Recommending Books for Purchase (Bulletin 7 - January 2018) - Choice Review: Executive Management

As Zenger (Univ. of Utah) asserts, insightful managers of successful companies develop frameworks for recognizing and selecting strategic directions that create sustained growth in value. Selecting, acquiring, and organizing these assets, activities, actions, and resources into complementary bundles provides executives with enhanced visions, road maps for their firms. To compose a succession of value-creating actions that outperform market expectations, executives must have the foresight to predict the future direction of their specific industries, identify the unique and timeless corporate assets that sustain value, and acquire complementary assets to combine with the current mix to create unparalleled value. Zenger details how to create a corporate framework, how to ensure the framework reflects the unique characteristics of a firm, and how to structure the firm that promotes value creation. However, successfully engineering the multi-faceted components of this strategic framework demands sophisticated and highly focused insight—qualities that many executives may not possess and won't attain after a careful reading of this dense work. Therefore, many executives wanting to adopt Zenger’s approach for creating sustained value may very likely need to hire a consultant who clearly articulates Zenger’s approach.

The Scots, never a very optimistic lot, are quite realistic, particularly when it comes to family businesses and generational succession. They go a step further than the American adage "from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations" by proclaiming "the father buys, the son builds, the grandchild sells, and his son begs!" Clearly, the challenges of maintaining a family business across generations cut across cultures. The authors of the current book, academicians and consultants, define a family business champion as a firm that has successfully negotiated at least two successions. By focusing on these champions, the authors lay out a road map for other family businesses. Using the example of Bell-Carter Foods, the largest table olive producer in the US and currently in its fourth generation of family ownership, the authors stress the importance of strategic planning and the maintenance of organizational culture as key ingredients to longevity. The book is also practical in that it has several diagnostic tools for assessment.

Through assembling articles by international interdisciplinary and behavioral science professionals, Mabey (Middlesex Univ., UK) and Mayrhofer (Wirtschaftsuniversität [WU], Austria) explore the efficacy of the academic community in providing business and leadership education from a multicultural perspective. The articles argue that the traditional dogmatic curriculum, emblematic of the emphasis on the economic value and power of business institutions, has been remiss in instilling an ethos of accountability and moral responsibility, as demonstrated by the increasing number of scandals plaguing a widespread number of organizations. The volume is divided into four sections: "How Do Business Schools Prepare Students for Leadership?," "How Robust Are the Theoretical and Moral Assumptions of Business Schools?," "Ethical Leadership: Philosophical and Spiritual Approaches," and "Reclaiming a Moral Voice in Business Schools: Some Pedagogic Examples." The 20 essays, along with their end-of-section commentaries, uniquely challenge the traditional paradigmatic curriculum; they also provide from an insider’s viewpoint profound debate of the status quo and eclectic alternative pedagogies that complement and integrate ethics and moral authority as important attributes of business and leadership education. An important addition to all leadership collections.

In this new edition (1st ed., CH, May'04, 41-5391), Watkins (leadership development consultant) expands coverage to better reflect the contemporary challenges facing today's organizational leaders as they transition into new positions. Based on his study of leadership at major global organizations, Watkins finds that successful leaders must address, immediately at the onset of new assignments, ten challenges or tenets. These include preparing to take charge; planning to learn; diagnosing situations for the right strategy; building productive working relationships; winning early on; instilling new team processes; identifying critical support; and institutionalizing a common framework to accelerate the organization's transition. Like the earlier edition, the book's ten brief, well-written, and straightforward chapters provide a step-by-step plan covering all aspects of adjusting to new responsibilities and organizational cultures, and the demands and challenges to be expected during the first 90 days as transitional leaders. Chapters are supplemented and enhanced with useful case studies, tables summarizing organizational and leadership theories, and a series of introspective questions. A useful addition to leadership studies collections.

Kantola (Univ. of Vaasa, Finland) developed an “evolute approach” to help manage human and technical organizational resources. This approach is based on his doctoral dissertation research and application in organizations. The bulk of the book is based on ontology that supports an agreed-upon vocabulary to exchange information. The approach first involves collecting survey data about organizational members’ perceptions and developing relevant resources that will improve the entire organization. Second, it provides a computer platform to explain the meaning of the data. Third, fuzzy systems, by definition, help cope with the uncertainty and imprecision of the data collected. Finally, management uses the computed conclusions to help make organizational decisions. Some data collected include current and target perceptions of job satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, and stress tolerance. In late chapters, writers from several universities describe applications of the approach. Similar approaches, such as the Balanced Scorecard, Enterprise Resource Planning Systems, and Key Performance Indicators, are mentioned, but the author does not explain why his approach is better.

The critical requirements for an academic subject handbook are a comprehensive review of the historical basis of the subject combined with ample coverage of timely topics. The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Governance hits on all marks. It is an authoritative volume written by a combination of influential authors and rising stars. The scope is remarkable, with 32 chapters providing comprehensive coverage of corporate governance, from its historical origins to cutting-edge research areas. The chapters are arranged topically, each providing a concise overview of historical and recent research in a broad set of academic fields. Coverage of many timely topics, including governance life cycles, board committees, and ownership under private equity, hedge, and sovereign wealth funds, is presented and supported with extensive citations to the most recent research in management, finance, and accounting. Coverage is balanced, with no one theoretical perspective dominating. At 811 pages, with extensive references, this volume is for readers with a serious interest in corporate governance. The topical structure is equally suited to the governance novice and the seasoned scholar alike. A must for any scholar of corporate governance.

Building on insights gained from 25 years of research and consulting on sustainable business practices, Fiksel (Ohio State Univ.) provides a systems approach that will help corporations stay competitive in today’s interconnected economy and stressed global climate. To ensure that business operations perform during crisis and recovery periods, managers must anticipate, prepare for, and respond effectively to marketplace disruptions and natural disasters. This paradigm fosters resilience and sustainability not only among processes within corporations but also across the broader, hyper-connected, ecologically challenged competitive marketplace. Fiksel advises established companies to anticipate change and to recognize and grasp opportunities that threaten the economic, social, and environmental systems on which corporations mutually depend. Strategists and risk managers in firms dependent on natural resources must adopt a new understanding of adaptability and efficiency to redefine and redesign their product and service portfolios. With reference to recent and relevant case studies, Fiksel clearly and convincingly lays out a balanced view of how managers can maximize shareholder value and meet the legitimate interests and demands of global contingencies. This book will be useful for those taking courses concerned with corporate strategy, risk management, management of ecological changes, corporate governance, and ecology and society.

The simple premise of this book by Karlgaard, a successful entrepreneur and publisher of Forbes magazine, is that businesses that are successful in today's challenging global environment must integrate a "soft edge" into their usual "hard edge" business practices. The author identifies five soft edge variables: Trust, Smarts, Teamwork, Taste, and Story. The book is divided into seven chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the soft edge and explains how it, combined with the hard edge and a "strategic base," can create a "triangle of long-term company success"; chapter 2 discusses how the hard edge and soft edge are often made to oppose each other in competition for resources, rather than balance in an approach that secures enduring organizational health. Chapters 3-7, in turn, explain the five soft edge variables and show how their application can help one gain "an organizational edge." The book concludes by offering additional examples that show how the integration of hard edge and soft edge variables can help organizations achieve long-term success and lessen internal conflict. Included are a foreword by Tom Peters (Re-imagine!, CH, Jun.'04, 41-6010) and an afterword by Clayton Christensen (The Innovator's Prescription, CH, Aug.'09, 46-6915; The Innovator's Solution, CH, May'14, 51-5108).