8/13/2019 Beyond Planning Strategies for Successfully Implementing Strategic Decisions201

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Long Range Planning 37 (2004) 199–200

LRPlong range planningwww.lrpjournal.com

Executive SummariesBeyond Planning: Strategies for Successfully Implementing Strategic Decisions 201Susan Miller, David Wilson and David Hickson

Which decisions turn out to have been the successful ones —and how were the successesachieved? This article demonstrates empirically that what managers do, and the kind of

organization they lead, matter most. The authors track 150 strategic decisions previously studied by them back to the 1980s and

examine 55 decisions which turned out well to isolate relevant variables. They find thatneither decision process nor type, sector or size of firm are correlated with success, whilefailure may be associated with decisions which are irreversible when things go wrong?, aretoo big a leap in the dark, or take too little account of the firm’s social and political context.As far as success is concerned, they find that while managerial planning is no guarantee,organizational context is crucial, especially where the decision may lead the firm beyond‘plan-ability’. Two major strands of organizational context variables may provide thebackground for success: either sound relevant experience or wholehearted readiness forchange. They present illustrative case studies for each circumstance, as well as pointing to theimportance of prioritising decisions, of ensuring their political acceptability, of avoidingunnecessarily organisational change, and of realising that each decision must be analysed onit merits: success in one decision does not guarantee success in the next.

doi: 10.1016/j.lrp.2004.03.008

Transforming the Vodafone/Ericsson Relationship 219

Christopher Ibbott and Robert O’Keefe

The business world is a global one, we are often told, and the Internet will enable informationexchange across national boundaries, globalise supply chain management and facilitate accessto international markets. But how are such transformations handled in actuality?

This article tells how two major players in the mobile phone business successfullyestablished a joint structure to govern their global relationship on a virtual basis. Based on thedetailed understanding of one of the authors —the senior Vodafone manager involved in thetransformation —the article details how this transformation proceeded via an improvised journey approach with no fixed destination or project plan, only a shared acceptance of asymmetric benefits. Showing how information sharing, communication, virtual teams,competence development, horizontal organisational relationships and control of productelements are managed via an inter-organisational information system now called theeRelationship , the authors conclude that, while evaluation remains unresolved to an extent,strong leadership on the improvisational journey, high levels of trust between partners, a