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Competitive manufacturing
Technovation,
14(9) (1994) 625-628
Book reviews
The Strategic
Toolkit
by John Marsh. 1993, 118 pp., 7, f29.95.
Competitive
ISBN I-85907-002-
Manufacturing
by Rory L. Chase fed.). Second edition, I01 pp., ISBN I-85907-005-1, f22.95. Both published by IPS International Business Park, Kempston, Bedford UK.
1994,
Ltd, Wolseley MK42 7PW,
One of the weaknesses of the field of innovation studies is that there is plenty of analysis and prescription, but relatively little support for the hardest task of all - implementation. For the practising manager, detailed analysis and generic, research-based guidelines are interesting but may not help much in actually working out what to do next. This is, for example, the problem with many studies of success and failure in innovation; the results are useful general prescriptions about the sorts of thing to do or to avoid, but there is much less known about how to convert that information to useful firm-specific routines and behaviours. Recognition of this gap, and increasing pressure from research funding agencies for the inclusion of practical ‘deliverables’ as part of the research output, have led to the publication of an increasing number of workbooks and management guides. Of course, there is still a danger in blindly following such do-it-yourself solutions to complex problems, but the better versions of such workbooks can be
Technovation
Volume
14 No 9
powerful aids to the development of management capability in innovation management. IFS has been one of the more active players in this field, organizing conferences and other activities as well as publishing workbooks and ‘support resources. These two books are good examples of a genre which, whilst never making it to either the popular market or airport bookstalls or the academic library shelves, may in fact have a greater impact on the way industry actually goes about managing innovation. Competitive Manufacturing is a good case in point. Derived from research work at Cambridge University, this offers a robust model for formulating a manufacturing strategy (though it is appropriate for any form of process innovation strategy and would be of interest in service operations as well). I must declare a slight interest here; I have used the model extensively in work with firms in developing countries and am a convert to its simple and practical ideas. However, the book is designed to be a guide, rather than the guide, and there is plenty of scope for modifying and adapting the proposed method. The fact that this book is now in its second edition offers some additional testimony to its usefulness; my only query here is that it isn’t immediately clear what (if anything) has been changed from the first edition. The same is true for The Strategic Toolkit. Well laid out and presented, it offers a simple and readable introduction to some useful tools for supporting the various stages of strategic planning. It covers similar ground to Competitive Manufucturing, offering a methodology for strategic planning;
0166-4972/94/US$O7.00
0
1994 Elsevier
Science Ltd
625
Book reviews
its particular strengths are in the easy-to-read style and the extensive set of worked examples for each stage. The quality toolkit is a critical resource, given the widespread current interest in the field. The author has extensive experience in the field and draws upon this to illustrate the use of the tools with a variety of useful examples. The problem with this book, however, it that the field of strategy is somewhat overpopulated every MBA student gets a hefty dose of Porter, Johnson and Scholes and others, all offering similar structured methodologies and a set of tools. The result is that the field is fragmenting, with less emphasis on a general strategy process and more on how to develop specific applications - e.g. in the area of technology strategy or, as Competitive Manufacturing illustrates, manufacturing strategy. A second concern is with implementation. As we know, most strategy in real organizations is more an emergent process or an after-the-fact rationalizion than a formal and planned activity; consequently, the main information gap is around implementation and how to cope with the problems which emerge. Some input on this would strengthen the book. Overall, these books add little to our stock of knowledge, but instead package up existing knowledge in relevant, readable and useful form. They are highly recommended to practising managers. John Bessant CENTRIM University of Brighton, UK
The Rise and Fall of Strategic
Planning
by Henry Mintzberg. Prentice Hall, New York, 1994, 458 pp., ISBN O-13-781824-6, 09.95.
When talking to a colleague, I mentioned that I was doing a review of Mintzberg’s new book. “Oh, isn’t he still considered to be a bit radical? What is his new book like?” was the reply. That took me back a bit because the accuracy and seriousness of Mintzberg’s scholarship can hardly be doubted. I could only blurt out that “It is very
626
good. Go out and buy it; you must read it for yourself. ” In political. economic and academic terms, the United States of America is ten times the size of Canada. As Bronfman Professor of Management at McGill University in Canada, Henry Mintzberg has long been something of a thorn in the side of this much larger American political and academic establishment. Mintzberg [l (pp. 116120)] was opposed to the Americans in the Vietnam War and to Robert McNamara’s strategic planning use of PPBS (Planning-Programming-Budgeting System) : “
. . . the assumption that the System-the ‘machinery’ [PPBS]-did the job, the belief that budgeting somehow got done in linkage with strategy, the implied separation between formulation and implementation. Indeed, the latter distinction stood at the heart of PPBS, as it does in the design school model. McNamara was depicted as sitting back in his office and making these complex decisions after being briefed, much as he did years earlier as a student in the case study classes of the Harvard Business School. . . . The System, the machinery, McNamara and his whiz kids, were leading America to its most humiliating military debacle ever.” [l (p. 119)]
That Mintzberg was right about the problems with American politics and strategic planning almost thirty years ago, as he is today, could largely be the explanation for his being branded as something of a radical by the North American political and academic establishment. Lest Mintzberg be seen as simply being anti-American and the American establishment getting its own back, it should be noted that he is equally critical of the ‘Facade’, the French government’s use of strategic planning models [l (pp.115-116)]. By and large, in most of his book, Mintzberg looks at the failings of strategic planning by large businesses in Canada and the United States, and at the underlying design school model. Mintzberg [2] has previously examined the design school approach to strategic management with its
Technovation
Volume
14 No 9
14(9) (1994) 625-628
Book reviews
The Strategic
Toolkit
by John Marsh. 1993, 118 pp., 7, f29.95.
