Reading the initial chapters of David Teece’s “Dynamic capabilities and strategic management”, I can’t help getting the feeling that the author has got something slightly wrong. I know my credibility in case weighs lightly against the words of the distinguished professor Teece, but let me explain what I feel is wrong with his reasoning. First, […]
More and more people download their music on the internet, and record stores are having a hard time. How come I’ve never heard anyone talk about on–demand CD production in the stores? The rapid decline in the number of record stores was discussed in a program on Swedish Radio P2 a couple of hours ago. […]
I’ve written about how process flexibility and small batch sizes improve production flow in steel industries in a couple of earlier posts (here and here). In this post I’ll discuss how the economical consequences of flexible rolling mill technology can be studied using a conceptual process cost model. The figure below illustrates a conceptual cost model […]
Like an ancient general, a born leader from a noble family, the strategist screens the site for the upcoming battle from a nearby hill. Decides on what resources are needed, and where they should be applied. Directions are given to the officers. Reinforcements are called in from a nearby friendly town if available. The battle […]
The concept of capabilities in strategic management is appealing because it suggests that a company’s competitiveness depends on how it does what it does, not only what market it is in. To me and most others with an engineering background this is totally obvious. Any theory that suggests otherwise seems highly implausible and is also […]
This post is an edited excerpt from my thesis “Strategic and operational capabilities in steel production”. You can download a full PDF here. Capabilities that follow from flexibility on the machine level become more important when a steel plant is producing a wide product range and production volumes are low for each variant. Setup costs […]
I read this interview with famous strategy professor Richard Rumelt [D. Lovallo and L. Mendonca, “Strategy’s strategist: An interview with Richard Rumelt”, The McKinsey Quarterly, nr.4, pp.56–67, 2007]. Rumelt thinks that some of the biggest changes in the strategy field over the last 20 years or so have been in the process of generating business […]
For the moment I’m concerned with industrial innovation processes. Why are they necessary? What types of innovation processes exist in an industrial production company? What’s the link between innovation and competitiveness? And how is innovation linked to related fields like organisational learning and dynamic capabilities? A couple of days ago I received a copy of […]
In a previous post I touched upon the sandcone model, which may provide a powerful metaphor and model that link the process of strategy to content. I’ll now try to relate the sandcone model to idea that inventory is like a river where dangers lurk under the surface: “As the level gets lower, boulders appear.” […]
I’m intrigued by the so-called “sand cone model” which was proposed by Ferdows and de Meyer (1990). The idea was that companies should develop their capabilities in a certain order in order to become competitive. Ferdows and de Meyer suggested that all companies must start with quality. The picture illustrates that when you develop your […]
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