Strategy For A Networked World

by Rafael Ramirez, Ulf Mannervik

Overview

During the 1980s and 1990s, Richard Normann and his colleagues developed an original approach to strategy, based on seeing value as inherently co-produced in systems. Their 'Value Creating Systems' approach was a strong contrast to the idea of 'competitive advantage' that defined strategy at the time. The approach focuses on the design of the 'offerings' that define relationships among co-producers, and which connect actors in fields which transcend traditional industry borders. In the contemporary networked world, where consumers become co-producers, the ideas Normann and his colleagues developed towards strategy are uniquely effective in explaining and guiding practice.Strategy for a Networked World revisits and further develops these ideas. It is co-authored by two long-standing colleagues of Normann, Rafael Ramírez and Ulf Mannervik, who have successfully applied these ideas to their own consultancy practice. This book provides the theoretical basis for strategies of value co-creation, an accessible methodology and practical guidance, case studies of Facebook and the World Economic Forum, and examples of successful collaborations with organisations such as EDF, Scania, Essity and Shell.Designed to advise strategists and business developers working in uncertain, complex and turbulent contexts, it is suitable both for practitioners and for academics, combining theory and the means to turn it into practice. It will also serve as a valuable contribution to MBA classes and towards the development of more effective business strategies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783269921
Publisher:	Imperial College Press
Publication date:	10/04/2016
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

List of Figures, Boxes, and Tables xi

Foreword xv

1 This Book is for Strategists, and for Those for Whom Strategists Work xv

2 This Book is About How to Do and Think About Strategy in a Networked World xv

3 The Journey of Work and Research that Led to This Book xvi

4 Other Intellectual Traditions Contributing to This Book xvii

5 A Succinct Overview of the Argument in This Book xviii

6 Acknowledgements xxi

Author Biography xxiii

Chapter 1 Introduction to Value Creating Systems 5

1 A Strategy Framework for a Networked World 6

2 How the VCS of Facebook Outperformed Myspace 8

3 How WEF's VCS Engages Leaders in Co-Creating Strategic Agendas 14

4 How this Book is Organised 20

Chapter 2 Why a Socio-Ecological Approach to Strategy 29

1 A Networked World Calls for Systems Thinking in Strategy 30

2 Moving the Strategy Field Beyond the Construct of "Industry" 32

3 The Time Has Come for a Collaborative and Systems-Based Approach to Strategy 37

4 The Last (?) Defenders of the "Value Chain", "Industry", and "Industrial Sectors"' 39

Chapter 3 Reframing the Idea of Value 45

1 Value: Many Aspects Carried by One Term 45

2 Notions of Value Inherited from Industrial Manufacturing 51

3 Post-Industrial Value Creation 53

4 Designing Systems to Create Value 57

5 Co-Created Value 60

6 Some Implications of Co-Created Value 62

Chapter 4 Effective Value Creating System Designs 73

1 The VCS Framework and Approach to Strategy 73

2 VCS Strategy Framework Features 75

3 Features of the VCS Strategy Methodology 80

4 How the VCS Framework is a Distinctive Strategy Approach 84

5 When and Why the VCS Framework and Approach is Timely and Effective 87

Chapter 5 How Offerings Link Co-Creators in Value Creating Systems 93

1 Offerings as Value Co-Creation Relations 94

2 Two Types - Configuring and Supporting Offerings 96

3 Configuring Offerings as the Design of the System of Interactions 101

4 The Design of Dynamic Offerings in the Networked World 103

5 Good Offerings Address Strategic Challenges 106

6 Five Offering Elements 107

7 Offering Evolution 114

Chapter 6 Analysing the Designs of Existing Value Creating Systems 129

1 Using ANT to Explore VCS of Energy Provision to the Bottom Billion 130

2 The Complex Web of Collaborative Relationships in Designing New VCSs 142

3 Some of EDF Electrification VCS Cases 151

4 Concluding Comments 160

Chapter 7 Assessing the Future Contexts a VCS Design Might Inhabit 165

1 Scenario Planning in the VCS Approach to Strategy 166

2 Scenario Planning as Structured but Flexible Inquiry 168

3 Support in Testing or Developing VCS Designs 169

4 The Interactions-Based View of the "Business Idea" 171

5 Using Scenario Planning to Transform the Boundaries between the VCS and its Context 172

6 Using Scenario Planning in Technology and Business Roadmaps 176

Chapter 8 Designing a New Value Creating System 183

1 Normann's Crane as a Design Process for VCSs 185

2 Purposing the VCS Design Initiative and Grounding an Existing VCS 190

3 Upframing the VCS 195

4 Exploring Challenges and Opportunities for the Upframed VCS 199

5 Downframing to Explore the Challenges for the VCS Design 202

6 Defining (or Redesigning) a New VCS 204

Chapter 9 Realising New Value Creating System Innovations 213

1 Letting the Design Vision Guide, but Not Define the Design 214

2 Redirecting Management Attention into VCS Thinking 215

3 Creating Organisational Ownership of VCS Changes 217

4 Step-by-Step Realisation of a New VCS 220

5 Understanding Value Creation as Multiple and Contingent 222

6 Learning as a "Stepping Stones" Process 224

7 Avoiding Value Chain Push Backs 228

Chapter 10 The Growth of VCS Thinking 235

1 A Networked World of Business in a Value Chain World of Management 235

2 The Concept being Replaced (The Value Chain) is Still Considered to be Largely Valid and Useful in Many Places 236

3 The VCS View of Business Has Grown to Have Widespread Importance to Most Businesses Only Over the Last Part of the 20 Year Interval Mentioned Above 237

4 The Conventional "Value Chain"-Based Tools Have Shaped the Minds of Managers, While VCS Tools are in Emergent Stage 239

5 How to Think and Act Differently 243

6 In Conclusion 245

Appendix A Origins of Value Creating Systems 247

A.1 A History of the Thinking of Value as Co-Created 247

A.2 A More Recent History of Value and the Concept of Offerings 248

A.3 Strategy, Marketing and the History of Value Co-Creation Thinking 251

A.4 Historical Roots of the VCS Construct and the Situation Today 255

Appendix B Actor-Network Theory 257

B.1 Introduction 257

B.2 Actor-Network Theory Methods 261

Bibliography 265

Glossary 279

Index 281