Sylff Leadership Initiatives Final Report
March 18, 2015
March 18, 2015
March 18, 2015
February 28, 2015
February 26, 2015
By 19643
Mirjam Goudsmit1, a Sylff fellow at the UNSW Australia Business School, used her Sylff Research Abroad award to investigate how organizations are affected by “turbulence,” or radical, unpredictable changes in the business environment. For the empirical phase of her project, she went to Israel, which has a long history of instability, conducting research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and elsewhere. Her research aims to help organizations achieve their business objectives in various turbulent conditions. A summary of her research is presented below.
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At the core of strategic management research is the explanation of performance differences among business organizations. I look at this question from the perspective that organizations are increasingly confronted with turbulence in their competitive contexts. The term turbulence is considered here as radical, unpredictable change in the environment. The situation is unstable, unsettled, and in turmoil. Instead of calm waters, imagine a turbulent sea that is choppy, bumpy, and at times violently rough. Instabilities are irregular. Organizations have to navigate such waters, that is, such competitive situations.
Triggers of turbulence in a business context include technology developments, political issues and conflicts, unsettled regulations, and ubiquity of information.
Overall, these triggers change to different degrees; some changes are radical and transformative in nature—they disrupt the status quo in an environment and have the potential to alter expectations and what is considered valuable. Think of an unexpected and radically new product that profoundly alters the market. Existing products are afterwards considered dated and less valuable, the willingness to pay for those products decreases, and they are eventually perceived as largely useless and are displaced. A familiar case is the introduction of the iPhone with its significant impact on the nature of the mobile phone industry.
In today’s unsettled times, destabilizing forces operate with increased frequency and impact and present significant difficulties for organizations. One important challenge is to effectively make strategy choices—choices that entail courses of action necessary for carrying out long-term organizational objectives. This challenge follows from the increased difficulty of predicting the future and reduced guidance from experience, that is, what worked in the past may no longer work in the future. Strategy choices can help explain performance differences among organizations. Specifically, ineffective choices may result in decreased performance or even threaten and undermine the survival of organizations. Understanding more about effective strategy choices in turbulent contexts, I believe, is therefore important.
In my research, I am curious about strategy choices that organizations make and how different turbulent conditions might influence the effect of these strategies on organizational performance. The empirical project consists of two sequenced and interconnected phases. In Phase One the aim is to explore and understand more about the research topics through interviews, while the aim of Phase Two is to test and provide statistically valid insights through a questionnaire. The first phase is designed to carefully further develop the research and ideas as a foundation for large-scale investigation in the second phase.
In the spring of 2014 I went to Israel for the first empirical research phase. This context represents a long history of instability. My research activity during this time included fieldwork, interviews with organizational decision-makers, and discussions with experts. The visiting institution, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, provided valuable support, such as office facilities and the opportunity to exchange ideas and discuss research with the faculty and graduate community. Findings from this research abroad provided insights into how decision-makers think about turbulence and strategy in the context of Israel. This exploration, based on the interviews I conducted with businesses, has led to several observations and preliminary insights that are being put to the test in the second empirical phase. I will hereafter touch on some interesting insights. First, the findings suggest that turbulence and its consequences are more complex than previously assumed. Between and within organizations, decision-makers were found to recognize changes in their environment to different extents and in different ways. For example, one manager emphasized the importance of commodity prices and the natural environment, while another emphasized the importance of competition. In another example, one manager considered the environment, or an aspect in that environment, as relatively stable and predictable, while another considered it as relatively unstable and unpredictable.
Turbulence is thus not as universal as previously understood, that is, similar across all organizations and for all decision-makers. How dissimilar perspectives matter for strategy choices and their effectiveness need further investigation. Moreover, organizations were found managing simultaneous, sometimes contradictory changes. An illustration of such environmental factors is limited but major regulatory changes occurring at the same time as many, small changes in relevant technology. Organizations therefore have to attend to this complexity and take action that is possibly more systemic—and thereby more multifaceted.
Second, the unique geographical location in which organizations operate is pertinent. There are context-specific aspects of the situation in Israel, such as the sizeable power of labor unions in some sectors that organizations have to negotiate. Also there is a heightened risk of disruptive geopolitical issues with the potential of escalation and extreme consequences, such as hostility and conflict. These possible issues are revealed on the radar of some organizations to varying degrees, but they are indeed exceptional circumstances—infrequent and unforeseeable. As such, these issues resemble forces majeure, which cannot reasonably be known in advance, controlled, and prepared for.
Some organizations are more exposed to this category of issues, such as when facilities are located in areas of contention. When situations arise, organizations can sometimes only react, such as by closing retail stores or moving portable assets, including employees, to another site, with little room for further maneuvering. Often short-term, quick responses emerge when situations occur that are in conflict with long-term (planned) strategies. How to manage the conflict is exposed as a challenge for organizations.
Furthermore, amidst disruption many organizations aim to continue their business as much as possible. Conservative financial planning and contingency planning were found to be prudent strategic approaches for some organizations to continue achieving outcomes in such a situation, such as by reducing risk and preparing for scenarios. An additional observation is that the local country and organization context more frequently extend across borders. The above geopolitical issues are examples of this observation. Another is that many industries and products were found to be fundamentally global in nature so that competition is essentially global.
