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Strategic management
116
Long Range
Planning
Vol. 12
October
minerals and food, but aiso to create new industries where employment is needed and to humanize industrial life where employment is accompanied by excessive hours and etfort. Other speakers emphasized the variety of ‘strategic surprises’ which planners are up against, particularly those employed in western governments and multinational companies. Speakers from Africa, India and the Middle East warned of the need to understand local attitudes and objectives if international investment was to be a success. ‘Don’t take the Middle East for granted’ said Michael Field, shortly before the outbreak of revolution in Iran. And don’t underestimate the consequences of the inevitable (and desirable) flow of high technology and skills from the industrialized countries to the developing world, added Hugh Parker. We have to organize this in such a way as to maintain the industrial strength of the developed countries. Lying behind all this, said Michael Manoury, was the need to choose between a zero growth in world economic activity (in order to delay severe energy shortages) and continued high growth leading to early energy shortage and economic disaster. Faced with such warnings of unpleasant surprises, the conference on its second day was reminded by Bruce Kvle that old methods of planning were no longer adequate if organizations were to avoid stumbling into crises. Professor Bernard Taylor argued that political constraints and opportunities must more and more be taken into account and that politicians and civil servants must not only learn about industry but also learn about planning, because the major problems of the 1980s would have to be tackled jointly by business and government. In addition managers would also have to find a way of involving employees constructively in planning, if managerial planning was not to be undemained. This theme was elaborated by Michael Shanks who urged the importance ofsocial influences on the firm and the need for both social and commercial objectives. He argued that most of the major social changes of the last decade took business by surprise and that a reliable early warning system on social trends was essential if phmning were to be effective. Surprises in store from science and technology, including those resulting from the impact of the silicon chip in computers and automation, were also studied by the Conference, but there was agreement amongst the speakers that technology o&red the best prospects for maintaining employment, and solving pollution problems and so on. The session on scenarios to I990 and beyond was gratifyingly optimistic that governments and business would jointly find a way of solving the types of problems which the Conference had foreseen.
complaints there would be a measure of truth. However such criticism would overlook the fact that what Ansoff is doing is trying to conceptually synthesize a theory of strategic behaviour. His original milestone book of 1965 has been criticized in part because it was an inadequate description of the strategy making process but this again negiects the fact that this work was a pioneering attempt to establish a language and t!reoretic base for the area. In the new book Ansoff has developed his earlier work dramaticaily by addressing the strategic management process for all forms of organizarion both protit seeking and non-profits. He identifies a number of trends in the external environment and notes how it is becoming increasingly turbulent, calling upon organizations to improve their strategic capability to react. However, this is conditioned by intervening variables largely internal to the organization such as its power structure, strategic culture, strategic leadership, resources and managerial and logistic capabilities. The main variables are conceptually developed essentially as a series of continua and their interrelationships explored to develop models of strategic behaviour and organizational capability. The end result is a complex but rich theoretical framework. Undoubtedly the book will come in for criticism along the dimensions noted above but the fact remains that Ansoff has almost certainly once again provided us with many of the semantics of the area of strategic management in the 1980s. His efforts at theory building are a unique contribution and will provide a focus for much research which will seek to modify, clarify and extend the new milestone he has provided. This is a book that should be most carefully read by all serious students of the area of strategic management. DERIX F. CHANNON,Professor of Marketing, school
BOOKS
Manchester
Business (564)
RJXEIVED
Management Controls and Marketing Planning, R. M. S. WILSON,
Heinemann, London (1979). 224 pp. ~5.00 (softback). March 1979. Labour Supply in Economic Development:
Received (570)
The Future of the Large
Market Economies to the Year 2000, F. KNOX, Saxon
Teakfield, Famborough March 1979.
