Abstract
The Pan Am neon sign was a well-known icon of the Manhattan skyline in New York City. For many Americans, Pan American Airways was the national airline. The company started the airline in 1927, but its entrepreneurial roots go much farther back—to the importing of South American guano, bird droppings that could be sold as fertilizer. In 1991, 64 years later, Pan Am declared bankruptcy, and out of the ashes rose a manufacturer of intravenous solutions for the medical sector.
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Notes
- 1.
Schumpeter (1942).
- 2.
Hamel (1998).
- 3.
Hamel (1998).
- 4.
- 5.
Steiber and Alänge (2013), pp. 48–61.
- 6.
Carl-Johan von Seth, DN 131005.
- 7.
Mashhadi et al. (2013).
- 8.
Carney and Getz ( 2009 ).
- 9.
Ibid.
- 10.
Hamel (2013).
- 11.
Steiber (2012).
- 12.
Alänge et al. (1998), pp. 3–21.
- 13.
- 14.
Alänge (1994).
- 15.
1987 was a banner year for the quality movement. President Reagan established the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, and ISO 9000 was adopted as a standard by the International Standardization Commission. Sweden established its own answer to the Baldrige Award, the Utmärkelsen Svensk Kvalitet (USK) in 1993. ISO 9000 had been developed in the British armed forces, and according to an unconfirmed source, a young, driven engineer had a great deal of influence over the system from its early stages. She later entered politics; her name was Margaret Thatcher.
- 16.
In order to denote the quality of the undertaking that the person responsible for it should have, the term process owner was used. Some were of the opinion that every part of a quality project must have an owner.
- 17.
Scania had worked for more than 10 years with Lean and enjoyed very good results. In 1995, it reported that 3.6 trucks were manufactured per person and year. In the spring of 2005, Scania’s CEO, Leif Östling, announced that the company intended to double production by 2015 while retaining the average productivity increase of about 8 % (Larsson 2008).
- 18.
Antonovsky (2005).
- 19.
According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: In personality psychology, locus of control refers to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events that affect them. Understanding of the concept was developed by Julian B. Rotter in 1954, and has since become an aspect of personality studies. A person’s “locus” (Latin for “place” or “location”) is conceptualised as either internal (the person believes they can control their life) or external (meaning they believe that their decisions and life are controlled by environmental factors which they cannot influence).
- 20.
Alasoini (2012), pp. 245–265.
- 21.
Deci and Ryan (1985).
- 22.
It is easy to reject this kind of shareholder-based philosophy and call it greed. But it has roots in American corporate law. A 1970 book on that subject (Henn 1970) proclaims that a company must be loyal and obedient to its shareholders. Ten years earlier, another American author (Rostow 1959) had stated that the law requires that members of the board should show undeviating loyalty to the shareholders and only to the shareholders. In the 1990s, the CEO of ABB introduced the concept of shareholder value as an overarching purpose of a company’s business and gained many adherents. If one equates shareholder value and share price, which many appear to do, the motive is to operate companies for the sole purpose of earning money for the shareholders. A Swedish financier maintains, in the spirit of Schumpeter and his concept of creative destruction, that a company should not keep large amounts of cash on hand. Funds should be distributed to the owners and invested in other, more promising business ventures. The philosophy behind continuous innovation thus represents a perspective that deviates from the conventional approach.
- 23.
Why should profitability increase? In many cases, an innovation gives customers a higher value than they previously received. Suppliers can utilize this in two ways. They can either demand a higher price for a premium product, keeping the increase less than the increased value the customer receives, or maintain the previous price but still gain benefits in the form of increased market shares. Both methods improve profitability.
- 24.
To implement a major change is a very difficult process; that is why all parties favoring the change need to cooperate. As Sweden has a strong labor-union tradition, it is important that union representatives be onboard and share the management’s view that a change is needed. I have not, however, found support for this view in the research I encountered, so anyone who believes that management can ignore all other stakeholders is free to test this theory.
- 25.
Alänge and Steiber (2009), pp. 280–293.
- 26.
Alänge and Steiber (2009), pp. 280–293.
- 27.
I have primarily examined knowledge and understanding derived from Strategos, Inc., an American strategy consulting company founded by Gary Hamel in 1995 that focuses on innovation.
- 28.
Palmer and Kaplan (2013).
- 29.
Ibid.
- 30.
In response to being asked what he meant by long-term, Ansoff replied that he was referring to the time frame that allows a person to make accurate predictions with a fair degree of certainty—in other words, about 10 years. No CEO would agree with this statement today, but it still describes the global picture on which conventional strategy management is based. Ansoff in Corporate Strategy 1963.
- 31.
Interview with Gary Getz, CEO, Strategos Inc.
- 32.
Ibid.
- 33.
Ibid.
- 34.
Inspired by Tushman and O’Reilly III (1997).
- 35.
A strategic intention is a vision presented in order to quickly garner the support of an entire organization for an urgent goal. Townsend’s “Get back in the black” for Avis, Komatsu’s “Encircle Caterpillar,” and Canon’s “Beat Xerox” are three well-known examples. See also Hamel and Prahalad (1994).
- 36.
Interview with CEO of Strategos, Inc. 2013.
- 37.
Snyder and Duarte (2003).
- 38.
Interview with Gary Getz, CEO of Strategos, Inc. 2013.
- 39.
Interview with Gary Getz, CEO of Strategos, Inc. 2013.
- 40.
- 41.
Blanchard (2000).
- 42.
- 43.
Tushman and O’Reilly III (2007).
- 44.
Alänge et al. (1998), pp. 3–21.
- 45.
Alänge and Steiber (2011), pp. 881–897.
- 46.
- 47.
- 48.
Interview with the med centrala Improve team.
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Steiber, A. (2014). Managing Continuous Innovation. In: The Google Model. Management for Professionals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04208-4_4
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