(the alternative guru – the author)
Who is Tony Grundy?
The author is a former chartered Accountant, and an MBA and PhD who has researched strategic decision-making, strategic thinking, strategic behaviour and organisation strategy. He has spent much of his career as a management consultant, now in parallel with a senior lecturer role at Cranfield School of Management.
What has he contributed?
The author has made a number of contributions to strategic management, including for example:
• Into the links between strategic decision-making and shareholder value. (Grundy 1992, 1998b, 2002a).
• Into the role of creative and innovative thinking in strategic manage- ment (Grundy 1993, 1994, 2002b).
• Growth drivers – which determine the rate of market growth (Grundy 1994, 2002) – see Figure 10.
• The strategy implementation process (Grundy 1993, 2001).
• The behaviours associated with strategy (Grundy 1998).
• The management of strategic acquisitions (Grundy 1994, 2002).
• The (economic) value of strategic thinking (2002).
• Organisation/HR strategy (Grundy 2003).
FIGURE 10: GROWTH DRIVERS
Linking strategic decision-making and shareholder value: Grundy (1992) looked at why strategic decisions can be hard to put an (economic) value on, and how to deal with the problems of interdependency, intangibles, and uncertainty. Most of these problems dissolved when a number of quali- tative methodologies were used (like Mitroff’s uncertainty-importance grid – see Mitroff).
Grundy (1998b, 2002a) expands these concepts into a more rounded account of the constellation of value-creating activities (the ‘business value system’) and in managing key value and cost drivers which is a more flexible concept.
Grundy also suggested Porter’s value chain (that conventional strategic analysis) is typically limited to defining the problem/opportunity within its current diagnosing definition, rather than challenging the art of the possible. In particular, he put forward the idea of a sixth competitive force, (to complement Michael Porter’s five forces) – of the ‘industry-mind-set’.
The ‘industry mind-set’ is defined as ‘the set of expectations, perceptions Internet
takes off
Ignorance about the future
Press commentary
Dot com hype
Capital gains investors
Growth drivers
Uncertainty
about the future Growth
brakes
He also evolved a more refined version of Mintzberg’s two forms of strategy into five. These comprise (see Figure 11):
• Deliberate strategy.
• Emergent strategy.
• Submergent strategy (escalating commitment to a wobbly strategy).
• Emergency strategy (disparate attempts to turn it around).
• Divergent strategy (sorting the mess out, afterwards).
FIGURE 11: THE STRATEGY MIX
The ‘strategy mix’ is a helpful diagnostic tool which purports the current predominant form of strategy prevalent in an organisation.
The strategy implementation process
Unlike many authors (whose primary interest is in strategic analysis and choice) the author has developed an integrated process to help shape strategic
Deliberate strategy
Emergent strategy Detergent
strategy
Emergency strategy
Submergent strategy
The author’s research into strategic behaviour at BT (or how its managers interact to develop and discuss strategy) also highlighted that:
• Many internal disputes about strategy are due to implicit (and not so well revealed) personal agendas.
• To work well as a strategic team, a very large and complex number of organisational factors need to be aligned.
• Surprisingly the use of analytical techniques can (of itself) dissolve a large proportion of political and inter-personal difficulties.
On a more process-related topic, the author has developed a useful manage- ment process for dealing with strategic acquisitions (Grundy 2002). This process integrating strategic, and financial, and organisational perspectives.
The author’s research into HR/organisational strategy suggests that this should be owned by line management, and not by HR. It also indicates that the analytical processes required for strategy implementation provide effec- tive ways of dealing with less tangible HR/organisational strategy issues.
Finally, the author’s research with Brown (Grundy and Brown 2002b), highlighted that strategic thinking (and more specifically, strategic thoughts) can generate considerable shareholder value. Unfortunately, managers tend not to define the economic value created by them, and this tends to under- mine the strategic thinking capability in many organisations.
What are his links to other gurus?
The author borrows equally from both the ‘design’ and ‘process’ schools of strategy (Porter 1985) and Mintzberg (1994). He is also closely linked in with the literature on shareholder value management (McTaggart et al, etc).
There are also close parallels with the emphasis on innovation from Hamel and Prahalad.
What are his main works?
1 ‘Corporate Strategy and Financial Decisions’, (1992) – the role of strategic investments in strategy formulation.
2 ‘Implementing Strategic Change’, (1992) – tools and processes for managing strategic change.
3 ‘Strategic Learning in Action’, (1993) – using learning to drive strategic thinking.
4 ‘Breakthrough Strategies for Growth’, (1994) – tools and cases for developing breakthrough strategies in Europe.
5 ‘Harnessing Strategic Behaviour’, (1998a) – lessons from research at BT into the impact of management behaviour on strategy.
6 ‘Exploring Strategic Financial Management’, (1998b) – the sister book to Johnson and Scholes ‘Exploring Corporate Strategy’ – linking strategic and financial analysis.
7 ‘Strategic Project Management’, (2002a) – a unique guide to managing projects as mini-strategies.
8 ‘Acquisitions and Mergers’, (2002b) – an exhaustive account of the strategic, financial and other implications of acquisitions.
9 ‘Be Your Own Strategy Consultant – Demystifying Strategic Thinking’, (2002) – an updated and complete account of practical strategic thinking and of its contribution to shareholder value.
10 ‘Growth’, (2002d) – a concise guide to managing growth.
11 ‘Shareholder value’, (2002e) – an overview of content and process issues in managing for shareholder value.
12 ‘Value-Based HR strategy’, Butterworth Heinnemann, (2003 forth- coming) – a complete toolkit for how to manage HR strategy – and for shareholder value.
What are his main concepts?
• The strategy mix;
• the industry mind-set;
• growth drivers;
• the business value system;
• valuing strategic thinking;
• strategic project management;
• breakthroughs;
• the strategic option grid.
Ease of reading– relatively easy.