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Featured Organization, Strategic Organization Article, A fresh look at strategy under uncertainty

December 2008 

A fresh look at strategy under uncertainty: An interview

Although even the highest levels of uncertainty don’t prevent businesses from analyzing predicaments rationally, says author Hugh Courtney, the financial crisis has shown us the limits of our tools—and minds.

Recent Thinking

The Archive

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

  • November 2004 

    Organizing for effectiveness in the public sector

    Traditional public-sector organizations can be redesigned to perform more successfully—even when market forces are lacking.

  • August 2004 

    Making a market in knowledge

    For companies and their employees alike, knowledge is power—and profit.

  • August 2004 

    Organizing for CRM

    Companies should treat a customer-relationship-management solution as a product or service and its users as internal customers—by making it valuable, pricing appropriately, advertising, and providing after-sales support.

  • July 2004 

    Next-generation CIOs

    To ensure that IT investments have the greatest impact, CIOs must involve business-unit leaders and concentrate on the big picture.

  • May 2004 

    Nonprofits: Ensuring that bigger is better

    The federation structure remains a viable model for nonprofit organizations—if managements transform themselves and affiliates collaborate more closely.

  • March 2004 

    When efficient capital and operations go hand in hand

    Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia’s head of mobile phones and a former CFO, discusses strategic organization, performance measurement, and the value of financial transparency.

2003

  • August 2003 

    Managing for improved corporate performance

    Generating great performance requires a more dynamic approach to building and adapting a company’s capabilities than merely squeezing its operations.

  • August 2003 

    What CEOs really think about IT

    Executives in France are taking a more proactive approach to ensure their IT investments bear fruit.

  • June 2003 

    Knowledge management comes to philanthropy

    Foundations are endowed with intellectual as well as financial capital. Now is the time to use it.

  • June 2003 

    Organization: Helping people pull together

    In even the largest and best-managed companies, hundreds of organizational muddles take place every day. Throughout the economy, they add up to a staggering waste of our national resources.

    Includes: Audio
  • June 2003 

    Organizational lessons for nonprofits

    Teach For America learned the importance of building organizational capacity the hard way.

  • June 2003 

    The value in organization

    CEOs must now be more architect than general: the job is to design working environments where thousands of people know what to do, cooperate to get it done, and experience it as personally fulfilling.

  • June 2003 

    When reorganization works

    Even a corporate revamping inspired by state-of-the-art design principles won’t succeed if not driven by a powerful, well-timed business idea adapted to social realities.

2002

  • December 2002 

    Who's accountable for IT?

    Business leaders—that’s who.

  • June 2002 

    Just-in-time strategy for a turbulent world

    Uncertainty and rising levels of risk make it impossible for companies to determine the future. But a portfolio-of-initiatives approach to strategy can help ensure that companies take full advantage of their best opportunities without taking unnecessary risks.

2001

  • August 2001 

    Beyond the unbundled corporation

    A new business model may forever change the way companies compete.

  • August 2001 

    Making solutions the answer

    Many companies hard-pressed to maintain their margins through products alone are turning to ’solutions.’ But to succeed, they must not only embrace competitors but also often turn away existing customers.