eBook - ePub
Developing Holistic Leadership
A Source of Business Innovation
Mitsuru Kodama
This is a test
Share book
- 336 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
Developing Holistic Leadership
A Source of Business Innovation
Mitsuru Kodama
Book details
Book preview
Table of contents
Citations
About This Book
The book intends to make a contribution to new theoretical concepts and knowledge to existing leadership theory. Through in-depth case studies of international corporations that have achieved business innovation, the book aims to provide new leadership theory of practitioners who promote strategic knowledge creation activities to achieve business innovation and new practical insights. The book discusses in detail theoretical concepts and practical knowledge in the leadership interaction among the different management layers (top, middle and lower layers) and among the different layers (formal layer, psychological boundary layer, and informal layer).
Frequently asked questions
How do I cancel my subscription?
Can/how do I download books?
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
What is the difference between the pricing plans?
Both plans give you full access to the library and all of Perlegoâs features. The only differences are the price and subscription period: With the annual plan youâll save around 30% compared to 12 months on the monthly plan.
What is Perlego?
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, weâve got you covered! Learn more here.
Do you support text-to-speech?
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Is Developing Holistic Leadership an online PDF/ePUB?
Yes, you can access Developing Holistic Leadership by Mitsuru Kodama in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Business & Gestione delle risorse umane. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
PART I
STRATEGIC KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF HOLISTIC LEADERSHIP
This part discusses the theoretical framework of the strategic knowledge creation process for realizing business innovation. Bearing in mind reviews of existing corporate management leadership theory, this part presents a theoretical framework of holistic leadership for top and middle management as well as staff for strategically promoting knowledge creation activities in companies in industries with rapidly changing competitive environments.
Chapter 1
Business Innovation Through Strategic Knowledge Creation
Abstract
This chapter discusses the importance of strategic knowledge creation where new business innovation across different technologies and industries forms dynamic business ecosystems through âco-creation and co-evolution.â To accelerate strategic knowledge creation through high-quality global strategic collaboration that intersects departments and industrial sectors internally and externally, the formation of business communities that originate with the formation of âBaâ and the holistic leadership of practitioners at every management level, which also promotes the ongoing growth of business communities are particularly important management elements.
Keywords: Strategic knowledge creation; co-creation; co-evolution; collaboration; business ecosystems; holistic leadership
1.1. New Business Innovation across Different Technologies and Industries
Superior core technologies in areas of cutting-edge technologies in industries such as ICT, energy, cars, electronics, semiconductors, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and material science are dispersed among companies, organizations, and even individuals throughout the world, and innovation in these superior core technologies becomes a fountainhead that generates new products and services. In hi-tech companies until now, the development of products through ongoing innovation in individual technologies was also a strategic goal. In recent years, however, a host of demands has been placed on the manufacturing industry including not only to produce high-function, high-performance products, but also to offer low-priced products and products with extensive line ups and to significantly shorten the product development cycle (e.g., Kodama, 2007a). At the same time, the diversity of customer needs and changes in values has created user needs arising from new product values such as âdisruptive technologyâ (Christensen, 1997).
In world markets where demand from emerging countries is growing, new marketing strategies and creative product strategies are an urgent issue for global companies. Moreover, for the worldâs hi-tech companies, there is a growing need for the development of new products and services based on new technology achieved through the âconvergenceâ of different technologies as an approach to developing new products and services that will differentiate their products from those of other companies. This is because of the many cases where the integration of technology in one field with the technology of another field has resulted in the successful development of new products and services based on novel ideas that had not previously existed. Therefore, there is a growing need for business strategies that provide for convergence, that is, the integration and consolidation of different technologies, the development of products and services that intersect different industries, and the construction of a new business model.
Furthermore, the evolution of ICT has brought about a temporal-spatial contraction in business processes and supply chains in all industries. In addition to enhancing management efficiency and accelerating decision-making, ICT has also spawned a new business model that crisscrosses and integrates different industries. For example, the realization of diverse e-businesses and the creation of new contents (particularly for smartphones and tablet PCs, an area where Google and Apple have had the most impact in the world of ICT) have brought about âbusiness innovationâ not only in technical areas such as the development of ICT, but also in the creation of new markets through the integration of knowledge sourced from diverse players.
In addition, NTT DOCOMOâs i-mode (the worldâs first mobile phone business model and developed in Japan), Sonyâs and Nintendoâs game devices (PlayStation/DS/Wii) and, in recent years, rapidly growing social networking services (SNS) such as Facebook and Twitter as well as various kinds of social games have brought about innovation not only in product development technology, but also in service innovation through new marketing resulting from the creation of new markets (contents, applications, game software). Moreover, these product and service innovations have facilitated co-creation and co-evolution in the ICT industry as a whole by forming dynamic âbusiness ecosystemsâ as a new value chain. Internet business, SNS, and social games, etc. using mobile telephones and smartphones originate in the dynamic construction of business ecosystems developed through co-creation and co-evolution (e.g., Kodama, 2009b).
