Search results for ""author frederick betz""

Leadership and strategy are intricately connected--one of the primary responsibilities of leaders is to formulate strategy. In an organization, only the leader has the power to implement strategic change. Thus strategic thinking is a necessary and fundamental cognitive ability of a leader. Strategic thinking requires both an idealism (to imagine a better world) and a realism (to acquire the resources, skills and organization to get there). However, most organizations focus on short-term thinking for their employees and leave long-term strategy to the executives. But no high-level executive in any organization is fully knowledgeable about the details of operations. Thus for realistic strategy, there is a need for good top-down and bottom-up communication. When organizational communication is only top-down, high-level strategy can become only wishful thinking by the CEO. The purpose of proper strategic thinking is to eliminate wishful-thinking from organizational strategy. Strategic thinking is necessary at every level of an organization, not just at the top. This book uses actual histories of business successes and failures to illustrate theoretical concepts in strategic thinking.

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Written by the author who helped crystalize the field of technology management and the management of innovation with the first two editions of Managing Technological Innovation, this Third Edition brings the subject in line with current business strategy. It also presents information in a newer organized format that aligns more closely with how the topics are presented and discussed in the classroom. Also included is a wider discussion of how science and technology interact with the global economy.

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Strategy needs to be partly idealistic and partly realistic. On the one hand, it exists to help managers and executives envision the most beneficial future possible-one that is optimally competitive and profitable. But such visualizing needs to go hand-in-hand with concrete planning. In order to formulate a strategy that will really work, organizations need to master the technique of modelling in order to plan what can properly be called strategic business model, a model that both depicts the operations of a business and that provides the analytical basis for examining and formulating the plan for the future operations of a firm. Here leading expert Frederick Betz reviews the strategic modelling technique and applies it to diverse kinds of businesses, both productive and financial, and including banks and hedge funds. He illustrates the possibilities of this technique-and the pitfalls of using it incorrectly-by applying it to real business cases, some successful and some problematic. As strategic business models are important to understand the transformative operations of an enterprise system for present and future competitiveness, Betz's exploration into both manufacturing and financial firms, along with retailing firms and conglomerates, broadens the business literature. Strategic Business Models: Idealism and Realism in Strategy is essential reading for managers and strategists wishing to optimize the effectiveness of their strategic planning.

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