House and (1979), 114 pp. k7.75 (hardback). Received (571)
Indian Journal ofAsian Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1, January-June 1977, Editor S. P. VARMA,Indian Council of Social Science and Research, New Delhi, 155 pp. ammal subscription ~4.00 (softback). Received March 1979. (572) Manrrfacruring and Manugemenr, Edited by M. FORESand I. GLOVER,
Let us hope they are right. L. BLAKE PINNELL, Group Helens
1979
Planning,
Pilkington
Sharegic ~Management, H. I. ANSOFF, Macmillan, 236 pp. Ll2.00 (hardback).
Brothers,
St. (561)
London
(1979),
Igor Ansoffs new book Strategic Management is not designed for bedside reading. It is an extremely complex work which tries to synthesize a complex process namely that of strategic decision making in an increasingly turbulent environment. Any reader who expects instant practical solutions will be greatly disappointed. Most practitioners and academics will probably find the work partially incomprehensible, will attack aspects of the logic, will claim the variables and especially the interrelationships between them are umneasurable and therefore insupportable. In ail of these
Department of Industry Conference, December 1977, HMSO, London, I82 pp. A3.25 (softback). Received March 1979. (573) fi1ana~ement Control, 2nd Edition, S. EILON, Pergamon, Oxford (1979). 207 pp. A6.50 (hardback) and L3.50 (softback). Received March 1979. (574) Croup Accounts-
The Ftrndomental Principles, Form and Conten&
2nd Edition, R. M.WILKINS, 281 pp. L7.95. Chartax
Taxation Guide-The
Accountant’s CTT
(575) Handbook, D. J.
WARD and A. C. J. DONALDSON,264 pp. ,&6.95. Chartux
Taxatiorr Guide-Capital
Transfer
WRIGHT and M. PENNY,222 pp. L6.95. Accountmgfor
Planning,
E. K. (578)
Research and Development, G. W. ECCLESand W. L.
LIFFORD,23 pp. A2.50. &-Grutia
Tax
.
(577)
(580)
Payments and Payments&r Compensation for LOSSoj? O&,
M. B. SQUIRFS,13 pp. L2.00.
(587)
Long Range
Planning
Vol. 12
October
minerals and food, but aiso to create new industries where employment is needed and to humanize industrial life where employment is accompanied by excessive hours and etfort. Other speakers emphasized the variety of ‘strategic surprises’ which planners are up against, particularly those employed in western governments and multinational companies. Speakers from Africa, India and the Middle East warned of the need to understand local attitudes and objectives if international investment was to be a success. ‘Don’t take the Middle East for granted’ said Michael Field, shortly before the outbreak of revolution in Iran. And don’t underestimate the consequences of the inevitable (and desirable) flow of high technology and skills from the industrialized countries to the developing world, added Hugh Parker. We have to organize this in such a way as to maintain the industrial strength of the developed countries. Lying behind all this, said Michael Manoury, was the need to choose between a zero growth in world economic activity (in order to delay severe energy shortages) and continued high growth leading to early energy shortage and economic disaster. Faced with such warnings of unpleasant surprises, the conference on its second day was reminded by Bruce Kvle that old methods of planning were no longer adequate if organizations were to avoid stumbling into crises. Professor Bernard Taylor argued that political constraints and opportunities must more and more be taken into account and that politicians and civil servants must not only learn about industry but also learn about planning, because the major problems of the 1980s would have to be tackled jointly by business and government. In addition managers would also have to find a way of involving employees constructively in planning, if managerial planning was not to be undemained. This theme was elaborated by Michael Shanks who urged the importance ofsocial influences on the firm and the need for both social and commercial objectives. He argued that most of the major social changes of the last decade took business by surprise and that a reliable early warning system on social trends was essential if phmning were to be effective. Surprises in store from science and technology, including those resulting from the impact of the silicon chip in computers and automation, were also studied by the Conference, but there was agreement amongst the speakers that technology o&red the best prospects for maintaining employment, and solving pollution problems and so on. The session on scenarios to I990 and beyond was gratifyingly optimistic that governments and business would jointly find a way of solving the types of problems which the Conference had foreseen.