The convergence of such different technologies and industries is currently progressing at a rapid pace in a wide range of hi-tech areas including smartphones, RFID, smart grids, solar cells, computerization of cars, environmental cars, semiconductors, biotechnology, and life science, among others. Moreover, the sophistication and diversity of such technologies as well as dramatic developments in ICT are transforming into more complex designs of the business models that companies will need to propose.
Amid todayâs vastly changing business environment marked by rapid technological innovations and short product life cycles, mature markets of developed countries and expanding markets of emerging countries, and progress in ICT and the search for new business models, it is essential for companies to explore the development of new technologies and the construction of new business models. Through drivers such as the integration of different technologies and the creation of ICT business across various industries, companies must also pursue business innovation to offer new value to customers. This will require not only the integration and consolidation of different kinds of specialist knowledge within their companies. The integration of different kinds of knowledge possessed by other companies will also be a vital element for companies in achieving this.
The question then is what kind of strategies and actions involving the organization should a company take to generate new products and services and a new business model through âconvergence,â that is, the creation of ICT business that integrates different technologies and intersects industries. In addition, what kind of leadership and management is required to achieve this? There are many issues for hi-tech and global corporations to consider in this regard.
While the contents of strategies of individual industries and corporations will be various and sundry, the key concept for corporate action for adapting to such a world view of convergence (or itself creating one) of this nature lies in new âstrategic knowledge creationâ for promoting knowledge integration globally. Moreover, the corporate or organizational platform that supports strategic knowledge creation originates not only in the formation of business communities that have their roots in the formation of âBaâ (which will be discussed later), but also in leadership which is demonstrated not only by the leaders and managers of a company, but also by all employees at the frontline of the workplace who are involved in knowledge creation activities (in this book such leadership is referred to as âholistic leadershipâ; see Figure 1.1).
Figure 1.1: Business Innovation through Holistic Leadership.
Furthermore, the most important issue in promoting such strategic knowledge creation is not only the need for the integration of diverse knowledge that intersects different organizations and specialist areas within the company, but also the need to create global networks comprising outstanding international partner companies including customers, and to integrate knowledge within the company with superior knowledge in the external environment, where ecosystems of knowledge exist dispersed throughout the world. Here the key word for accelerating such strategic knowledge creation for global knowledge integration within and outside the company is âstrategic collaboration.â
One typical global corporation with an innovation strategy based on strategic collaboration is IBM. Over the years it has aggressively pursued business in diverse areas through various strategic collaborations including collaboration for the development of a cell computer (which will be discussed in detail in Chapter 8) involving the collaboration of IBM (CPU technology), Sony/SCE (Sony Computer Entertainment; gaming and entertainment technology), and Toshiba (imaging technology); strategic collaboration with the Metro Group, Europeâs largest supermarket chain, for the development of a noncash self-checkout system using wireless and RFID technologies where product information is displayed on the screen of the shopping cart; and collaboration with Gifu University Hospital for the integration and visibility of medical information (creation of a database for hospital records and other medical information, and sharing it with diagnosis and treatment departments).
In 2005, IBM withdrew from the personal computer business and concentrated its resources on the software business where returns are high, and transformed itself into a corporation capable of responding to changes in the environment. IBM is advocating its âSmarter Planetâ vision aimed at realizing a more fulfilling world by solving problems human beings encounter through the use of ICT. To achieve this vision, it has been promoting initiatives under the banner of four themes: New Intelligence, Smart Work, Dynamic Infrastructure, and Green & Beyond. Through its Lotus business, it is promoting Smart Work to generate new business concepts and strategic collaboration with other companies. To make its innovation activities more open externally, it also launched âInnovation Jam,â an Internet site for exchanging innovative ideas and where it is promoting global strategic collaboration to achieve innovation within the company and innovative growth.
To accelerate strategic knowledge creation through high-quality global strategic collaboration that intersects departments and industrial sectors internally and externally, the formation of business communities that originate with the formation of âBaâ (which will be discussed later in this chapter) and the holistic leadership (which will be discussed in Chapter 2) of practitioners at every management level, which also promotes the ongoing growth of business communities are particularly important management elements. âBaâ and business communities not only develop knowledge that becomes the core of the company, but also actively search for superior knowledge throughout the world and serve as important âorganizational platformsâ for integrating this knowledge with the core knowledge. Forming and developing such organizational platforms are the roles of holistic leadership that practitioners must possess.
1.2. Why, then, Is the Creation of Strategic Knowledge Important?
Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) state that companies must perceive knowledge as the source of maintaining an enduring competitive edge in an economy where the only thing we know for certain is the existence of uncertainty. With dramatically changing markets, widely diverse technologies, multilayered competition, and products that become obsolete overnight, the company that succeeds will be the one that is capable of endlessly creating new knowledge and disseminating it widely throughout the organization to rapidly realize new technologies and products.
