Living Strategy: Putting People at the Heart of Corporate Purpose

Citation

Wong, M.M.L. (2001), "Living Strategy: Putting People at the Heart of Corporate Purpose", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 39-40. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwl.2001.13.1.39.1

The overriding objective of this book is to provide executives and practitioners with guidance to make people the “greatest asset” in their organizations. The reason for this book given by the author is that:

The new sources of sustainable competitive advantage available to organizations are to have people at the centre – their creativity and talent, their inspirations and hopes, their dreams and excitement.

Procedures are given as to how to create a people‐centred and winning business, and what companies can do to create living strategies that place people at the centre. The “how to create” is presented in the three tenets, and the “what to create” is presented in the six‐step process. A workbook helping managers to carry out the procedures is provided.

The book consists of four parts:

1. (1)

   Introduction;

2. (2)

   The three tenets: the philosophy of the living strategy;

3. (3)

   The six steps to create a living strategy; and

4. (4)

   The living strategy workbook.

In the first part, an overview as to why people are an essential element for organizational success is given. First, the author underlines the financial performance of organizations to putting people at the heart of the corporate purpose.

She cites three case companies: Glaxo Wellcome, Hewlett‐Packard, and Motorola, which have built their successes on the skills and behaviours of groups of talented people. In the discussion, the author puts forward the unique characteristics of people which brings out the three tenets that pose challenges for organizations to develop the competencies or capabilities of acknowledging and nurturing people. The new agenda of putting people at the heart of corporate purpose is summarized in a Figure.

Part II explores the three tenets. The author brings out three unique characteristics of people – that people operate in time, search for meaning and have a soul – which are different from capital and technology and thus these characteristics become the three tenets.

In the first tenet, three core capabilities – visioning, scanning and strategic capabilities – are described as to how companies can build on human perspective on time.

In the second tenet, three core capabilities – diagnostic, systemic and adaptive capabilities – are described as to how companies can build on human perspective on meaning.

In the third tenet, three core capabilities – emotional, trust‐building and psychological contract building – are described as to how companies can engage staff with the soul of the organizations.

In Part III, the author puts forward a six‐step process – building a guiding coalition, imagining the future, understanding current capability and identifying the gap, creating a map of the system, modelling the dynamics of the vision, and bridging into action – which suggests how companies can create a living strategy by putting people at the centre. For each of the six steps, the guiding principles, the tools used in each step, how one can expect to benefit, and what it means for competencies are described.

In the final part, a workbook is provided, summarizing the competencies of managers, and a diagnostic check to help managers see where their company is in the six‐step process.

For practitioners, the book is most useful because it contains a lot of information about current examples and data of various case companies as to how to create a people‐centred and winning business, and what companies can do to create living strategies that place people at the centre. Furthermore, a summary of specific actions is given at the end of each step in Part III. The models offered might provide a helpful instrument for analyzing and implementing the people‐oriented strategies. In addition, all parts are systematically structured, which helps readers to easily identify the points of interest. Finally, the workbook is very useful, as it gives practical implications and guidelines on symptoms and actions.

For researchers, the models for implementing the people‐oriented strategies might be of interest. However, it can be criticized, in that many aspects of the discussion remain on a rather descriptive level. Critical discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the chosen model could have led to further knowledge in the area by suggesting other approaches.

As a whole, it can be said that the objective of the book is reached by the author, as it can assist individual executives and practitioners to maximize opportunities and performance by putting people at the centre of their organizations for business success.