complaints there would be a measure of truth. However such criticism would overlook the fact that what Ansoff is doing is trying to conceptually synthesize a theory of strategic behaviour. His original milestone book of 1965 has been criticized in part because it was an inadequate description of the strategy making process but this again negiects the fact that this work was a pioneering attempt to establish a language and t!reoretic base for the area. In the new book Ansoff has developed his earlier work dramaticaily by addressing the strategic management process for all forms of organizarion both protit seeking and non-profits. He identifies a number of trends in the external environment and notes how it is becoming increasingly turbulent, calling upon organizations to improve their strategic capability to react. However, this is conditioned by intervening variables largely internal to the organization such as its power structure, strategic culture, strategic leadership, resources and managerial and logistic capabilities. The main variables are conceptually developed essentially as a series of continua and their interrelationships explored to develop models of strategic behaviour and organizational capability. The end result is a complex but rich theoretical framework. Undoubtedly the book will come in for criticism along the dimensions noted above but the fact remains that Ansoff has almost certainly once again provided us with many of the semantics of the area of strategic management in the 1980s. His efforts at theory building are a unique contribution and will provide a focus for much research which will seek to modify, clarify and extend the new milestone he has provided. This is a book that should be most carefully read by all serious students of the area of strategic management. DERIX F. CHANNON,Professor of Marketing, school
BOOKS
Manchester
Business (564)
RJXEIVED
Management Controls and Marketing Planning, R. M. S. WILSON,
Heinemann, London (1979). 224 pp. ~5.00 (softback). March 1979. Labour Supply in Economic Development:
Received (570)
The Future of the Large
Market Economies to the Year 2000, F. KNOX, Saxon
Teakfield, Famborough March 1979.
House and (1979), 114 pp. k7.75 (hardback). Received (571)
Indian Journal ofAsian Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1, January-June 1977, Editor S. P. VARMA,Indian Council of Social Science and Research, New Delhi, 155 pp. ammal subscription ~4.00 (softback). Received March 1979. (572) Manrrfacruring and Manugemenr, Edited by M. FORESand I. GLOVER,
Let us hope they are right. L. BLAKE PINNELL, Group Helens
1979
Planning,
Pilkington
Sharegic ~Management, H. I. ANSOFF, Macmillan, 236 pp. Ll2.00 (hardback).
Brothers,
St. (561)
London
(1979),
Igor Ansoffs new book Strategic Management is not designed for bedside reading. It is an extremely complex work which tries to synthesize a complex process namely that of strategic decision making in an increasingly turbulent environment. Any reader who expects instant practical solutions will be greatly disappointed. Most practitioners and academics will probably find the work partially incomprehensible, will attack aspects of the logic, will claim the variables and especially the interrelationships between them are umneasurable and therefore insupportable. In ail of these
Department of Industry Conference, December 1977, HMSO, London, I82 pp. A3.25 (softback). Received March 1979. (573) fi1ana~ement Control, 2nd Edition, S. EILON, Pergamon, Oxford (1979). 207 pp. A6.50 (hardback) and L3.50 (softback). Received March 1979. (574) Croup Accounts-
The Ftrndomental Principles, Form and Conten&
2nd Edition, R. M.WILKINS, 281 pp. L7.95. Chartax
Taxation Guide-The
Accountant’s CTT
(575) Handbook, D. J.
WARD and A. C. J. DONALDSON,264 pp. ,&6.95. Chartux
Taxatiorr Guide-Capital
Transfer
WRIGHT and M. PENNY,222 pp. L6.95. Accountmgfor
Planning,
E. K. (578)
Research and Development, G. W. ECCLESand W. L.
LIFFORD,23 pp. A2.50. &-Grutia
Tax
.
(577)
(580)
Payments and Payments&r Compensation for LOSSoj? O&,
M. B. SQUIRFS,13 pp. L2.00.
(587)