Corporation on a Tightrope : Balancing Leadership, Governance, and Technology in an Age of Complexity

Business is no longer business as usual. The global market is in constant flux, as some nations come together, other fall apart, trading blocs emerge, and formerly closed doors reopen. At home, leadership roles and organizational structure have seen a sea change, with the vertically integrated, tightly knit organization seemingly headed for oblivion. And the changes keep happening faster and faster. For a firm to succeed in this highly complex environment, executives need a better understanding of the deep philosophic and extensive physical adaptations needed to reshape and prepare their company for an uncertain future. To provide this deeper understanding, John G. Sifonis, a business consultant, and Beverly Goldberg, a think tank executive, who together have decades of hands-on experience, visited dozens of companies, conducted numerous interviews, and then traveled to the Sante Fe Institute, to discuss their conclusions about practical applications of complexity theory to business. The result of their study is Corporation on a Tightrope , a brilliant blend of complexity theory and hard-earned business sense, that will help executives lead their organizations into the highly uncertain future. Sifonis and Goldberg show that the flexible organization of the future will be a complex adaptive system that responds to the effects of market-driven changes on its three critical components—governance, technology, and leadership. It will be an organization capable of self-renewal, constantly reshaping itself to seize opportunities as they emerge and quickly shrink when the market changes yet again. To help executives create this flexible firm, the authors provide seven practical tools, principles that when carefully put in place create a solid foundation for the future—an organization must set unwavering ethical standards; establish a social contract; maintain a lean organization based on core competencies; develop leadership skills at every level; be open to learning, encourage experimentation, and be innovative; avoid restructuring when it should be regoverning; and ensure connectivity. The authors illustrate each of these principles with fascinating examples taken from actual corporations, such as the ethical dilemma faced by Levi's, whose move overseas brought up the problem of lost American jobs and foreign child labor; the innovative arrangement between insurance company Allmerica Financial and DST Systems, a developer of automated business solutions; and the leadership of executives such as Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines, who projects enthusiasm and friendliness to the media, and has his workforce reflect the same image. Readers will find other instructive anecdotes on companies such as Boeing, Texas Instruments, Shell, and Intel. Spiced with pithy quotations from prominent executives and business experts such as Peter Drucker, Edward Filene, Charles Handy, and Sam Walton, plus top people at Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, and other major corporations, this is a sweeping, visionary book that will transform the way business leaders take their companies into the future. Library Journal The corporate shape of the future is the butterfly, with its flexible complexity and quick-changing nature. To be successful, companies must engage in continual change in the areas of governance, technology, and leadership. Sifonis and Goldberg (Dynamic Planning: The Art of Managing Beyond Tomorrow, LJ 4/15/94) include seven principles of balance to help companies position themselves between stability and disorder. These include setting ethical standards, establishing a social contract with workers, and being open to learning and innovation. Organizational change is a popular topic among business writers (e.g., Fast Forward, LJ 3/15/96, edited by James Champy and Nitin Nohria); what makes this work unique is its emphasis on business ethics and continual worker training for all employees, whether temporary or permanent. Recommended for public and academic libraries.-Kathy Shimpock-Vieweg, Muchmore & Wallwork Lib., Phoenix Corporation on a Tightrope starts from the premise that there is no easy road to corporate success in an age of complexity. Enterprises that are determined to succeed must abandon hope of finding simple solutions in a world in which markets are global, hierarchies are disappearing in the face of advances in technology and the spread of computer networks, and information has become the most important natural resource. Instead of unworkable quick fixes, John G. Sifonis and Beverly Goldberg offer the reader advice based on more than forty years of study and hands-on experience with organizations of every kind. They look back at the history of the corporation and look ahead to the new science of complexity, presenting readers with the information needed to ensure that their organizations can do more than survive in the midst of the uncertainty that surrounds them. Their goal is to help thoughtful leaders create an enterprise that is flexible enough to maintain its balance on the tightrope between order (which can result in stagnation) and chaos (which may result in an inability to function). In that realm are found opportunities for growth without the kind of needless expansion that will cause turmoil when the world once again changes. The flexible organization of the future is a complex adaptive system that responds to the effects of market-driven changes on its three critical components - governance, technology, and leadership. It is an organization capable of self-renewal, constantly reshaping itself to seize opportunities as they emerge and quickly shrink when the market changes yet again. CONTENTS......Page 14 PREFACE......Page 8 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 12 CHAPTER 1 No Silver Bullet, No Quick Fix......Page 18 PART I: THE SHAPE OF THE FUTURE......Page 36 CHAPTER 2 Order Out of Complexity......Page 38 CHAPTER 3 Navigating the Four C's—Complexity, Concurrency, Coherence, and Connectivity......Page 52 PART II: GOVERNANCE IN ITS MANY FORMS......Page 70 CHAPTER 4 Creating a Pattern of Trust......Page 72 CHAPTER 5 Enhancing the Role of the Board......Page 92 CHAPTER 6 Understanding and Aligning Governance Models......Page 111 PART III: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY COMES OF AGE......Page 132 CHAPTER 7 The Art of Accommodation......Page 134 CHAPTER 8 The Changing Role of the CIO......Page 152 PART IV: LEADERSHIP FOR THE NEW AGE......Page 176 CHAPTER 9 Building Multilevel Leadership......Page 178 CHAPTER 10 Constructing the New Organization......Page 202 CHAPTER 11 The Good Leader......Page 226 CHAPTER 12 The Seven Principles of Balance......Page 252 EPILOGUE: A Contract for the Future......Page 276 NOTES......Page 286 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 304 B......Page 312 C......Page 314 D......Page 316 E......Page 317 F......Page 318 H......Page 319 I......Page 320 L......Page 321 M......Page 322 N......Page 323 P......Page 324 Q......Page 325 S......Page 326 T......Page 328 U......Page 329 Z......Page 330 Modern business firms face a complex array of problems that result from rapid changes in their competitive environment, and the exponential growth of new technologies. This book recognizes that reality and finds answers to these problems in the new science of complexity. The authors show how small changes in leadership, governance, and technology can have enormous consequences in an organization. They also argue that there is no quick fix to organizational problems - that no one solution will work for all firms. Posing seven principles for organizational success, the authors explain how their ideas apply to a range of business challenges, including ethical conduct, management systems, new organizational forms, networks that are changing the way work gets done, the impact of new technologies, and the kinds of leaders who will be required to manage the new organizations.