Understanding strategic business issues for executives II

Citation

Holtzman, Y. (2014), "Understanding strategic business issues for executives II", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 33 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-11-2013-0137

Understanding strategic business issues for executives II

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Journal of Management Development, Volume 33, Issue 1.

The papers in this special issue of the Journal of Management Development (JMD) discuss a variety of business and managerial topics that are extremely relevant in today's business environment. The common theme of all of these is that they all relate to current challenges and opportunities that corporations and executives face each and every day. In this volume some excellent perspective is shared by leaders in the various business disciplines. In their paper, “Marketing and the marketing executive,” Dr Montana, Dr Petit, and Tara McKenna identify the challenges and marketing executive development needs of the future as revealed in surveys of senior marketing executives, chief marketing officers (CMOs), and CEOs of major corporations in the USA and globally.

The marketing executive is the new key figure in industry so stated an article in News Front magazine which emphasized the importance of finding and training the right people for the marketing team. It stated “You must develop marketing executives who can and will carry the marketing program to a successful and profitable conclusion.” This article was written almost 50 years ago and was also cited as the first sentence in Montana's book: The Marketing Executive of the Future (Montana, 1967, p. 15).

Today the need is even more critical as the unemployment rate rises and the need for marketing talent with the knowledge and skill needs to develop and implement new market opportunities intensifies domestically and globally.

According to the IBM Global CMO 2011 study entitled “From Stretched to Strengthened: Insights from the Global Chief Marketing Officer Study,” today's customers can shop around the globe, find out more than ever before about organizations they’re dealing with, and share their views with hundreds of thousands, if not millions of fellow customers. Their expectations, be they consumers, citizens or business customers, are soaring, and they can make or break brands overnight.

Enter the CMO. A relatively new academic position, these marketers manage schools’ identities and messaging, a role covering everything from admissions brochures and twitter feeds to brand management ((The) Wall Street Journal, 2012, p. B10).

In his paper, “A strategy of innovation through the development of a portfolio of innovation capabilities,” Yair Holtzman, examines a new way to gain a competitive advantage in the world of research and development and new innovation development. Traditionally, the business world has always been focussed on developing sustainable competitive advantage. This is optimal, but we find more and more situations where this notion of building a sustainable competitive advantage is no longer possible. In 2013 it is rare for a company to maintain a truly lasting advantage. Many times, the very success of the initiative drives competition, which in turn weakens the advantage. Innovation as a portfolio of capabilities that can continuously morph based on the traditional forces of the market can prove much more powerful. This paper will discuss what is needed in developing a strategy for developing a portfolio of capabilities and the challenges that companies face in undertaking this goal.

Innovation is very much a capability in its own right. For an organization to be innovative, all aspects of a capability must be considered and must be fine tuned. The greater an organization's capability to successfully and continuously develop innovation capabilities the greater the benefit the organization will obtain from such efforts. Most companies/departments/individuals consider innovation to be an “event.” Companies or departments within organizations will hold brainstorming sessions or hold contests to generate new ideas. If a good idea surfaces, there is some value added to the organization. In some instances, such as the invention of post-it notes by 3M, a tremendous amount of value. However, there is generally a huge amount of transformation between the idea generated in an event and its realization. As companies’ capabilities of generating a portfolio of innovation capabilities matures, a great innovation is more than just an idea and becomes part of a process. That is, the organization has a structure in place to define problems, generate and evaluate ideas, and develop action plans to implement those ideas. The result is a valuable deliverable solution based on either client or organizational problems. However, the problem with both of these approaches is that innovation is reactive not proactive and discrete rather than continuous. Innovation that is driven by a portfolio of capabilities creates exponential value. Organizations that have developed a culture of continuous innovation are able to develop a portfolio of innovation capabilities and as a result continuously and sometimes radically improve their products, processes, and the competitive landscape of their organization as a whole.

