Winning Strategies in a Deconstructing World

The end of the nineteenth century saw the construction of the vertically integrated value chains that came to define modern business. The end of the twentieth century witnessed their deconstruction. In industries across the economy, markets are intruding on the web of proprietary arrangements that have held these chains together. As they do, the boundaries defining business, companies and industries are coming under attack - radically transforming the nature of competition. Powerful forces, such as globalization and deregulation, are undermining the logic and practice of traditional vertical integration, but the most powerful - partly because it acts as catalyst and an accelerator - is a revolution in the economics of information. This shift in information economics is giving birth to a myriad of new strategic options

The consequences of deconstruction for the strategic management of the firm - as well as for the firm itself - are dramatic. Deconstruction forces a fundamental rethinking of some of the basic principles of strategy which will impact on the concepts of the portfolio, forms of organizational structure, styles of leadership, mechanisms for acquiring and managing knowledge and approaches to uncertainty and risk.

This, the latest volume in the Strategic Management Series, explores the implications of the value chain deconstruction for strategy, the changes in strategic thinking and the action necessary to cope with the challenges and opportunities. Bringing together contributions from key figures in the field of strategy in both practice and academia, this book, as with other books in the series, addresses the ideas and issues at the forefront of strategic management theory and practice.

About the Editors

Rudi K. F. Bresser is currently Professor of Management at the Free University of Berlin, Germany. Previously he held a number of teaching posts in the US and Europe, including that of Associate Professor of Management, Baruch College, The City University of New York and Visiting Professor to the Stern School of Business, New York University, University of South Florida and Université de Paris. He received his PhD from Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt/Main, and has since published widely in the area of strategic management and organizational theory. His latest book Strategische Management theorie was published by W. de Gruyter in 1998.

Michael A. Hitt is currently Professor and Weatherup/Overby Chair in Executive Leadership at Arizona State University. He previously held 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 received an honnorary doctorate from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in recognition of his scholarly constributions in business administration. He has authored and 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 (1991-1993) 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 recceived the 1996 Award for Outstanding Academic Contributions to Competitiveness from the American Society for Competitiveness.

Robert D. Nixon is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at the A.B. Freeman School of Business, Tulane University. He earned his engineering degree from Brigham Young University and his PhD in Strategic Management from Texas A&M University. Dr Nixon presents at a wide range of meetings and 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.

Dieter Heuskel (Senior Vice President) studied economics at Bonn University, where he also received his PhD. From 1976 to 1979 he was a consultant for public and private development projects in West Africa.

From 1980 to 1982 he worked in BCG’s Munich office and has since played a prominent part in the expansion of the Düsseldorf office, where he was the managing partner from 1992 to 1997. Since 1997 he has been member of BCG’s worldwide Executive Committee and head of the German and Austrian Management Team.

His client work has focused on strategy and corporate development in a wide range of industries, including consumer goods, steel, telecommunications, oil and energy. He has dedicated particular attention to issues surrounding the development of multi-business corportions, and has worked on a variety of such projects in Germay. Since 1995 he as chaired BCG’s strategy practice initiative.