Digital Disruption and the Future of Leadership: An Interview With Rick Haythornthwaite, Chairman of Centrica and MasterCard

© 2016, © The Author(s) 2016. Unprecedented changes in the nature and prevalence of digital technology have significant implications for leadership theory, practice, and development that, as yet, remain largely unexplored in mainstream academic literature. This article features an interview with Rick Haythornthwaite, Chairman of global businesses including Centrica and MasterCard, where he reflects on the ways in which digital disruption is impacting upon the nature of leadership and strategic practice. It is accompanied by a commentary that highlights the importance of factors such as context, trust, ethics, and purpose in a fast moving corporate world

Leadership and Creativity in Public Services: An Interview With Lord Michael Bichard, Chair of the National Audit Office

© The Author(s) 2017. This interview with Lord Michael Bichard, one of the most distinguished public sector leaders in the United Kingdom, explores his ideas around the relationship between leadership, creativity, and innovation. A champion of place-based approaches to public services, where citizens are actively involved in service design, delivery, and appraisal, Bichard advocates the need for inclusive and supportive leadership that enables the emergence of the kinds of creativity required to respond to the financial challenges facing the public sector. Bichard’s ideas resonate with recent research on creative leadership and provide a practical illustration of place-based and systems leadership in the public sector and beyond

Projector self-consistent DFT+U using non-orthogonal generalized Wannier functions

We present a formulation of the density-functional theory + Hubbard model (DFT+U) method that is self-consistent over the choice of Hubbard projectors used to define the correlated subspaces. In order to overcome the arbitrariness in this choice, we propose the use of non-orthogonal generalized Wannier functions (NGWFs) as projectors for the DFT+U correction. We iteratively refine these NGWF projectors and, hence, the DFT+U functional, such that the correlated subspaces are fully self-consistent with the DFT+U ground-state. We discuss the convergence characteristics of this algorithm and compare ground-state properties thus computed with those calculated using hydrogenic projectors. Our approach is implemented within, but not restricted to, a linear-scaling DFT framework, opening the path to DFT+U calculations on systems of unprecedented size.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. This version (v2) matches that accepted for Physical Review B Rapid Communications on 26th July 201

Cloud resource adaptation:A resource based perspective on value creation for corporate growth

Instantaneous access to firms' resources, any-time, any-where dominates contemporary discourse on business systems transformations. The advent of utility computing through cloud based resource development has therefore altered both the perception of IT resources and the expectations of their use in practice. Drawing on the resource based view as a theoretical lens; we examine the nature of unique capacity development in adapting cloud based technologies for corporate growth. Focusing on the experiences of two multinational firms that have recently implemented strategies aimed at integrating and leveraging value from cloud computing, we argue that while cloud computing may improve organizing at systems and operations levels, the development of unique competencies of skills and knowledge acquired through the implementation of cloud is what is likely to lead to the creation and capture of value relevant for competitiveness. Our case evidence suggests that as information management infrastructure gets altered, the cost savings and efficiency gains that result, may lead to sustained corporate growth and stronger external networks. We conclude with some implications for the theory and practice of value creation for corporate growth

The strategic defence review 1998: Politics, power and influence in government decisions

This study explores the UK Strategic Defence Review [SDR] 1997/98 from a strategy process perspective. The review in contrast to previous reviews was intended to be transparent and policy rather than resource led. The paper adopts a case study approach based on interviews with the leading figures involved, and supplemented with reference to Parliamentary documents and information from the Ministry of Defence’s files provided under the Freedom of Information Act.The analysis shows that the review went relatively smoothly but that a number of factors influenced the final strategy; politics (political decisions, the Treasury), power (civil servants and strong stakeholders) and influence (participants in meetings). The intention to return to a foreign policy base line was eschewed in favour of last minute adjustments and compromises. Finally the review process is considered in the light of strategic decision making models drawn from the extant literature

Top managers & information systems: ‘Crossing the Rubicon’!

In reviewing the influence of information systems on today’s organisations, it becomes evident that top managers play a critical role in their inevitable success or failure. Yet, despite these systems strategic relevance many studies reveal a dichotomous relationship between ‘management’ and ‘information systems’, a relationship kept polarised by organisational myths resulting in the emergence of differing community perspectives. Such division is borne out in the increasingly high rates of information systems failure within practice. As strategic stewards of the organisation, top managers are noted to play a vital role in supporting information systems. Support is said to be a multifaceted concept requiring both thought and action. This paper in reviewing the information systems management literature attempts to unravel the mystery that has shrouded this topic over the past five decades. The journey seeks to provide top managers with a roadmap before Crossing the Rubicon to support the introduction of information systems

Internationalization of product-service systems: Global, regional or national strategy?

© 2015 National Research University Higher School of Economics. Highly dynamic market environment, knowledge creation and technology advancement demands that producers/providers need to be more efficient and effective in meeting existing and future consumer needs and expectations. In this regard, companies strive, as deeply as possible, to diversify a range of proposed products as well as strategies for their commercialisation. Using the case of music industry, this paper explores the validity of national, regional or global strategies in the provision of a product service system. The authors surveyed over 70,000 respondents from fifteen geographically spread countries which account for more than 85% of the global revenues of the industry. The analysis of the survey results identified a homogeneous group of so-called Out of Touch consumers characterized by their attitude: they are interested in and have money for, but no-longer purchase music. The authors attempt to ascertain if and how re-engaging the group in music purchase would achieve a significant sales increase. The analysis explores how potential consumers might respond to, or are able to be influenced by, value offerings in fifteen different countries. Findings suggest that firms may employ global strategies for supply of products and services, but regional strategies are required to define the appropriate bundles to re-engage Out of Touch consumers

Servitization as a driver for organizational change

Servitization is the move towards selling traditional product to selling a wide range of product-service bundle combinations. This movement contributes to firm sustainability and profitability and hence the competitiveness of nations. Key points:1.Servitization directly effects firm performance and territorial competitiveness. The special issue includes articles at both levels of analysis.2.The effect of servitization is industry specific and hence insights from a wide range of industries are included here; among them engine production, construction, the music industry and cloud computing3.The reduction of cost and the maximization of revenues are the main drivers of servitization. Contributions provide useful methodological insights into implementation of new service business models

Supercell convergence of charge-transfer energies in pentacene molecular crystals from constrained DFT

Singlet fission (SF) is a multi-exciton generation process that could be harnessed to improve the efficiency of photovoltaic devices. Experimentally, systems derived from the pentacene molecule have been shown to exhibit ultrafast SF with high yields. Charge-transfer (CT) configurations are likely to play an important role as intermediates in the SF process in these systems. In molecular crystals, electrostatic screening effects and band formation can be significant in lowering the energy of CT states, enhancing their potential to effectively participate in SF. In order to simulate these, it desirable to adopt a computational approach which is acceptably accurate, relatively inexpensive, which and scales well to larger systems, thus enabling the study of screening effects. We propose a novel, electrostatically-corrected constrained Density Functional Theory (cDFT) approach as a low-cost solution to the calculation of CT energies in molecular crystals such as pentacene. Here we consider an implementation in the context of the ONETEP linear-scaling DFT code, but our electrostatic correction method is in principle applicable in combination with any constrained DFT implementation, also outside the linear-scaling framework. Our newly developed method allows us to estimate CT energies in the infinite crystal limit, and with these to validate the accuracy of the cluster approximation