Innovating Organization and Management New Sources of Competitive Advantage

The search for competitive advantage serves as the basis for organizational strategy. This book argues that there are four key sources of competitive advantage and financial success that have not been given the attention they deserve. Firstly, that organizational design and management processes may be strategic resources in their own right. Secondly, that organizational design and management processes can be deployed to create new strategic resources. Thirdly, that managers have begun to think of organizational design and management processes in a proactive way rather than seeing them more passively as necessary facilitators of success. Fourthly, that this new way of looking at organization and management requires a search for new ways of structuring organizational design and managerial processes. These points are driven home through case studies of the Danish firms LEGO Group, Vestas Wind Systems, Coloplast, Chr. Hansen, IC Companys and NKT Flexibles.

List of figures; List of tables; List of boxes; 1. New sources of competitive advantage; 2. Causes of firm success: from resources to organization and management; 3. LEGO: redefining the boundaries; 4. Vestas: the will to win(d); 5. Coloplast: innovating innovation; 6. Chr. Hansen: collaborative forms under private equity ownership; 7. IC Companys: creative genius and commercial attitudes; 8. NKT Flexibles: global sourcing of R and D innovation; 9. Concluding reflections: innovating organization and management to stay competitive; Index.

The search for competitive advantage serves as the basis for organizational strategy. This book argues that there are four key sources of competitive advantage that have not been given the attention they deserve. These points are illustrated through case studies of six Danish firms, including LEGO and Chr. Hansen.

Nicolai J. Foss is Professor at the Copenhagen Business School and Professor II at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. He was previously Director of the Department of Strategic Management and Globalization at the Copenhagen Business School.
Torben Pedersen is Professor of International Business in the Copenhagen Business School's Department of Strategic Management and Globalization.
Jacob Pyndt works for Nordea, a leading pan-European bank, where he works on business strategy issues with a primary focus on outsourcing of functions and processes.
Majken Schultz is Professor at the Copenhagen Business School and a partner in the Reputation Institute.