Kathleen M. Eisenhardt Professor Management Science and Engineering Office: Terman 415 | Phone: 650-723-1887 | Fax: 650-723-1614 Email: kme @ stanford.edu

Brown, Shona L. and Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 1998.

Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos is a book on strategy and organization that is targeted for managers in dynamic markets. It is available from Harvard Business School Press and Amazon.Com. There are volume discounts available by emailing Ellen Chase at echase @ hbsp.harvard.edu.

In teaching, the book is useful in a variety of courses including those on entrepreneurship, management of high growth companies, the macro portion of organizational behavior courses, management of technology based firms, courses on change as a counterpoint to the predominant view of change as punctuated or transformational, or any course where change is important.

I have personally used COE in teaching the core strategy course. I have structured my course to follow the primary theoretical paradigms of strategy. So I begin with a couple of cases on Five Forces, then several on Resource Based View of the Firm, and Game Theory, and wrap up with a module on Complexity/Evolutionary Theory using COE. The flow is to move from static to dynamic markets. If you are using the McKinsey STI (Strategy Theory Initiative), this flow works well and COE plugs for strategy in Levels 3 and 4.

The following are suggested topics and cases for each chapter.

Single Chapter

1. Single-Business Strategy (Playing the Improvisational Edge) Microsoft Multimedia (A) 9-695-005 Burc Zero New Product Development 9-697-044 Living on Internet Time: Product Development at Netscape, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Net Dynamics 5-967-116 SAP America 9-397-057

 

2. Multiple Business Strategy and Cross-Business Synergies (Capturing Cross-Business Synergies) Time-Life (A) (videos) 9-395-012 Harvard Business School Publishing 9-397-028 McKinsey & Company: Managing Knowledge and Learning 9-396-357 R.R.Donnelly and Sons: The Digital Division N9-396-154

 

3. Diversification, Divestment, and Growth (Gaining the Advantages of the Past) Digital: The Internet Company 9-996-009 Dell Computer Corporation 9-596-058 3M Optical Systems: Managing Corporate Entrepreneurship (videos) 9-395-017

 

4. Strategic Planning (Winning Tomorrow Today) Amgen Inc.: Planning the Unplannable 9-492-052

 

5. Time Pacing (Setting the Pace) 3M Optical Systems: Managing Corporate Entrepreneurship (videos) 9-395-017 Intel: Going Into Overdrive Silicon Graphics, Inc. 9-695-061

 

6. Implementation (Growing the Strategy) Harvey Golub: Recharging American Express 9-396-212

 

7. Patching and Managerial Roles (Leading the Strategy) 3M Optical Systems: Managing Corporate Entrepreneurship (videos) 9-395-017 R.R.Donnelly and Sons: The Digital Division N9-396-154

Combinations

1. Chapters 1-3 Time-Life (A) (videos) 9-395-012

 

2. Chapters 4-6 Dell Computer Corporation 9-596-058

 

3. Chapters 3, 4, & 8 R.R. Donnelly and Sons: The Digital Division N9-396-154

 

4. Chapters 4, 6, & 8 3M Optical Systems: Managing Corporate Entrepreneurship (videos) 9-395-017