The authors of this book alert that professional services like law, accountancy, and consultancy firms are set to face major disruption. The most important driver and enabler are the new technologies that help and in part substitute the work done by professionals. The second important disruptor is the new generation of professionals - "NewGen" - who are less interested in building their careers in a hierarchical organization and more interested in entrepreneurial challenges in small teams, with more rapid returns. In the meanwhile, major service conglomerates - the "big four" accounting firms, the "big three" consulting firms to name a few examples - build their network using their brand and substantial resources. All along, the relentless pressure from clients to receive more services at lower cost continues. Medium-sized professional firms as well as one-person independents appear to suffer most from these disruptions and are most anxious to find new ways to conduct their business. But the leaders of large firms also feel that they are increasingly unable to support the innovative entrepreneurship of their most promising professionals while their organizations institutionalize and their overheads continue to grow. This book proposes a new orientation and model of a professional service firm as an answer to these challenges, by creating a Professional Service Community. It is a synergistic team of organizations that share a vision of their role in society and main lines of their mission as well as the quality of their deliverables and their key clients. At the same time, they are independent in designing their internal business models - like recruitment, training, knowledge management, and economics. The Professional Service Community provides a unique and highly attractive level of entrepreneurship, flexibility, and efficiency to the benefit of its clients, partners, staff, and other stakeholders. It is the way of the future.

In the quest for competitive advantage, navigating change can be daunting. Following a unique, four-part structure focussing on confronting strategic issues, sensing opportunities and threats, choosing strategies and transforming organizations, this essential textbook offers a fresh and provocative perspective on strategic management. Covering the latest theories and concepts and taking an action-oriented approach, the book includes: • Cutting-edge content on the confront-sense-choose-transform stages of strategic management such as purpose and sustainability, emerging technologies, ecosystems and platforms, and business model innovation • Four diagnostic chapters providing practical tools for each stage of the strategy process • Nearly 70 case studies of internationally recognisable companies like Airbnb, Ben & Jerry’s, Epic Games store, Hilton, Icebreaker, McDonald’s, Nestlé, Northvolt, Tesla and PayPay • ‘Key Debate’ boxes outlining opposing perspectives on hot topics in the strategy field and ‘Strategic Focus’ boxes digging deeper into contemporary phenomena Instructors can access a range of online resources, including a teaching guide complete with case study teaching notes, further reading and video links, PowerPoints and a bank of additional case studies. Suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students of strategy, Strategic Management: From Confrontation to Transformation will help you grow your knowledge and experience of developing and implementing strategy in the real world. Henk W. Volberda is Professor of Strategy & Innovation at the Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam. Rick M.A. Hollen is a Lecturer and Researcher at the Strategy & International Business section of the Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam and a Managing Research Associate at the Amsterdam Centre for Business Innovation (ACBI). Joana R. Pereira is Lecturer in the Strategy and Organization group of Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds. Jatinder S. Sidhu is Professor and Chair in Strategic Management and Organization at Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds. Kevin Heij is Senior Researcher of the Amsterdam Centre for Business Innovation at the Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam.

Although research on business model innovation is flourishing internationally, many important questions on the 'how', 'what', and 'when' of this process remain largely unanswered, particularly in regard to the role of top management. This book answers some of those pressing questions by taking a deliberately managerial perspective. Based on new and original findings derived from a survey among firms from various industries, and several case studies (including DSM, NXP Semiconductors, Randstad, and TomTom), the authors provide new insights into how and when managers can change a firm's business model. They turn their attention particularly to one key question: is it better to replicate existing models or develop new ones? Business model renewal is regarded as being especially vital in highly competitive environments. Nonetheless, whatever the environment, high levels of both replication and renewal will be key for a firm to succeed. The book looks at four levers that can be used by managers to innovate their business model: management itself, organizational structure, technology, and co-creation with external parties. It discusses the individual effects of these levers on business model replication and renewal. It also analyses specific combinations that strengthen business model innovation, including those which are technology oriented, internally oriented, externally oriented, and those which combine all of the levers in an integrated way.

In the quest for competitive advantage, navigating change can be daunting. Following a unique, four-part structure focussing on confronting strategic issues, sensing opportunities and threats, choosing strategies and transforming organizations, this essential textbook offers a fresh and provocative perspective on strategic management. Covering the latest theories and concepts and taking an action-oriented approach, the book includes: • Cutting-edge content on the confront-sense-choose-transform stages of strategic management such as purpose and sustainability, emerging technologies, ecosystems and platforms, and business model innovation • Four diagnostic chapters providing practical tools for each stage of the strategy process • Nearly 70 case studies of internationally recognisable companies like Airbnb, Ben & Jerry’s, Epic Games store, Hilton, Icebreaker, McDonald’s, Nestlé, Northvolt, Tesla and PayPay • ‘Key Debate’ boxes outlining opposing perspectives on hot topics in the strategy field and ‘Strategic Focus’ boxes digging deeper into contemporary phenomena Instructors can access a range of online resources, including a teaching guide complete with case study teaching notes, further reading and video links, PowerPoints and a bank of additional case studies. Suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students of strategy, Strategic Management: From Confrontation to Transformation will help you grow your knowledge and experience of developing and implementing strategy in the real world. Henk W. Volberda is Professor of Strategy & Innovation at the Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam. Rick M.A. Hollen is a Lecturer and Researcher at the Strategy & International Business section of the Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam and a Managing Research Associate at the Amsterdam Centre for Business Innovation (ACBI). Joana R. Pereira is Lecturer in the Strategy and Organization group of Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds. Jatinder S. Sidhu is Professor and Chair in Strategic Management and Organization at Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds. Kevin Heij is Senior Researcher of the Amsterdam Centre for Business Innovation at the Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam.

How do managers reconcile the conflicting forces of change and stability? How do they promote order and control, while having to learn to innovate and respond? Based on an Igor Ansoff Award-winning study and now available for the first time in paperback, Henk Volberda's book shows how for many firms flexibility has become the new strategic challenge. On the basis of recent developments in strategy and organization theory, extensive interviews with practitioners, and detailed case studies of flexibility improvement within large corporations, he develops a strategic framework which will help managers to organize for flexibility.

This is a new overview of the strategy field, with internationally renowned contributors summarizing the latest directions and developments in strategic management theory in the context of their theoretical roots in economics, organization theory, and systems theory. The contributors outline the most promising new directions on the basis of a systemic treatment of paradigms or schools of thought in strategy: redrawing firm boundaries, developing dynamic capabilities and discovering viable strategy configurations. The volume will be an invaluable companion to advanced courses in strategy and management, used as a reader alongside case material and field studies. As well as providing a summary and evaluation of the different schools of thought in strategy, the volume offers a synthesis of the American and European approaches.