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Managing Across Borders by Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal (Harvard Business School Press)
A decade ago HBS professor Christopher A. Bartlett and London Business School professor Sumantra Ghoshal proposed a revolutionary new organizational model and management approach in their first edition of Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution. This highly acclaimed, landmark work introduced a framework that would help companies achieve global-scale efficiency, respond flexibly to national market differences, and cultivate worldwide learning capabilities.
The concepts that Bartlett and Ghoshal presented in their earlier work have become realities for today's global business firm. As deregulation, privatization, and information technology are transforming competition, the transnational model continues to evolve. In their second edition of Managing Across Borders, the longtime collaborators not only update their findings but also translate their earlier strategies into action to compose a complete picture of the issues, problems, and opportunities encountered in implementing a transnational strategy. Bartlett and Ghoshal build on the data they gathered from nine companies in the consumer electronics, branded packaged goods, and telecommunications industries. They describe how the transnational model has taken shape over the past decade and address management issues that have arisen as the model has become more prevalent.
"In today's environment, our original concept is no longer an idealized model," commented Bartlett in a recent interview. "It is the corporate form that companies around the world are building and managing in an ongoing routine fashion." The revised work features a new chapter, "Developing Transnational Managers: New Roles and Tasks," which looks at the roles of three management groups: worldwide business managers, country or regional managers, and worldwide functional managers. A second new chapter, "Managing the Transformation Process," outlines the structural and process changes and the behavioral norms and cultural values required of a transnational organization.
Finally, the authors have put their research into practice in this new edition and created an "Application Handbook." This workbook of questions, exercises, tools, and frameworks helps managers reexamine their current international and competitive strategies and implement the book's concepts and models in their own organizations.
Competing on Internet Time by David B. Yoffie and Michael A. Cusumano (Free Press)
Last fall, a new book coauthored by HBS professor David B. Yoffie and MIT Sloan School professor Michael A. Cusumano made headline news. Competing on Internet Time: Lessons from Netscape and Its Battle with Microsoft has been a focal point in the landmark antitrust suit brought by the Department of Justice against Microsoft. At issue in the case is whether Microsoft used unfair and illegal tactics to dominate the software industry, especially against Netscape, as the two companies vied for leadership in the Internet-browser software market during the mid-1990s.
Based on extensive interviews with key officers and employees of Netscape - including founder Marc Andreessen and president and CEO Jim Barksdale - as well as dozens of other industry leaders, Competing on Internet Time details the strategies, policies, and products that contributed to Netscape's breathtaking growth and success. The book further reveals, through candid quotations and thoughtful analysis, the missteps and misconceptions that made Netscape increasingly vulnerable in its battle with Microsoft. (It is these interviews that Microsoft's attorneys contend show the real reasons behind Netscape's failure to secure dominance on the Internet.) Describing what they term Netscape's "judo strategy," Yoffie and Cusumano show how this David tried to use speed, flexibility, and leverage to topple the Goliath Microsoft. Yet the drama unfolding in court - not to mention the announcement, as this issue of the Bulletin goes to press, that America Online Inc. plans to acquire Netscape in an industry-shaking $4 billion deal - indicate the volatile nature of this fascinating industry.
"Beyond understanding the competitive battle between Netscape and Microsoft," notes Yoffie, "the book tries to offer general lessons about how entrepreneurs can build a large organization at the extraordinary pace of 'Internet time,' how any company can use 'judo strategy' to defeat a larger, potentially stronger competitor, and how managers should design and develop software for the Internet." Competing on Internet Time draws on the triumphs and failures of today's leading players to help those involved in this dynamic sector find ways to succeed.
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