New Managerial Mindsets Organizational Transformation and Strategy Implementation In order to make sense of the new frontier of business, which entails rapid and unpredictable changes, strategic discontinuities, economic uncertainties and hypercompetition, new forms of managerial thinking will be required. The new thinking, or 'managerial mindsets' need to be global in orientation and allow strategic and structural flexibility in an integrated way. A major part of staying ahead in the new business climate will depend on organizations having the capability to create and implement strategic and structural changes that entail continuous technological improvements, particularly in the area of IT. While the importance of IT to business is widely recognized and reported, organizations still have difficulty in harnessing its true potential, namely, the ability to transform industries and markets. Flexible organizational networks that build and share the knowledge of its employees, suppliers, customers and competitors and keep pace with technological advances are the way in which companies with completely new mindsets will stay one step ahead. The editors have selected contributions that address two major themes of this new business environment and the means of managing strategically within it. Part I: Interconnected Thinking: Managerial Mindsets, Information Technology and Organizational Change looks at the shared, interconnected mental framework required throughout a firm's managerial ranks. It is based on sensemaking that represents an intangible structure in the firm. IT supports sensemaking and, thus, managerial mindsets through linkages in a managerial network and the information that flows through this network. IT is particularly important for development and the implementation of strategy and provides a form of structure to organizations. As such, IT and strategy must be aligned. Through the structure and the information that IT provides, comes the need for a firm's strategic flexibility. Managerial mindsets oriented toward change and flexible IT architecture facilitate organizational transformations. Part II: Interconnected Perspectives: Strategies, Competencies and Performance raises the importance of integration between strategy formulation and implementation processes. For example, mission statements can provide useful guides for, not only the formulation, but also the implementation of strategy. Implementation processes are particularly important for successful strategic change. A key element in implementation of strategy and strategic change is the managerial reward system. Managerial compensation affects managerial actions (e.g. to promote resource sharing across business units) and the firm's ability to effect change. Similarly, managerial ownership in a firm is often used to align managers' interests with those of the shareholders. For example, increased managerial ownership stakes in Asian firms may lead to greater product diversification because of the less diversified portfolios of Asian investors. Many other intangibles affect implementation. Founding conditions can also affect resources, routines and competencies in later time periods. Therefore, New Managerial Mindsets: Organizational Transformation and Strategy Implementation addresses critically important topics relevant to firms' success in the changing global competitive landscape.
Michael A. Hitt holds the Paul M. and Rosalie Robertson Chair in Business Administration at Texas A & M University. He received his PhD from the University of Colorado and has been chosen to receive an honorary doctorate from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in recognition of his scholarly contributions in business administration. He has authored or co-authored several books and book chapters and numerous journal articles in such journals as the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal and Academy of Management Review. Furthermore, he has served as Consulting Editor (1988-90) and Editor (1991-93) of the Academy of Management Journal. He is a Past President of the Academy of Management and is a Fellow in that organization. Following Michael Porter (1994) and C.K. Prahalad (1995), he received the 1996 Award for Outstanding Academic Contributions to Competitiveness from the American Society for Competitiveness. Joan E. Ricart i Costa is a full professor in Economics and General Management at IESE. He is Chairman of the General Management Department and Director of the Doctoral Program. At the Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya (1978), he received a doctoral degree in Industrial Engineering in 1982 and was also professor there. From Northwestern University (USA), he received a Master of Sciences (1982) and PhD in Managerial Economics (1984); he is also a Doctor in Economics by the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (1985). In 1992-93 he was Research Fellow at the Harvard Business School. He has published several books and articles in international and national journals. His areas of interest are strategic management, economics of organizations and organizational design, industrial economics and game theory, and information systems. Robert D. Nixon is an assistant professor of Strategic Management at the A.B. Freeman School of Business, Tulane University, where he teaches strategic management, global strategic management, project management and organizational theory at the undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels. Dr Nixon earned his engineering degree from Brigham Young University and his PhD in Strategic Management from Texas A & M University. Dr Nixon's research has been presented at the annual meetings of the Academy of Management, Administrative Sciences Association of Canada, Marketing Science Institute, and Project Management Institute. He has published in the Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Marketing Science Institute and Organizational Dynamics as well as the proceedings of national conferences. His extensive industrial experiences encompass work for international, high-technology firms and the founding and management of more than a dozen entrepreneurial firms.