Competitive
ISBN I-85907-002-
Manufacturing
by Rory L. Chase fed.). Second edition, I01 pp., ISBN I-85907-005-1, f22.95. Both published by IPS International Business Park, Kempston, Bedford UK.
1994,
Ltd, Wolseley MK42 7PW,
One of the weaknesses of the field of innovation studies is that there is plenty of analysis and prescription, but relatively little support for the hardest task of all - implementation. For the practising manager, detailed analysis and generic, research-based guidelines are interesting but may not help much in actually working out what to do next. This is, for example, the problem with many studies of success and failure in innovation; the results are useful general prescriptions about the sorts of thing to do or to avoid, but there is much less known about how to convert that information to useful firm-specific routines and behaviours. Recognition of this gap, and increasing pressure from research funding agencies for the inclusion of practical ‘deliverables’ as part of the research output, have led to the publication of an increasing number of workbooks and management guides. Of course, there is still a danger in blindly following such do-it-yourself solutions to complex problems, but the better versions of such workbooks can be
Technovation
Volume
14 No 9
powerful aids to the development of management capability in innovation management. IFS has been one of the more active players in this field, organizing conferences and other activities as well as publishing workbooks and ‘support resources. These two books are good examples of a genre which, whilst never making it to either the popular market or airport bookstalls or the academic library shelves, may in fact have a greater impact on the way industry actually goes about managing innovation. Competitive Manufacturing is a good case in point. Derived from research work at Cambridge University, this offers a robust model for formulating a manufacturing strategy (though it is appropriate for any form of process innovation strategy and would be of interest in service operations as well). I must declare a slight interest here; I have used the model extensively in work with firms in developing countries and am a convert to its simple and practical ideas. However, the book is designed to be a guide, rather than the guide, and there is plenty of scope for modifying and adapting the proposed method. The fact that this book is now in its second edition offers some additional testimony to its usefulness; my only query here is that it isn’t immediately clear what (if anything) has been changed from the first edition. The same is true for The Strategic Toolkit. Well laid out and presented, it offers a simple and readable introduction to some useful tools for supporting the various stages of strategic planning. It covers similar ground to Competitive Manufucturing, offering a methodology for strategic planning;
0166-4972/94/US$O7.00
0
1994 Elsevier
Science Ltd
625
Book reviews
its particular strengths are in the easy-to-read style and the extensive set of worked examples for each stage. The quality toolkit is a critical resource, given the widespread current interest in the field. The author has extensive experience in the field and draws upon this to illustrate the use of the tools with a variety of useful examples. The problem with this book, however, it that the field of strategy is somewhat overpopulated every MBA student gets a hefty dose of Porter, Johnson and Scholes and others, all offering similar structured methodologies and a set of tools. The result is that the field is fragmenting, with less emphasis on a general strategy process and more on how to develop specific applications - e.g. in the area of technology strategy or, as Competitive Manufacturing illustrates, manufacturing strategy. A second concern is with implementation. As we know, most strategy in real organizations is more an emergent process or an after-the-fact rationalizion than a formal and planned activity; consequently, the main information gap is around implementation and how to cope with the problems which emerge. Some input on this would strengthen the book. Overall, these books add little to our stock of knowledge, but instead package up existing knowledge in relevant, readable and useful form. They are highly recommended to practising managers. John Bessant CENTRIM University of Brighton, UK
The Rise and Fall of Strategic
Planning
by Henry Mintzberg. Prentice Hall, New York, 1994, 458 pp., ISBN O-13-781824-6, 09.95.
When talking to a colleague, I mentioned that I was doing a review of Mintzberg’s new book. “Oh, isn’t he still considered to be a bit radical? What is his new book like?” was the reply. That took me back a bit because the accuracy and seriousness of Mintzberg’s scholarship can hardly be doubted. I could only blurt out that “It is very
626
good. Go out and buy it; you must read it for yourself. ” In political. economic and academic terms, the United States of America is ten times the size of Canada. As Bronfman Professor of Management at McGill University in Canada, Henry Mintzberg has long been something of a thorn in the side of this much larger American political and academic establishment. Mintzberg [l (pp. 116120)] was opposed to the Americans in the Vietnam War and to Robert McNamara’s strategic planning use of PPBS (Planning-Programming-Budgeting System) : “
. . . the assumption that the System-the ‘machinery’ [PPBS]-did the job, the belief that budgeting somehow got done in linkage with strategy, the implied separation between formulation and implementation. Indeed, the latter distinction stood at the heart of PPBS, as it does in the design school model. McNamara was depicted as sitting back in his office and making these complex decisions after being briefed, much as he did years earlier as a student in the case study classes of the Harvard Business School. . . . The System, the machinery, McNamara and his whiz kids, were leading America to its most humiliating military debacle ever.” [l (p. 119)]
That Mintzberg was right about the problems with American politics and strategic planning almost thirty years ago, as he is today, could largely be the explanation for his being branded as something of a radical by the North American political and academic establishment. Lest Mintzberg be seen as simply being anti-American and the American establishment getting its own back, it should be noted that he is equally critical of the ‘Facade’, the French government’s use of strategic planning models [l (pp.115-116)]. By and large, in most of his book, Mintzberg looks at the failings of strategic planning by large businesses in Canada and the United States, and at the underlying design school model. Mintzberg [2] has previously examined the design school approach to strategic management with its
Technovation
Volume
14 No 9