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04.16.09

Newswire: How To Seize the Upside of the Downturn

NewsWire
    FINANCIAL TIMES, April 16, 2009: Donald Sull, professor of management practice in strategic and international management, and faculty director of executive education at London Business School, has written a piece for the Financial Times on why some business leaders do better in troubled waters than others. Below you will find a few key points.
  • How To Seize the Upside of the Downturn
    by Donald Sull, Financial Times

    • In a recession, companies can accelerate organisational change, take share from rivals, acquire resources cheaply and outmanoeuvre rivals.

    • Explore anomalies to identify opportunities. Unexpected events signal a gap between strategy and competitive realities. By exploring anomalies, managers can spot opportunities others miss.

    • Collect “Rush” data – information that is real-time, unfiltered, shared across the organisation and holistic enough to provide a multifaceted view of a complex situation – to spot threats and opportunities.

    • Be agile. Rather than trying to predict an unknowable future, build an organisation capable of seizing unexpected opportunities as they arise.

    • Execute by commitments. At its heart, an organisation is a dynamic network of commitments up and down the chain of command, across units and to external stakeholders. Cultivate and co-ordinate commitments to execute in a systematic way.

    • Use simple rules for a complex world. Rather than match market complexity with complicated strategy, apply a small number of heuristics to critical processes.

    Also, take a look at Five myths about business failure in a downturn on Donald Sull's new blog.
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:02 AM
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