Dynamic Management of Growing Firms

This innovative volume offers a step-by-step planning strategy and a set of self-assessment tools for CEOs and managers of established firms to help them refocus away from crisis management and toward more effective, planned profitable growth in this age of global competition. Derived from open systems theory, empirical research, and practical experience, the Dynamic Systems Planning Model, the core of the book, aids strategists and scholars in identifying and analyzing a comprehensive set of core competencies of the organization to assure growth and profitability, providing a much broader perspective than the marketing and financial focus of strategy in the 1980s. The Dynamic Systems Planning Model is a tool to help the entrepreneur simplify the often chaotic changes that small and mid-sized companies experience as they grow. The model identifies seven enduring system issues that must be strategically, operationally, and dynamically managed on an ongoing basis as the company and its environment change over time. The authors link the strategic significance of the seven elements of the model--market strategy, resource acquisition, resource allocation, work flow, human relations, public relations, and technical mastery--to the creation of a stronger company. Many of the research results presented here come from one of the largest and most comprehensive studies ever done on strategy and growth in small to mid-sized firms. All concepts are illustrated with a case history of J. P. Industries, a former Fortune 500 company. It will be a valuable book for practitioners-- owners, CEOs, presidents, board members, managers of small and medium-sized firms--and researchers and students focusing on entrepreneurship, organization theory, and business strategy. ". . . a first-rate contribution to the small business management field." --Daniel Spitzer, Bridgewater College, formerly CEO of Photon Power, Inc. Lorraine Uhlaner Hendrickson is Professor of Management, Eastern Michigan University. John Psarouthakis is founder and chairman of JPE Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan.