Book Summary Preview : Preventing Strategic Gridlock

The Big Idea
Understand how a leader’s mistaken assumptions can create gridlock and organizational jams. This must-read for business managers provides real-life stories on companies from Mattel to Procter & Gamble, Daimler-Chrysler, to Coca-Cola. Pam Harper proposes six guidelines of organizational reality to UNLOCK your company from Strategic Gridlock, so you can drive it down the road to high-performance.

Whether your company is in e-commerce, going public/private, going through a merger/acquisition, entering a new market, reorganizing, outsourcing, or introducing new technology, all these situations can bring about strategic gridlock.

Part 1

Chapter 1: Strategic Gridlock Alert
Jill Barad resurrected Mattel’s Barbie clothes and accessories from 200 million dollars in 1981 to 1.9 billion in 1997. Mattel’s market share enjoyed a $16 boost to price per share, but the silent gridlock had already begun to permeate the toy company.

Mattel’s acquisitions such as The Pleasant Co., and initiatives to make the company a “global family products company” through acquiring The Learning Company (a software manufacturer) brought the giant tiptoeing into unfamiliar territory. In 1998, revenues started plummeting, and Mattel share price went all the way down to $10. So what happened?

• Executives overlooked or underestimated warning signs: their key customer Toys R Us instituted new buying policies, and did not address this issue.
• Barad’s impatience to move forward, jumping from one strategy to another was another problem. Her urgency was directed towards the wrong initiatives or solutions.
• Over-relying on what should have worked, means missing the gaps in strategy and what is the reality with the stakeholders.

Wisdom in a nutshell:

• Strategic gridlock flourishes in uncertain times. Advances in technology, globalization, communication, and business climate make it difficult for big companies to move.
• Beware of mistaken assumptions about your “organizational reality”.
• Strategic gridlock builds up over time. Mattel’s problems grew over a three-year period.
• Strategic gridlock can be prevented. Leaders must consider the guidelines and principles of organizational reality when thinking and planning their next moves.
• . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

Want to read the rest of this summary? click here >>