practices: Managing boundaries (BUFF REF) 1. Buffering 2. Reflecting Forging common ground (CON MOB) 3. Connecting 4. Mobilizing Discovering new frontiers (TRANS WEAVE) 5. Weaving 6. Transforming

What is the Nexus effect and the Great Divide?

Week 5: Flat world, hard boundaries: How to lead across them Nexus effect achieved when groups work together to create new possibilities and achieve inspired results well beyond what they could do on their own. It is the ultimate goal of boundary spanning leadership. The Great Divide is the most negative outcome possible when group boundaries intersect. It is difficult to manage because identity (the emotional force that serves to both separate and connect us) is at the heart of the Great Divide. Identity is significant because it represents not just physical or technological differences-- the 'what we do' and 'how we do it'-- but rather who we are.

What is boundary spanning leadership?

Week 5: Flat world, hard boundaries: How to lead across them The ability to create direction, alignment and commitment across group boundaries in service of a higher vision or goal Direction: A shared understanding of common goals and strategy Alignment: The joint coordination of resources and activities Commitment: Dedication to collective success that is at least as great as the dedication to any one group's success

List three ways a firm can gain access to capabilities and state their respective forms of governance.

Week 5: How a firm's capabilities affect boundary decisions 1. Cooperate with firms which already possess the capabilities (market/intermediate) 2. Create capabilities on its own (hierarchical) 3. Acquire another firm with the capabilities (hierarchical)

Name the three core concepts of transaction cost economics and their relationship with each other.

Week 5: How a firm's capabilities affect boundary decisions 1. Governance 2. Opportunism 3. Transaction specific investment When one party to an exchange has made a large transaction-specific investment in the exchange, other parties to that exchange may have a strong incentive to behave opportunistically. The firm will then have to choose its method of governance to manage the threat of opportunism involved. When a large transaction-specific investment is made, the threat of opportunism is high. Thus, a firm will use hierarchical forms of governance (e.g. creating its own capabilities or acquiring capabilities) to mitigate the threat of opportunism.

What are the three types of governance?

Week 5: How a firm's capabilities affect boundary decisions 1. Market governance - Manage an exchange when a firm interacts with other firms at arm's length across a market - Relies primarily on market-determined prices to manage an exchange 2. Intermediate governance - When firms use complex contracts and strategic alliances, such as joint ventures, to manage an exchange 3. Hierarchical governance - Involves bringing an exchange within the boundary of the firm

How might creating capabilities on its own and acquiring capabilities be costly to a firm?

Week 5: How a firm's capabilities affect boundary decisions Creating capabilities: 1. Historical context 2. Path dependence 3. Social complexity 4. Causal ambiguity Acronym: HIS PATH SO CAUStly Acquiring capabilities: 1. Legal restraints 2. Effect on value of capabilities 3. Strategic flexibility and uncertainty 4. Unwanted baggage 5. Leveraging acquired capabilities Acronym: FULL V

What is a transaction-specific investment?

Week 5: How a firm's capabilities affect boundary decisions It is any investment that is significantly more valuable in a particular exchange than in any alternative exchange

What is opportunism?

Week 5: How a firm's capabilities affect boundary decisions Opportunism occurs when a party to an exchange takes unfair advantage of other parties to that exchange

Give a brief overview of transactions cost economics.

Week 5: How a firm's capabilities affect boundary decisions Specifies the conditions under which firms should manage an economic exchange within their organisational boundary as well as the conditions under which it should be outsourced. It considers only the level of transaction-specific investment to determine the size of the threat of opportunism a firm faces and hence, which form of governance is appropriate in managing that exchange. It does not take into account capability considerations.

When do capability considerations affect a firm's boundary decisions?

Week 5: How a firm's capabilities affect boundary decisions When the threat of opportunism to a firm in an exchange is high (likely due to high transaction-specific investment made), but hierarchical approaches to gaining access to capabilities are themselves costly, then capability considerations play a role in boundary decisions i.e. it must be costly for a firm to create these capabilities on its own, or to acquire another firm which already has these capabilities

What are the 10 requirements for capitalising on Analytics 3.0?

