Mindset-driven strategic change and executional agility in Solar A/S

This paper explores the practical and theoretical avenues for working with mindset as a strategic lever and method of securing business strategy executional agility. Taking the mindset development aspirations of Solar A/S as point of departure, the building up of a collective mindset conducive to strategy execution is explored as a method of securing implementation of business strategy. Reflecting the strategic priorities and internationalization process of the case study organization, the concept of global mindset is activated as an avenue of exploration (Chatterjee, 2005; Levy et al., 2007; Dekker et al; 2005; Bowen & Inkpen, 2009; Gupta & Govindarajan, 2002). A global mindset is the cognitive ability (of managers) to be open towards and navigating, integrating and mediating between multiple cultural and strategic realities on both global and local levels mirroring the Solar notion of group mindset supporting business strategy. It is argued that a knowledge gap exist with regards to creation and change of mindset in connection with strategy execution. Concepts of organizational learning are put forward as a possible point of entrance to mindset change. The paper is informed by the exploratory data from the initial phase of an ongoing industrial Ph.D.- project in Solar A/S with the working title “A mindset for strategy execution -mindset-driven leadership development and strategic performance.

Competencies for doing research in/with(in), for and in-between organizations

This paper addresses the research practice of practicable research by drawing a map of methodological in-roads to doing research with a view to bridging the practitioner-research gap and producing what has been termed as ‘actionable research’ by engaging closely with practitioners in the research process. The map includes three territories and methodological in-roads for doing research in close collaboration with practitioners with a view to mutual value creation and co-construction: Doing research, in/with(in), for and in-between organizations. The methodological reflections in the map are illustrated and discussed against the backdrop of a concrete instance of academia-practitioner collaboration, the industrial Ph.D. research project of Group Mindset-Development in Solar A/S. The industrial Ph.D. researcher is seen as a front-runner vis-a-vis a political climate of increasing demands from governments to universities with regards to the ability of research groups to demonstrate co-operation with external stakeholder groups and an illustration of the privileges and pitfalls of doing research in close engagement with practice called for by the increasing academic interest for actionable research. Using empirical data from an on-going practitioner-academia research project, a literature review and inputs from a professional development workshop organized by the author at the British Academy Management’s annual meeting 20121, a position for doing research in/with(in), for and in-between practice is carved out. Based on the challenges and potential pitfalls inherent in this research position, researcher competencies for successfully handling the research management of the in-between and bridging the academia-practitioner gap in research practice are discussed. Further, competency requirements of both academia and practice as main stakeholders in an industrial Ph.D. project or other projects with the ambition to create value in both camps simultaneously are debated based on the methodological map presented

Boundary-crossing Leadership Cooperation in the MNC The Case of ‘Group Mindset’ in Solar A/S

This dissertation deals with global mindset leadership understood as border- and boundary-crossing leadership within the multinational corporation by exploring the concept of global mindset as both an individual managerial meta-competence, as well as a strategic organizational capability. The research project presented explores the practical and theoretical avenues for working with global mindset as a strategic lever and method of securing business strategy executional agility, which is explored in the context of a single-case study organization, Solar - an internationalizing medium-sized MNC seeking to work in practice with global mindset leadership development and enactment as a strategy execution facilitator. Internationalizing corporations often experience the liability of foreignness when moving into new markets, and in effect suffer a globalization penalty vis-à-vis local competition in different markets. At the same time, they are pushed to consider the potential non-transferability of domestic competitive advantages and business models, when moving into new territory and may have to make adjustments to cater to different customer preferences and other local specificities in a variety of markets simultaneously. Further, international and global collaboration is more complex than local collaboration and as a consequence, corporations need to be better at collaborating in order to receive the same effect compared to domestic operations alone. This is due to the fact that culturally and strategically employees and managers at all hierarchical levels understand each other less, while language barriers may at the same time place a strain on communication and collaboration. Transaction costs rise as corporations move from high-context collaboration with low psychic distance in a domestic setting or between relatively similar groupings, where many things are shared and taken for granted and thus need not be explicated to a low-context communication setting where little or no common ground can be taken for granted. This dissertation argues the case that leadership with a global mindset is relevant for companies and organizations that make strategic use of global mindset as a driver for global business strategy. As such global mindset is seen as strategic global mindset in that the rationale for developing global mindset is as a facilitator of business strategy. The context of the individual company is an indicator for what global mindset means in the particular company, and for who can benefit from it. Global mindset is not seen as generic, but highly contextual when looking at the practical implementation of the concept empirically. The aim of working with global mindset, then, is the optimization of global mindset in relation to the context, the managerial role and the business strategy, not an end in itself

Håndtering af ledelsesparadokser og dilemmaer i praksis

Denne bog er det endelige resultat af projektet ”Ledelses-GPS til en ny tid: fra komfortzone til konkurrencekraft”. Projektet er udført af Copenhagen Business School i tæt samarbejde med Aalborg Universitet og Syddansk Universitet. I løbet af de sidste to år har 55 erhvervsledere, forskere fra tre forskellige universiteter samt repræsentanter for interessere- organisationer bidraget med ny viden og ekspertise om ledelse og kompetenceudvikling i danske virksomheder samt håndtering af aktuelle ledelsesdilemmaer- og paradokser. Projektet er støttet af Industriens Fond med 2,1 mio. kr. Som led i Fondens temaindkaldelse om nye ledelsesprincipper i januar 2017 efterspurgtes projektideer til, hvordan erhvervsledere kan navigere med de nye muligheder, men også udfordringer, som den globaliserede verden bringer. Fonden har i den forbindelse støttet syv projekter, som alle har bidraget med kompetencer og ny viden til, hvordan kvaliteten af ledelse i dansk erhvervsliv kan styrkes. Dette projekts udgangspunkt er, at en af de største ledelsesudfordringer i moderne virksomheder er at håndtere uundgåelige, komplekse dilemmaer og paradokser i virksomheden. Dilemmaer og paradokser, der indebærer at løsningen af ét problem forværrer eller komplicerer håndteringen af andre. Ledelse handler derfor ikke om at træffe en beslutning én gang for alle, men om at navigere mellem modsatrettede hensyn, som man ikke kan prioritere sig ud af. Man må gå balancegang mellem dem som menneske, leder, medarbejder og virksomhed. Ligesom der ikke er én af retningerne, der er særlig vigtig på et kompas, handler denne bog om at finde vej i ledelse ud fra en erkendelse af, at verden er flerdimensionel. Man skal finde sin ledelses-GPS i en mangefacetteret og dynamisk verden. Bogen handler om denne ledelseopgave. Projektets motor har været et seks måneder langt aktionslæringsforløb, hvor forskere og deltagende virksomheder har arbejdet sammen om at blive klogere på, hvordan dilemmaer tager sig ud i praksis, hvilke balancegange de kræver, og hvordan de kan håndteres. Bogen opsamler og videreudvikler de erfaringer og værktøjer, der i fællesskab er opnået og udviklet i projektet. Vi håber, at andre ledere kan drage nytte af disse indsigter. Bogens erfaringer er baseret på et omfattende datagrundlag og den engagerede, åbenhjertige medvirken af de deltagende virksomheder. Vi vil gerne takke alle deltagende erhvervsledere for godt samarbejde. Vi håber, at erhvervsledere vil finde inspiration i bogen til at bevæge sig ud af komfortzonen, identificere deres egen ledelses-GPS og finde konkurrencekraft fra et ståsted, der ikke er enten-eller, men derimod både-og