Organizations were also impacted by rulings from other countries’ regulators, at distant locations. An example is the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act that requires foreign financial institutions to report directly to the US government all clients who are “US persons.” This is a big change that is having a big impact on financial institutions worldwide. Crucially, my findings have uncovered the fact that global issues of turbulence can rapidly become local issues and, conversely, local issues can rapidly become global ones for organizations. Organizations therefore have to navigate this increasingly interconnected world that might call for different strategies.
Finally, the findings suggest numerous different strategy choices for organizations, like the several already mentioned above. Some strategies are specific to a particular industry or organization, while others are more general in nature. For example, several managers indicated that their organizations faced persistent constraints from their environment through unions, interest groups, or regulatory bodies. Organizations differed in their responses to these constraints, however. Some adopted a more reactive approach and largely responded to changes after they occurred. Others adopted a more proactive approach and largely anticipated changes before they occurred. Which type of strategy is more effective under what circumstances needs to be further understood.
In sum, in these increasingly turbulent times, I believe this research is meaningful and relevant for both academics and practitioners. As an important foundation and next step for further research, the findings provide more understanding of the important topics of strategy choices and turbulence. The overriding intent of this project is to support organizations achieve organizational objectives in different turbulent conditions. With this research I aspire to benefit organizations worldwide and, ultimately, contribute to the future prosperity of society at large.
1For supporting this research abroad, my tremendous gratitude goes to the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund, the host institution Hebrew University and its academic community, home institution UNSW Australia and primary academic advisor Dr.George Shinkle, all intermediaries, including the Israel-Australia Chamber of Commerce, and organizations and people who participated in this research for their generous time, efforts, and insights.
February 24, 2015
February 24, 2015
Lindsey Lim, who received a Sylff fellowship in 2014 at Columbia University, visited the Tokyo Foundation in January 2015 to give a presentation on her ongoing project to promote financial inclusion in the Philippines. The session was attended by researchers and program officers of the Tokyo Foundation, as well as specialists for sustainable development, who commented they were impressed with her deep understanding of the needs of the people who are among the most vulnerable in Philippine society and innovative ways to promote their social inclusion.
She is currently directing the Kasambahay Savings Project targeting full-time domestic workers (kasambahay in Filipino) who live in the homes of their employers. They are usually paid in cash, and the minimum monthly wage is about $60. Lim’s project aims to enable these workers to open bank accounts and receive a broader range of financial services. It also examines financial inclusion techniques and policies at the local level.
With the help of a local commercial bank, churches, and governments, she has been successful at persuading about 180 domestic workers to open their first savings accounts, and she is currently monitoring their savings progress.
Her presentation at the Tokyo Foundation was based on those given at the Central Bank of the Philippines and the World Bank office in Manila. She has also appeared on a TV news program, on which she explains her project in a very concise and lucid manner: Wise Investments Wednesday, “Kasambahay Savings Project,” 9TV Philippines (6:47 minutes) .
Lindsey Lim is a dual degree student at Columbia University and the University of Tokyo. Prior to pursuing a master’s degree, she worked for an NGO, the World Bank Group, and Citibank and interned for a member of the British Parliament.
The Tokyo Foundation wishes her the best of luck with her project.
February 24, 2015
February 24, 2015
Conductor Holly Mathieson, a Sylff fellow from New Zealand, is organizing a concert on March 18, 2015, in Berlin, Germany, to launch Horizont Musik-Kollektiv (www.horizontm-k.com), an organization to celebrate the works of New Zealand composers and bring together New Zealand musicians in Europe.
Mathieson earned her PhD in music iconography from Otago University, New Zealand, during which she was supported by a Sylff fellowship.
After receiving her doctorate, she returned to a performing career as a conductor. She now lives in London, where creative artists gather from around the world, working as an assistant conductor to Donald Runnicles at the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. She has had many exciting experiences in her career, including assisting Christoph von Dohnanyi at the concert for Prince of Wales’s birthday at Buckingham Palace in 2013.
The idea of setting up Horizont Musik-Kollektiv, for which she will serve as music director, came from her desire to return something to the European artistic community. Mathieson notes that her artistic life has been greatly enriched through her contact with the traditions, music, and history of Europe, and she hoped to contribute to Europe’s art community through the music of New Zealand.
At the same time, she wished to help New Zealand musicians in Europe to play and network with their European peers. She says, “Throughout history, such creative and intellectual crossroads have been where wonderful things have been born.”
Organizing a concert was not an easy task, however. First, she had to raise funds, and she then struggled to find the right venue and a good group of freelance New Zealand musicians. She also needed to find her own time to focus on the project. Berlin was chosen as the concert venue because it is an important center for creative work in Europe and—she thinks—is a great place to try something new.
The Tokyo Foundation is very happy to learn of her initiatives to create a “musical crossroads” for New Zealand and Europe. We congratulate her and wish her great success with the concert and her new organization.
Visit the following site for details about the concert: http://www.horizontm-k.com/#!projects/cee5
Holly Mathieson received a Sylff fellowship in 2008 while enrolled in a PhD program at Otago University, New Zealand. After graduation, she returned to her performance career as a conductor. Currently she is artistic director of Horizont Musik-Kollektiv and co-director of the Reuleaux Ensemble in London. She has worked in performance or masterclass with the BBCSSO, Philharmonia Orchestra, members of the Berlin Philharmonic, Opera Holland Park, Garsington Opera, Zafraan Ensemble, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Southern Sinfonia, and Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.
February 15, 2015
February 9, 2015