Therefore, it is important for each and every individual to view the organization as various âBaâ for new knowledge creation and âBaâ for business innovation creation through person-to-person interaction, and to continuously create new knowledge on a daily basis through friendly competition. The challenges business innovation companies in the 21st century face are not simply to reduce business costs and efficiently execute operations but also to continuously create new knowledge, which is the fountainhead of corporate competitiveness.
It is already widely known that knowledge of this kind is an important element as the source of corporate competitiveness. Among those experts who have extolled the importance of knowledge is Peter Drucker (1993) who argued that in a new economy, knowledge is not just a traditional element of production that could be placed alongside labor, capital, and property, etc., but that it was the one and only meaningful resource. He also claimed that âknowledge workersâ in a knowledge society were societyâs greatest resource.
This is equivalent to Quinnâs (1992) assertion that a companyâs competitiveness and productivity lay in its knowledge and service capabilities rather than in âhardâ resources of property, plants, and equipment. Furthermore, Bell (1974) claims that the changes that can be expected to occur in a postindustrial society can be summed up in the following three statements: (1) Industrial production will decrease as the ratio of the service industry increases; (2) Knowledge will be the driver of economic growth and improvement in productivity; and (3) Personnel needs for white color workers in particular will increase. Although almost 40 years have passed since above theories were presented, economic growth and employment today are trending according to those predictions.
Commenting on the occurrence of such changes, Burton (1999) argued that the roles of traditional production elements of labor, materials, and financial capital were gradually changing and that in the future concrete resources would be replaced by abstract resources, physical labor by brain labor, and monetary capital by knowledge capital. He went on to assert that knowledge capital as a resource was beginning to assume status at par with financial capital and all other forms of capital. He also indicated that information and knowledge were the drivers of these changes, echoing the same opinion as Drucker, among others.
In these ways, production has dramatically increased since the industrial revolution, changing peopleâs ways of living. The reason ours has become the rich society it is today is due to the business innovation engineered by people. Knowledge has always been necessary for bringing about business innovation. In that sense, knowledge has always had value in business even before it became as highly regarded as an asset as it is today.
The creation of a new business model based on convergence, as mentioned earlier, is also business innovation resulting from knowledge creation. Knowledge creation is both the creation of creative ideas and the creation of innovative ideas. Creative ideas are new ideas, and they are also ideas with value. On the other hand, innovative ideas not only have new value, but also are ideas that are realized (Johansson, 2004). However, whether an idea has new value is ultimately determined by society.
Furthermore, the word âinnovationâ is used in various contexts such as âtechnological innovation,â and the word âtechnologyâ is very broad in meaning, having the connotation not only of technology resulting from R&D activities, but also of methods of transforming ideas into practice in a strategic manner and in a business context includes marketing, development, production methods, sales methods, sales channels, procurement methods, methods of managing organizational change, and the creation of business models. If we consider technological innovation in this way, the essence of strategic knowledge creation means initiating business innovation intentionally (strategically).
In recent years, examples of strategic knowledge creation on a large scale that are worthy of mention are the structural changes that took place in industries such as the computer, electronics, and ICT industries, particularly in the latter half of the 20th century. In the United States, venture companies and large corporations alike introduced not only technological innovation, but also formed dynamic âbusiness ecosystemsâ as new value chains based on co-creation and co-evolution through strategic collaboration. These new industrial structural changes were also the big results of strategic knowledge creation in the sense that they created a new business model in the form of âbusiness ecosystemsâ which had never existed before in business models of the mass production era.
The most notable factor in the strategic achievement of major business innovation in industrial structural changes of the computer, electronics, and ICT industries mentioned in the Column section is the positive orientation of outstanding practitioners toward business innovation in these industries. Setting their sights on business innovation, that is, a desire to bring about new structural changes in their industries, required the two elements of creativity and efficiency. âCreativityâ in this context means the creation of a concept of a new value chain or business model, and âefficiencyâ means the transformation of this concept to a certain operational level where it generates revenue. The most important element in a practitionerâs ability to implement strategic activities that are both creative and efficient is holistic thinking, which is also holistic leadership, and this will be a recurring subject of discussion throughout this book.
Since the latter half of the 20th century, there has been an increasing focus on knowledge, and today in the 21st century knowledge continues to grow in importance and value. The challenge for practitioners, however, lies not in simply recognizing the importance of knowledge but in determining what they should do to strategically incorporate knowledge into their practical activities, and in what kind of strategic approach their companies should take toward knowledge collectively and organizationally.
Moreover, the most important aspect from a practitionerâs point of view is to determine how to strategically and continuously generate knowledge with high-quality value. In other words, priority must be given not to knowledge itself as a result or deliverable per se but to the methods, that is, the processes of creating it. Put another way, the challenge practitioners face is how to strategically (intentionally) achieve business innovation. Change in the work of former white collar workers in the era of mass production was based mainly on work standardization but in recent years the excellence of practitioners with a commitment to business innovation lies in their ability to respond outside of the box, their creativity in coming up with ideas and solutions, and their efficiency in translating practical, strategic management ideas into action. The most vital competency o...