Making Strategy and Organization Compatible

This book argues that for many companies organisation is designed to achieve operational optimization and may be in conflict with strategic objectives. Managers may not share similar decision criteria and this may facilitate or hinder the fulfilment of certain strategies. The role of top managers is to shape to a large extent the ability of the organisational system to implement and achieve strategic objectives. This book provides breakthrough thinking on these issues by two leading academic thinkers.

'This important book is a required reading for those who want to understand and master the complexity of the 21st century enterprise. It offers a new perspective, based on sound theories, of what good management is and of what managers should do in their complex environment. Autonomization, cross-fertilization, risk-taking, networking, improvisation and sense-making are the new motto of the complex enterprise that Michaud and Thoenig present in their groundbreaking new work. A must read for business leaders and scholars.' - Professor Raymond-Alain Thiétart, University of Paris-Dauphine and Esse;, Fellow of the Academy of Management; President of the International Association of Strategic Management; Former Senior Editor of 'Organization Science'

'Michaud and Thoenig offer a landmark book. No recipes, no ready-made kits, no over-simplified message. It underlines that the function of the executive has also to be that of a cognitive architect. The book shows with real life cases how those companies that make a difference are like sophisticated machines, and that it is today's complexity, never stable and always evolving, which is the main driver of performance...Read this book! Because you'll see your competitors - and your own company - in a new light.' - Henri Lagarde, Chairman and CEO, Royal Canin

'A refreshing book which forces the reader to re-think strategy by interrogating the problems and paradoxes which emerge when strategy meets organization.The analysis is well-grounded in the Social Sciences, yet remains an invaluable input for those who practice strategy in organizations.' - Professor David C. Wilson, Warwick Business School, UK; Editor of 'Organization Studies'

'This book covers key issues any executive faces. How to make a company succeed in the short term without being the prisoner of ready-made recipes? How to build common identities in today's companies? How to build organizational and cognitive excellence as competitive assets? A book I consider as a major event in modern management.' - Igor Landau, Chairman of the Management Board, Aventis

CLAUDE MICHAUD is Professor of Economics at INSEAD, and Director General of CEDEP at Fontainebleau, France. He is a leading expert in designing management programmes for executive education. He and Jean-Claude Thoenig cover issues such as how companies may sustain development in hyper-competitive economies, and how headquarters as well as their CEOs should govern firms that are structured around business units.

JEAN-CLAUDE THOENIG is Professor of Sociology of Organizations and former dean at INSEAD, Fontainebleau. He is also Senior Research Fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (GAPP-Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan), France. He is a co-founder and the first chairperson of EGOS, the European Group for Organizational Studies, and has long term consulting relationships with multinational companies.