In their paper, “The importance of transfer pricing,” Nagel and Holtzman provide a very useful introductory paper into this specialty field. Transfer pricing is a term used to describe inter-company pricing arrangements relating to transactions between related business entities. These can include transfers of intellectual property, tangible goods, services, and loans or other financing transactions.

Why is transfer pricing important? The potential for US federal business tax reform and the rigorous pursuit of transfer pricing adjustments by foreign countries are among the top global tax concerns facing senior US tax professionals. As the global economy expands into every corner of the world, many national fiscal authorities are seeking more effective ways to protect their tax bases.

This has translated into increased challenges for multinational organizations. From detailed transfer pricing regulations to strict documentation requirements, sophisticated audit practices to significant penalties for noncompliance, global companies are looking for advice in dealing with the increased regulation and higher scrutiny:

He that can have patience can have what he will (Franklin, 1736).

In their paper entitled, “Taking time for patience in organizations,” Dr Debbie Comer and Dr Leslie Sekerka, discuss the old adage that patience is a virtue conveys a deep respect for this capability. Yet, our society, which rarely frowns upon egoistic behavior and instead exalts the “self as a locus of rights and entitlements” (Baumeister and Exline, 1999, p. 1187; see also Scales, 2010), has low regard for patience. Today’s high-octane workplace, where the demand for immediacy is pervasive, particularly undervalues this virtue. The conventional thinking seems to be that patience delays goal achievement and that the patient person forfeits the competitive edge. People who live by the winner-take-all mindset (Callahan, 2004; Frank and Cook, 1995) may consider it unwise, if not absurd, to pause in consideration of someone else’s needs. Whereas patience once signaled strength of character and garnered admiration, it now “seems perilously close to a kind of weakness, and any excess provokes pity or contempt” (Callan, 1993, p. 523; see also Kipnis et al., 1976). Patience may mark someone as a sucker, chump, or doormat.

We argue, however, that patience can contribute to organizational performance. After defining patience and exploring it from a variety of perspectives, we consider the benefits patience confers. Then, we focus on the emotional underpinnings of patience and examine how emotional self-regulation can enhance patience in the workplace. The paper concludes with recommendations for practice.

Definition and perspectives

Patient individuals are less likely to respond angrily to delays, provocations, or other difficult circumstances. A person who behaves with patience demonstrates an ability to cope well with trying or otherwise unpleasant circumstances, including those created by others, for a protracted period. The English word patience comes from the Latin patientia, for suffering, endurance, and forbearance (Oxford English Dictionary, 2010). The Hebrew word for patience, savlanut, also means tolerance. Words from the same root signify suffering and endurance (Morinis, 2007).

The world’s core religions feature patience as a virtue and as a valuable capacity for dealing with life’s daily hassles and larger challenges. Indeed, McCullough and Carter (2011) assert that religion evolved to meet the demands of sedentary agrarian communities for delayed gratification and tolerance of others’ needs, and Carter et al. (2012) argue that individuals raised in religious families or otherwise exposed to religious influences learn that patience reaps rewards. The three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) see patience as a characteristic of God and as an important quality for humans to emulate. Eastern religious traditions (including Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism) emphasize purposefully taking time out to meditate (for further discussion of religious perspectives on patience, see Harned, 1997; Morinis, 2007; Rudd, 2008; Schnitker and Emmons, 2007).

Lastly, in his paper, “Dream, visions and values in fundamental business education,” Tom McManus explores the concept of a pedagogy of aspiration – a focus on dreams, visions, and values in fundamental business education. The paper focusses on issues of motivation and creativity in a global and multi-cultural milieu. Business education is often viewed as fundamentally about rational and analytical thinking, but creativity and innovation are also central. Due to information technology and globalization, they may be even more fundamental to business success than ever before. Both educators and managers can benefit from thinking about creativity and innovation in this context, since both are responding to the same business trends, and developing the same people.

We hope you enjoy this special issue of JMD.

Yair Holtzman, CPA, MBA, MS, CGMA
Managing Director, and R&D Tax Credits Practice Leader, Global Chemicals and Life Sciences Practice Leader Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP, New York, New York, USA.

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