The New Corporate Facts of Life

The New Corporate Facts of Life, Rethink Your Business to Transform Today’s Challenges into Tomorrow’s Profits, by Diana Rivenburgh,  Amacom 2014

What new management models do we now have to replace Michael Porter, Management-by-Objectives, hard-core strategic planning and tightly managed hierarchies based on command and control?  Because we know that these once-ground breaking approaches have fallen out of favor.  The answer is not all “Big Data and dashboards,” because we know there must be some human methodologies behind the glitz. 

Author Diana Rivenburgh attempts to provide the insight inside the tornado of change, all linked to these seven facts at the core of catalytic change:

1.     Disruptive innovation

2.    Economic instability

3.    Societal upheaval

4.    Stakeholder power

5.    Environmental degradation

6.    Globalization

7.    Population shifts.

Using data culled from top corporate thinkers and doers from Coca-Cola, to Levi Strauss, USP and Georgia Tech, she shows how change can still be upsetting and uncertain, but also simply part of the landscape. 

What each of the author’s highlighted corporate examples shared was a strong corporate culture, the engagement energy that allowed workers to see and move with their team’s mission.  In fact, Chapter 5, “Build a Unique and Vibrant Culture,” highlights the simple range of possibilities in a chart that could be used as an organizational assessment.  Take a long look at your corporate culture, and see if you can gauge where it, or the major moving parts of it, sit, going from:

Old School Cultures                         to                                Major Facts of Life Cultures

Focus primarily on shareholders                                     Strive for success of all stakeholders

Inhabit our own island                                                       Operate as part of an ecosystem

Protect functional silos                                                       Collaborate across boundaries

Etc.

Of course, not all of these new culture characteristics are to be found habiting a Brave New World stripped of any Old School Culture artifacts – even forward thinking Google has been knocked for having narrow vision in some critical areas – hardware, for instance – but the reader will get the gist of the big cultural shift.

The Mill Girl’s Verdict:  fascinating foray into whatever replaces the tried-and-true traditional strategy beliefs – a fun stretch.