Business Orchestration: Strategic Leadership in the Era of Digital Convergence [Hardcover]

Johan Wallin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0470030712 | ISBN-13: 978-0470030714 | Edition: 1

Digital convergence is redefining industries, and putting information, knowledge and collaboration at the heart of strategic leadership and management. In the face of such change it is those leaders who can ‘orchestrate’ a complex network of employees, customers and suppliers in a single ongoing learning experience that will succeed. Exploring four learning roles for customers (information acquirer; explorer; performer; inventor) and orchestrators (conductor; architect; auctioneer; promoter), Business Orchestration provides a strategic view of how to harness digital convergence by mobilizing and integrating the resources of other companies to create business value.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Today’s business world places great emphasis on capabilities. Yet what is often overlooked is that capabilities are only built if individuals acquire new skills, and this requires leadership to motivate them to actively learn for the benefit of the organization. A focus on capabilities therefore automatically implies a focus on the individual, and on how to nurture creativity in the extended enterprise. When learning is combined with value creation we call it Business Orchestration.

Into this melting pot we may now add digital convergence – the real-time availability of information via technological platforms. As convergence redefines entire industries, using its power for continuous learning becomes the new lifeblood of business – and collaboration the beating heart of strategic leadership and management. The new role of the leader in the era of digital convergence is thus to provide the incentives and contexts that enable Business Orchestration.

The leaders of tomorrow will be those who can orchestrate a complex network of employees, customers and suppliers in a single ongoing learning experience within the extended enterprise. Exploring four learning contexts and illustrating them with cases of well-known leaders including Meg Whitman, Pertti Korhonen, Linus Torvalds and Steve Jobs, Johan Wallin provides a strategic view of how to harness convergence by mobilizing and integrating the resources of customers and partners to create sustainable business value – Business Orchestration.

From the Back Cover

“A compelling articulation of why leaders need to re-address their priorities around their customers, key people and the building of organizational capabilities.”

Fred Lachotzki, Nyenrode Business University, Strategy Center

Co-author of Beyond Control: Managing Strategic Alignment Through Corporate Dialogue, published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd April 2005

“Johan Wallin’s analysis provides a unique insight into a new world: a world shaped by digital convergence where capabilities define competitiveness. This disruption of traditional business models means that companies must develop innovative strategies that define new roles and responsibilities for leaders. How? Johan Wallin ties everything together in a remarkable book, which will appeal to all forward thinking business leaders.”

Stephane Garelli, Professor at IMD International Business School in Lausanne, Director of IMD's World Competitiveness Center and of the annual World Competitiveness series of reports since 1987.

Author of ‘Top Class Competitor’ published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, March 2006

“This book is breaking new grounds and in several ways – through emphasizing the leader's key roles in creating value, as an orchestrator. Key to this is learning – and how the leader can create an effective context for this. Various capabilities that the effective leader would need are provided. The book is hands-on, practical and helpful, particularly to executives who actually are in leadership positions. The insights provided by the author are fundamental – a refreshing book.”

Dr Peter Lorange, President IMD

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 414 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (September 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470030712
• ISBN-13: 978-0470030714
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,198,651 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Digital Convergence Demands New Leadership, January 1, 2008

By 

Craig L. Howe "The Pointed Pundit" (Darien, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Business Orchestration: Strategic Leadership in the Era of Digital Convergence (Hardcover)

Tomorrow's leaders will be those who can coordinate employees, customers and suppliers to create value. As digital convergence disrupts business models, organizations and their management will be forced to adapt new strategies.

Taking an inside-out, Johan Wallin, a consultant with Synocus Group, posits change requires the leader to assume the role of a business orchestrator. His or her goal: to nurture learning and creativity, which result in the skills needed to drive efficiency and innovation.

This requires developing four operational capabilities:

1. Generative - to secure the development of core resources.

2. Transformative - to develop new offering concepts.

3. Relationship - to foster value-creating customer interactions.

4. Integrative - to form value constellations.

Building capabilities require individuals to learn new skills:

1. Information Acquisition - the inquirer knows what he or she will lean and how long it will take.

2. Problem Solving - The result in known but the solution is not.

3. Co-Experiencing - In creative industries where designers and customers interact within a known timetable.

4. Insight Accumulation - a continuous process that bridge the gap from chance to serendipity.

Wallin argues capabilities are built only if individuals learn. Thus, managers have to create both an intellectual and emotional context that commits individuals to learn for the benefit of the organization. He defines the combination of value creation and learning "orchestrated activities." The leaders' role is:

* Conductor - information transmission and acquisition.

* Architect - problem solving.

* Auctioneer - co-experiencing.

* Promoter - insight accumulation.

In this readable book, Wallin offers interesting case studies to argue that in a world stressed with information overload and new technologies people will rely on individuals they know and trust for navigation. Their goals will be simple:

1. Behave rationally.

2. Minimize risks.

Simple, challenging goals that require leaders to develop:

1. New value constellations.

2. Patience.

3. Knowledge of and confidence in assuming an orchestrator's role.