[1] General

[1] Beyond Default - contemporary approach to strategy by David Trafford & Peter Boggis. An organisation’s default future is where it will end up if no action is taken, other than that currently planned. The book explains a method for organisations to explore then realise a better future through proactive strategic management.  Here is a short video where the authors explain their approach

[2] Strategy necessary for success (BBC, 2018) - what is strategy and why do businesses need it? What distinguishes a good strategy from a bad one? Evan Davis chairs a round table discussion to find out the answers.

[3] Help me stop pandemics (TED talk, 2006!) - how smallpox was eradicated from the planet, and calls for a new global system that can identify and contain pandemics before they spread.

[4] House of strategy - model for sharing / explaining strategy across whole organisation.

[5] Digital Transformation Handbook [2020] - a practical guide for organisations wishing to adopt a structured, agile approach to driving competitive advantage through the use of digital technology.

[6] What is strategy? - a nine-minute animated video answering this important question!

[7] Good strategy, bad strategy [Medium, 2017] - useful synopsis of Richard Rumelt’s book in around 2 pages!

[8] Value Chain Analysis in the Services Industry - short paper drawing on AirBnB as a case study to show how the services industry can benefit from value chain analysis.

[2] Internal and external forces / environments

[1] Exogenous forces - summary of recent round table discussing the importance of understanding the external environment and their impact on strategy.

[2] How information gives you competitive advantage - written by Michael Porter & Victor Millar in 1985 provides the basis for modern strategic thinking and information driven change.

[3] An Interview with Michael E. Porter. - hear it from the man himself! Porter's five competitive forces is the basis for much of modern business strategy. Understand the framework and how to put it into practice.

[4] Porter’s 5 Forces Explained - Hear it from Lars! He talks about Porter's Five Forces and how to use it properly with the aid of some examples from the airline industry. The Five Forces model is a framework that helps assessing the industry attractiveness through the relationship between.

[5] Economics of Mutuality - a joint initiative between SAID (Oxford Business School) and the MARS corporation looking to balance profit with people and planet in determining organisational contribution.

[6] Your Strategic Context is Defined for You, Not by You - insightful explanation of how forces affect an organisation, and some common mistakes leaders can make in dealing with them.

[3] Scenario futures

[1] Living in the futures - HBR article describing the powerful method of considering strategic choices.

[2] Scenarios: an explorer’s guide - Royal Dutch Shell pioneered the use of scenario futures and have been using it for over 40 years. This is their guide as a 98 page PDF.

[4] Storytelling and operating principles

[1] Companies Act 2006 (UK Government, 2006) - the (rather dry) reference text defining the statutory roles and responsibilities of a director in Part 10 (A Company’s Directors)sections 171 to 177.

[2] Director’s general duties under the Companies Act 2006 (icsa, 2020) - useful 19 page synopsis of the companies act from a director viewpoint.

[3] UK Corporate Governance Code (FRC, 2018) - commonly known as the Code - sets out function of board and role of members including but not limited to NED.

[4] Comply or explain (FRC, 2012) - in depth treatment of this concept which is central to the operation of the Code.

[6] Strategic Agility

[1] Explaining strategic agility -12 min video interview where Doz & Kosonen describe the concept and how it enabled Nokia to attain market leadership position.

[2] Nokia’s failure in the mobile phone industry - 10 min video where Prof. Doz uses strategic agility failure to explain the subsequent demise of Nokia.

[3] Strategic Agility and international joint ventures - The willingness - ability paradox of family firms – in this journal of management article the authors combine the two themes of family business and international joint ventures and explore how strategic agility can overcome the emotional gap common in family firms that can inhibit Joint Venture formation.

[4] Strategic Agility: and agenda for executive IT leaders - This California Management Review article focuses on information technology leaders and their evolving strategic role at the forefront of organisations. It describes how these practitioners can build and maintain strategic agility, and it concludes by conceptualising these practices in an agenda and leadership framework.

[5] Why agile mindset matters - Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) are drivers in today’s business world. To perform amid this accelerated change and the digitalization progress, organizations are implementing agility. However, such an implementation does not happen without stumbling blocks and some fail. One reason for this is actors’ agile mindset (AM), which is necessary to deal successfully within a VUCA environmen

[7] Public Sector

[1] Strategic management tools and public sector management the applicability and effectiveness of two well established strategic management tools, value chain and stakeholder analyses, in the context of seven public sector strategic consultancy projects

[2] Applying Strategic Management Theories in Public Sector Organizations  - the utility of two different strategic management theories in different types of public organizations namely Porter’s strategic positioning model and the resource-based view of strategy.

[3] Strategic Management in the Public Sector (book) - Ferlie and Ongaro have written a much-needed book for any scholar or doctoral student studying public and nonprofit strategic management. The book reviews and critiques as the title aptly indicates concepts, schools of thought, and important current issues in the field of public strategic management.

[4] Public Agency External Analysis Using a Modified “Five Forces” Framework - Strategy matters in the public sector as well as in the private sector. Michael Porter's “five competitive forces” is widely used by private-sector firms to analyze the external environment and specific external forces. Can public agency managers use some version of 5 Forces analysis to effectively analyze the external environments of their programs? What modifications are required for public agency use?

[5] People, service and trust: is there a public sector service value chain? - This article reviews the evidence for the existence of a ‘public sector service value chain’, offering a new way of thinking about what Bouckaert and his colleagues have called the micro-performance approach to improving trust and confidence in public institutions.

[6] An Innovative Public Value Chain to Improve Public Services - The paper aims to give a contribution to the debate on the improvement of public services through the development of a model, the Public Value Chain (PVC), which will take into consideration the features typical of the public services sector and its constant evolution.

[7] From Policy to Projects: A Public Service Value-Chain Network Model - South Africa is characterised by an interdependent, three-sphere system of cooperative government. To foster coordination and cooperation in this system requires alignment of government programmes. Chain thinking provides a logical framework to probe the path of transforming policy into institutional strategies, programmes and projects. 

[8] Ansoff Matrix Of The Deep Entrepreneurship In The Public Sector - ideas for applying Ansoff to an organisation that serves its citizen community, rather than making profit.

[9] The Strategic Management Process at the Public Planning Unit Level - academic paper setting out an approach to strategic management for use in public sector organisations.

[10] Unleashing the ‘X-Factor’ in Public Sector Healthcare - practical advice for adapting application of Ansoff and other tools in the public sector.

[11] PESTLE analysis of the NHS - application of the well known external environment analysis tool to the UK health service.

[12] PESTLE in local government leadership - analysis of the factors affecting UK local government.

[13] Applying PESTLE and SWOT in healthcare - showing that PESTLE and SWOT analysis improves procurement choices and public-private partnering, softening governance concerns.

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jpalfreyman@me.com | @JohnP261