The Hindu Business Line : Purposeful rejuvenation

An Indian who was called `Euro Guru' by The Economist: Sumantra Ghoshal. As a tribute to him, Julian Birkinshaw and Gita Piramal have edited Sumantra Ghoshal on Management, from Pearson (www.pearson-books.com) . The volume is `the first collection of Ghoshal's most influential works' and it begins by recounting his provocative speech in 2003. "Management theories have been highly influential, but in ways that have exacerbated the problem, rather than remedy it," he had argued then. "Business should be a force for good in society, but this potential is being squandered," he had said.

Chapter 1, `Towards a good theory of management', is one of Ghoshal's final papers, and also `one of his most ambitious', before he died in March 2004. Co-written with Peter Moran, the paper insisted that management theories must be `both right and good'. It called for an end to management theories that persist with the myth of the market economy. Instead, "Start afresh by developing alternative theories that acknowledge the reality of the organisational economy," Ghoshal had urged. A series of papers, with Christopher A. Bartlett as co-author, is on managing across borders. "The major industry shakeout of the past twenty years has left only a handful of viable competitors, all roughly equivalent in their potential to capture scale economies and develop responsive strategies."

What is important for such big players? Managing and interpreting information, and using the resulting knowledge and skills on a global basis, said Ghoshal. "A company's worldwide organisational learning capability is fast becoming an essential strategic asset." Within an MNC , the national subsidiaries should be differentiated "in terms of both the complexity of their environmental contexts and their local resource levels," says a paper on `internal differentiation' with Nitin Nohria as the co-author.

Part II of the book focuses on `the individualised corporation'. It begins with the question, "Why are some companies able to remain vital, even after extensive reengineering, while others flounder and fail?" The answer is `people rejuvenation' - with its four characteristics: `discipline, support, trust, and stretch.'

The book is categorical that a self-renewing organisation needs as its foundation "people who are willing to take personal initiative and to cooperate with one another... and who are able to execute relatively routine tasks with the same proficiency as they are willing to learn new skills." The core argument, that was, of The Individualized Corporation by Ghoshal and Bartlett. Part III, `the new management agenda' is aimed at `building social capital and unleashing organisational energy'. The final chapter `Beware the Busy Manager', by Heike Bruch and Ghoshal, unravels the secret of purposefulness through the focus-energy matrix. Too important even for the too busy.

ManageMentor@thehindu.co.in

D. Murali