Interview with Professor Strickland

On 27 July 2009, the British Council Management Express hosted Professor A.J (Lonnie)Strickland at a local Harare hotel under the monthly Management Forum series. Professor Lonnie Strickland is the co-author of the number one selling Strategic Management textbook in the world Strategic Management: Quest for Competitive Advantage. With sales of over two million copies the book is used at 950 Universities worldwide and is published in five languages. A Miller Strategic Management Professor at the University of Alabama in the USA, Professor Strickland has been a very popular speaker on the subject of strategy and implementation. I had an opportunity to chat with the renowned strategic management guru on the sidelines of this event and the following are some of the excerpts from that interview:

Shereni Jongwe (SJ): I feel extremely honoured to have you for this interview Professor. I must admit that I have used one of your books, Crafting and Executing Strategy during my MBA studies and found the cases extremely useful in applying theory. Looking back, what appears to be the milestones that have shaped the discipline of strategic management over the years?

Professor A J Strickland (Lonnie): The field of Strategic Management is a relatively new field. The first book on the discipline was by Christian Andrews. Prior to that, strategy was commonly associated with the military. It must be pointed out that there were not much tools of strategy since 1971. Later on, Michael Porter and Henry Mintzberg (as well as others) did exceptional work in terms of developing new tools. So looking back, I can say that Strategic Management as a body of knowledge has grown from 14 pages to over 1000 pages and it continues to grow. Another milestone can be observed in accounting. There was a paradigmatic shift from compliance accounting to management accounting, with the latter being heavily relied on by strategists in decision-making.

SJ: How do you characterize the discipline of strategic management today, and could you proffer some insights into the possible growth trajectory of the discipline, going forward?

Lonnie: One can observe three key characteristics shaping the discipline today and in the future. First, there has been a big change in the volume of data available for use in strategic planning. The advent of search engines e.g. Google means that anyone now can do strategic analysis. Looking at the information systems involved with strategy, one can also track the increasing reliance on Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a tool in strategic decision-making. Over the years, I have observed that the time horizon has changed from the traditional 10 years to 3 years. This is particularly true for the developed countries where technological changes have spawned new businesses and altered consumer behaviour and trends. For a country undergoing change like Zimbabwe, it means the time horizon is as small as 3 months! The growth in online shopping has given birth to businesses such as Amazon and eBay that have gone on to do well in setting new markets that never existed. The advent of wireless technology, particularly the use of cell phones, has opened new opportunities in banking. In Zimbabwe, the introduction of 3G technology will create scope for cell phone banking. It must be noted that there has been exponential growth in the use of cell phones in Africa over the last few years and the trend is set to continue in future. Globally, internet banking is now larger that traditional banking based on branch networks.

SJ: It appears that you have consistently relied on the case-study approach in illuminating the discipline of strategic management yet there has been criticism of the case-study approach by other management gurus, notably Henry Mintzberg. What are your own reactions to such criticism?

Lonnie: It should be noted that the teaching of Strategic Management has also changed. The case method has been successful because it gives students the opportunity to practice through role-playing. Going forward, there is need to come up with exciting and highly interactive cases. I have observed the growth in the use of management simulations and these have proven to be very stimulating for students.

SJ: Still on the subject of case studies, it appears that there has been greater reliance in your books on cases originating mostly from Europe and the United States of America. What appears to be the constraints to the evolution of good cases from, say, Africa or Asia? What can be done to promote the development of such cases, going forward?

Lonnie: Europe and the United States of America constitute the largest market. I have been a strong advocate of cases written in the Zimbabwean market. In our new book (16th Edition of Crafting and Executing Strategy), we feature two new cases on Zimbabwe i.e. Econet Wireless and Shearwater. I must point out that for the past 20 years, I have been pushing local academics to write local cases. It is imperative that local academics develop this habit. There are great stories about Zimbabwe e.g. mining history of Zimbabwe, tobacco industry and tourism. Cases are designed to teach and local cases assist students to identify more with local issues. To promote relevance of some of our cases to diverse markets such as Africa and India, we have identified locals to adapt the cases to suit the local context. In South Africa, we are working with staff at the University of Stellenbosch along these lines.

SJ: In recent times, you have made numerous visits to Zimbabwe, and hopefully other parts of Africa. How do you characterise the state of the discipline of strategic management?

Lonnie: I have been to most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa e.g Kenya, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. In all my travels, I have concluded that Strategic Management is alive and well in Zimbabwe! I have been impressed with the quality of Zimbabwean managers, especially how they have stayed abreast with the field. Clearly, the Internet has facilitated learning and the grasp of Strategic Management is very good. Significantly, Zimbabwean managers have rewritten a portion of Strategic Management under uncertainty- there is no book on that!

SJ: Looking specifically at Zimbabwe today, what can you identify as the key strategic issues facing both executives and corporate managers?

Lonnie: I would say local managers now need to learn how to manage businesses under normalcy. In the past, the tendency has been on managing for survival where the key strategic issues were fuel, raw materials, foreign currency etc. Change entails that focus should now be on managing businesses for strategic global competitiveness. Zimbabwe needs to produce world-class products if it can compete globally.

Shereni (Anthony) Jongwe wrote this article in his capacity as Secretary General of the British Council Management Express Steering Committee. To get a copy of the full interview, send an e-mail to: consultgws@gmail.com or phone on 0913 002 275