Week 6: Analytics 3.0 1. Multiple types of data 2. New set of data management options 3. Faster technologies and methods of analysis 4. Embedded analytics 5. Discovery platform 6. Cross-disciplinary data teams 7. Chief analytics officers 8. Prescriptive analytics 9. Analytics on an industrial scale 10. Experimentation Acronym: PACMEN cdef

What are the three stages of data analytics?

Week 6: Analytics 3.0 Analytics 1.0: before big data, the era of "business intelligence". Data about production processes, sales, customer interactions and more were recorded, aggregated and analyzed. Analysts spent much of their time preparing data for analysis and relatively little time on the analysis itself, offered no explanations of predictions. Descriptive. Analytics 2.0: the era of big data. Data was not generated purely by a firm's internal transaction systems but was externally sourced as well, coming from the internet, sensors of various types, public data initiatives. Was predictive in nature. Analytics 3.0: The era of data-enriched offerings. Begin investing in analytics to support customer-facing products, services and features. Is prescriptive in nature.

Explain the difference between descriptive, predictive and prescriptive use of data analytics.

Week 6: Analytics 3.0 Descriptive: Reports on the past Predictive: Uses models based on past data to predict the future Prescriptive: Uses models to specify optimal behaviors and actions

Big data sometimes will not yield much certainty. It flows continuously and so metrics will inevitably rise and fall over time. Such "--- --- ---", as they have been called, can serve as an early warning system for budding problems.

Week 6: Analytics 3.0 Digital smoke signals

Give a real-life example of Analytics 3.0

Week 6: Analytics 3.0 UPS' ORION Initiative: Pushed analytics out to frontline processes, namely, delivery routing. Most recent source of big data is the telematics sensors in company trucks which track metrics including speed, direction, braking and drivetrain performance. Not only shows daily performance but also informs a major redesign of drivers' routes.

What are the four different levels that learning can take place in a firm?

Week 6: Understanding organisations as learning systems 1. Individual 2. Group 3. Organisational 4. Inter-organisational

What are the three stages of organisational learning process?

Week 6: Understanding organisations as learning systems 1. Knowledge acquisition 2. Knowledge sharing 3. Knowledge utilisation

What are facilitating factors? List them.

Week 6: Understanding organisations as learning systems Facilitating factors are the structures and processes that affect how easy or hard it is for learning to occur and the amount of effective learning that takes place. They are prescriptive factors, are standards based on best practice in dealing with generic issues. 10 facilitating factors: 1. Concern for measurement 2. Operational variety 3. Multiple advocates 4. Experimental mindset 5. Climate of openness 6. Continuous education 7. Performance gap 8. Involved leadership 9. Scanning imperatives 10. Systems perspective Acronym: COME Community Centre PISS

What are learning orientations? List them.

Week 6: Understanding organisations as learning systems Learning orientations are the values and practices that reflect where learning takes place and the nature of what is learned. They are descriptive factors that help us understand the organisation's "learning style" without making value judgments. 7 learning orientations: 1. Knowledge source 2. Product-process focus 3. Documentation mode 4. Dissemination mode 5. Learning focus 6. Value chain focus 7. Skill development focus Acronym: Learning Very Sian DaDdy Kao Pei

Distinguish between single loop and double loop learning.

Week 6: Understanding organisations as learning systems Single loop learning: The repeated attempt at the same problem with no variation of method and without ever questioning the goal Double loop learning: When an individual organisation is able, having attempted to achieve the goal on different occasions, to modify the goal in the light of experience or possibly even reject it Single loop learning wants to do things right and asks "how can we make our work more efficient?" vs double loop learning wants to do the right thing, asks "Is this way of working the most effective way to reach out goals?"

What is organisational learning?

Week 6: Understanding organisations as learning systems The capacity or processes within an organisation to maintain or improve performance based on experience