Resilient Organizations Responsible Leadership in Times of Uncertainty

Recent financial crises have shown that firms need to create more robust business models. However, it seems that the task of developing resilience - a firm's ability to adapt, endure, bounce back and then thrive, despite the shock - appears on most managers' strategic issue list only after such a shock has occurred. Managers, through responsible leadership, can make explicit choices that will enhance their firm's resilience, increasing their chances of anticipating and avoiding these shocks. This book is the result of a three-year research project across seven industries, and is aimed at improving the understanding of why some firms are better than others in dealing with market turbulence. Pirotti and Venzin develop a measure for organizational resilience, identifying resilience drivers and demonstrating how firms can appropriate value from high resilience levels. It is a valuable read for graduates taking a course in strategy and global management and for reflective practitioners.

Introduction; 1. Investing in the ability to withstand shocks; 2. Measuring long-term sustainable performance; 3. Authenticity; 4. Customer centricity; 5. Product focus; 6. Geographical focus; 7. Long-term orientation and strategic decision making; 8. Process tools for supporting strategic decision making; 9. Ownership structure, span of control and organisational design; 10. Conclusions; Index.

Guia Beatrice Pirotti gained her PhD in Business Administration and Management from Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Milan and was a Visiting Scholar at Emory University, Atlanta in 2009. She teaches Business Strategy at Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi. Her areas of expertise include organizational resilience, strategic planning, and competitiveness of firms. Pirotti is author of Resilience (with Markus Venzin, 2014) and writes regularly for the column 'Tips from the Top' on the SDA Bocconi Ideas of Management on Strategy and Entrepreneurship website.
Markus Venzin is Professor of Global Strategy at Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Milan and Director of the Research Division at SDA Bocconi School of Management, specializing in global strategy, strategic planning and organizational resilience. He is actively involved in executive development in a wide range of industries including financial services, food, energy, and manufacturing. He also facilitates strategy workshops for top management teams and offers advisory services to senior executives. Venzin is a frequent speaker at corporate and industry events on such topics as company resilience, internationalization strategies, strategic decision making dynamics, global knowledge management systems, and the development of formal planning and control processes in large multinational firms.