New Deal Top Management for Strategic Agility

The NEW DEAL at the Top. By: Doz, Yves L., Kosonen, Mikko, Harvard Business Review, 00178012, Jun2007, Vol. 85, Issue 6



THE OLD DEAL

Individual responsibility for unit performance
Independent units pursue separate business strategies
Financial measurements and controls; delegation of strategic choices
Functional and unit-specific expertise
Results-oriented: emphasis on outcome control

THE NEW DEAL

Collective responsibility for corporate performance
Interdependent unit heads integrate corporate strategy and value creation
Transparent measurements demonstrating how interdependencies improve performance; substantive strategic dialogue by the top team
Overlapping experience and responsibility
Values-oriented: emphasis on normative control (promoting internalized rules for behavior)

Yves L. Doz (yves.doz@insead.edu) is the Timken Chaired Professor of Global Technology and Innovation at Insead, in Fontainebleau, France, and a visiting professor at the Helsinki School of Economics. Mikko Kosonen (mikko.kosonen@nokia.com) is a special adviser to the top management at Nokia, in Espoo, Finland. He was formerly Nokia's senior vice president for corporate strategy and information management. Doz and Kosonen are the authors of Fast Strategy (coming in October from Wharton School Publishing), from which this article is adapted.