Norbert Greveling - Strategic Managing in Turbulent Times: Learning to Make Your Organization Future-Proof

Not long after my summer vacation, I received the semi-finished manuscript of this text-book. Still somewhat open-minded just after this recess, I communicated to the authors that I was very impressed and was pleased that it had not become a book for wimps, meaning to say that the book contains various innovative concepts which would set you thinking, as a manager, entrepreneur and leader, but also to encourage and enable you to apply these concepts.

In this digital age everyone deals with a massive number of uncertainties and it is said that strategic management is very important for organizations. But who or what helps you realize this? This book does! It clearly shows what the core tasks of leaders are in their quest for the future success of their organizations. It will show you the strategic focus areas which need to be focused on and which tools are needed to apply this. It will also show you which steps you must take, being a secure leader, to complete such a process. This book will describe the journey that you embark on, a journey of discovery that I have not seen described elsewhere.

The book does not only pay attention to Osterwalders well-known Business Model Canvas, but it will go further by embedding this canvas in a broader picture. Several canvases are being conjured up, which will leave the reader in awe. Would this show the right way to arrive at a future-proof organization? It might just do that! I challenge you to read this book, reread it and consider putting into practice what you have learned from it.

It is definitely a textbook in which many aspects are discussed that influence future-proofing. As a reader you hope for syntheses, final conclusions, good introductions, relevant examples, enlightening visualizations and a summarizing overall chart to keep a perspective. I was pleased to see that it was all there. The book is a welcome enrichment in a time of ever-increasing turbulence. Moreover, because of the various exercises, I think it is quite suitable as a workbook for managers, entrepreneurs and leaders.

As dean of Business School Netherlands, I am proud of this result and of the fact that the authors are senior lecturers of Strategic Management at our Business School. With their innovative and refreshing views, they actually support MBA and DBA students and other (future) leaders in tackling challenging strategic management issues.

MARCEL VAN DER HAM, dean of Business School Netherlands

O ver the past decades the professional field of strategic management has produced various interesting models and theories. However, many of them do not fit in well with the strategic issues of todays leaders. That is not so much because of the theories and models themselves, but because of the turbulence which constantly continues to build up. Important and basic assumptions, which used to be the foundations of these theories and models, no longer apply in this day and age. Future-proofing of organizations is becoming less and less self-evident due to technological, social and political developments. There is more reason than ever to manage strategically! But how?

In this book we will outline a contemporary paradigm for strategic management with new theories. Such as: how you can look at organizations and think about future successes, about the core leadership tasks and about an approach to the strategic management process itself. We are not trying to improve the professional field itself, but hope to guide and inspire leaders with whom we work every day and who we regularly witness struggling with strategic issues. By starting from the idea, that there is nothing as practical as a good theory, we want to provide guidance to leaders by means of this new paradigm, which we worked out in three parts. But first, in this introductory chapter, we will look at the development of the strategic management field in recent decades, the turbulence faced by leaders and the need for a new paradigm.