Large, diversified companies which flourised in the early decades following the Second World War are in deep trouble. The organizational structure of this period which provided the elixir -- the multidivisional enterprise -- has proved incapable of meeting the changed world environment and the...

People are innately curious and, as social animals, are naturally motivated to interact and learn from one another. Over thousands of years, families, clans, and communities have evolved as teaching and learning groups, with individuals sharing information and synthesizing knowledge as a central...

As competitive pressures increase, top‐level managers in many companies have recognized the need to rebuild initiative, creativity, and drive in the front‐line units of their organizations. Under the banner of “inverting the pyramid,” they delayered and destaffed, and invested...

Since its publication in 1989 and following many reprintings in eight language editions, Christopher Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal's book, Managing Across Borders: the Transnational Solution, has made a big impact on managers' thinking on global strategy. The model and concept of the...

When companies grow and expand overseas, they often experience such organizational problems as the classic conflict between line and staff and between country and functional managers. Often, the companies that succeed are those that take a gradual and adaptive approach rather than engaging in a...

Under the careful direction of its President, Dr Yoshio Maruta, the Kao Corporation of Japan had become pre-eminently a 'learning organisation' since the 1970s. But could it transfer its learning capability and domestic market success to the US and Europe? Sumantra Ghoshal and Charlotte Butler...

The story of the acquisition of Zanussi by Electrolux, a process begun in 1983, is a classic success one involving an aggressively acquisitive company growing strategically in a difficult industry. Although Zanussi was not targetted, the troubled Italian producer was a very good fit for the...

Sumantra Ghoshal discusses the main features of his and Christopher Bartlett's new book, The Individualized Corporation, leading on to some of his current thinking on management issues in multinational corporations. Much of the book is devoted to describing the new corporate model, and to...