Executive Team Leadership in the Global Economic and Competitive Environment

186 Pages·2014·1.169 MB·English

by  Richard L. Nolan

Executive Team Leadership
in the Global Economic and
Competitive Environment
Corporations have continued to grow and extend their operations into the
global economy to the point that the modern corporation has become larger
and more infl uential than many sovereign countries. In this global expansion,
corporations have extended their operations with little restraint—almost
only limited by corporate lawyers’ imaginations. Modern corporations have
become so pervasive that world populations are more dependent on them
for their food, services, technologies, work, and daily well-being than ever
before.
This book analyzes the twenty-first-century forces challenging the execu-
tive leadership of the modern corporation. Lessons are drawn for corporate
leaders facing these challenges: turbulent times, balancing creators and stew-
ards, managing company culture, managing by wire, incorporating global
virtual organization structures, and managing sustained innovation. Nolan
concludes with guidelines on creating a leadership agenda for transforming
the corporation to successfully compete in the realities of the new corporate
world of the twenty-first century.
Richard L. Nolan is the William Barclay Harding Endowed Professor of
Business Administration, Emeritus at Harvard Business School, United
States. He was the fi rst recipient of the Boeing Philip M. Condit Endowed
Professor of Business Administration at the Foster School of Business
Administration, University of Washington in 2003, and in 2012, he became
Professor Emeritus.
Routledge Studies in Leadership Research
1 Executive Team Leadership in the Global Economic and
Competitive Environment
Richard L. Nolan
Executive Team Leadership
in the Global Economic and
Competitive Environment
Richard L. Nolan
First published 2015
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2015 Taylor & Francis
The right of Richard L. Nolan to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
CIP data for this book has been applied for.
ISBN: 978-1-138-81387-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-74784-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
To all the many people who have generously shared their
experiences and insights with me and from whom I learned
so much about the exciting and important corporate journey
into the twenty-fi rst century—and a special thanks to the
people of the Boeing Corporation who I have had the pleasure
of working with and knowing throughout my working and
academic career.
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Contents
List of Figures and Tables ix
Foreword xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
1 Turbulent Times 1
2 Then and Now 16
3 Creators and Stewards 27
4 Culture Is Everything 36
5 Managing by Wire 59
6 From Vertical to Virtual Integration 75
7 Managing Sustained Innovation 87
8 Managing Corporate Transformation 99
9 Twenty-First-Century Imperatives for Boards and
Senior Executives 117
10 From Industry Commons to Global Industry Ecosystems 134
11 The Modern Corporation in the World 147
Epilogue 156
About the Author and Research 159
Index 163
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Figures and Tables
FIGURES
1.1 Evolution of the Boeing Corporation 6
1.2 First U.S. International Airmail Flight 7
2.1 First Boeing Commercial Passenger Airplane and
Modern Dreamliner Flying Together 24
3.1 Differences between Stewards and Creators in Corporations 29
5.1 Sixteen Boeing B-17s Manufactured within
Twenty-Four Hours 64
5.2 Boeing Plant 2: “Lean Manufacturing” of B-17s 65
5.3 Boeing 737 Pulse Line 70
5.4 Boeing 737 Moving Line 72
6.1 Vertical Computer Industry Structure 1991 and
IBM’s Segment Market Shares 76
6.2 The New Horizontal Computer Industry Structure 76
6.3 Boeing’s Prevailing Hierarchical Organizational Structure 78
6.4 Creative Destruction/Construction from Boeing’s
Decentralized Hierarchical Organization toward an
IT-Enabled Network Organization 83
8.1 Relative Profit Margins for Product Design,
Manufacturing and Marketing 108
10.1 Puget Sound Region Industry Commons, 1900–1950 138
10.2 Puget Sound Region High-Tech Industry Commons,
1950–2010 139
TABLES
10.1 Revenue and Market Value of Industry-Leading
Corporations 135
10.2 Patent Activity by Major Puget Sound Region Companies 140