The Exceptional Manager : Making the Difference

How do businesses go beyond the prescriptive policies and make the shift from the "low road" of cost to the "high road" of innovation and value? This ground-breaking book, the combined insight of some of the best minds in management, presents a clear analysis of the context and the challenges and offers managers and consultants a range of ideas that could take their companies well beyond "business as usual." Most businesses face the choice of either competing on the 'low road' of cost, or the 'high road' of innovation and value. Much the same goes for national economies and the UK is no exception. But how do businesses - and the people who manage them - go beyond the policy prescription and the easy exhortation to make that shift, to manage change and go well beyond business as usual? This ground-breaking book - the combined insight of some of the best minds in management, grouped together in the Advanced Institute of Management Research - does just that. It presents a clear and crisp analysis of the context and the challenge; and offers managers a range of ideas on how to develop the competences, practices and values that can make a difference. It is essential reading for policy makers, analysts, academics, and managers to be who want to make a different future Making a difference : the exceptional manager National competitiveness and institutions Corporate performance, business strategy, and the challenge of strategic transformation Managing employment relations Managing innovation beyond the steady state The challenge of measuring performance in innovative firms Promising practices : challenges in identifying, adopting, and adapting successful managerial practices Organizational learning, knowledge, and dynamic capabilities Intelligent decisionmaking Creating high performance by cooperating across boundaries Overcoming busyness First steps for the exceptional manager. Making a difference Building on the national context Transforming strategy Managing employment relations Innovating beyond the steady state Measuring performance in innovative firms Adopting promising practices Learning in organizations Making intelligent decisions Cooperating across boundaries Overcoming busyness Taking the first steps. IN the 1970S, the UK was known as the 'sick man of Europe'.