A roadmap for unbundling the corporation

Abstract

Growth of the many organizations is still limited mostly due to the fact that they are an amalgamation of three core yet conflicting business processes: infrastructure management business, product innovation business and customer relationship business. Leading companies have focused on their core capabilities and leveraging their growth by participating in networks of specialist companies. Unbundling the corporation, introduced by Hagel and Singer (1999), explains why the traditional corporations are not able to achieve the desired level of growth by doing every aspects of value chain themselves. However, rapid technological improvements in internet and networking have reduced the interaction costs which have made it possible for managers to focus on their organizational core capability and unbundle the rest to the specialized partners. Unbundling the corporation should be considered as a growth strategy. To be applied by practitioners, developing a roadmap for unbundling is essential. Considering the increasing trends in outsourcing specifically in the time of economic turmoil signify the necessity and importance of such a roadmap. In this research, we propose a roadmap for unbundling the corporation. Our roadmap has been derived from extensive case studies in order to increase its generalisability. The roadmap consists of two frameworks. The first framework assists practitioners to map their organizational capabilities and decided in which they should invest. Finally, the second framework indicates the relationship between core capabilities and network capabilities of an unbundled organization. Together the two frameworks help managers to devise their strategic approach toward unbundling and growth.Validerat; 20101217 (root