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Dear ,
Welcome to the April newsletter.
It is a time of change for the SPS. Our knowledge-based community continues to grow and we need to ensure it meets the needs of its many and diverse members. So, please will you help us to make the change process as successful as possible by taking our poll.
This change extends to our academic journal LRP as well. We have a new Editor-in-Chief, Professor Jim Robins, who holds the Chair in Strategic Management and Innovation at Vienna University of Economics and Business. Jim was formerly at UCLA, Stanford and latterly in Singapore. I met with Jim recently and can assure those of you who actively use and refer to the journal that Jim will add real value. With his hand on the LRP tiller he will seek to steer a course that maintains high academic research standards while ensuring the journal recognises the challenges of the practical application of that research.
We say goodbye and thank you to our outgoing Editor, Professor Charles Baden-Fuller, who has been at the helm for the last ten years. Charles' valedictory issue of LRP focuses on business models. It is a very exciting double issue with contributions from some of the world's finest strategy authorities. It's worth the modest SPS membership fee for this alone!
To those of you who are in or near London at the end of April I will hope to see you at the Strategic Value in Corporate Reporting Awards event on 28 April.
Ian McDonald Wood, Chairman
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SPS News
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Stephen Haddrill: Strong narrative is essential to good financial reporting
Companies need to learn the lessons from the financial crisis, and improve the narrative within company report and accounts, said Stephen Haddrill, chief executive of the Financial Reporting Council, when he spoke to the SPS recently.
"More and more information does not necessarily mean better and better disclosure; clarity is essential," he says. "It is fundamentally important that good reporting gives investors and the public an understanding of what the business is trying to achieve, and that its business model and strategy is clear." The narrative plays a central part in achieving this.
Read more »
Strategic Value in Corporate Reporting Awards 2010 - Final reminder
The awards to recognise FTSE350 companies that demonstrate the highest standards of strategy disclosure and commentary in their annual corporate reporting, are next week.
Held at an evening drinks reception (6.00 - 8.30pm) on 28 April at the Royal Over-Seas League at St James's Street in London, the ceremony promises to be an interesting and enjoyable event.
The event is free to SPS members, please email us to register. Visit the SPS website for more information.
How can the SPS help strategists?
We have recently conducted a survey with our members about how they would like to see the SPS help them in future. An online directory of members, networking events, training and video webcasts were all suggested. Now we'd like to broaden the consultation to our full network of strategists - what would you like to see in the future? Take poll »
Is strategy a mainstream professional discipline or merely an esoteric management science?
 Function or capability? Art or science? Simple framework or unnecessarily complicated consultants' blather? Our esteemed chairman Ian McDonald Wood has posted the most contentious question on the LinkedIn Group discussion board this month. Join the debate!
There is also on-going discussion of last month's SPS poll
caps to corporate growth, as well as
who should think and act strategically in organisatons and
what is strategy execution?
Join the debate with over 1,300 strategists in the SPS Group on LinkedIn »
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Research and Insight
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Intangible capital: looking inside the black box
In the knowledge era, so much of what makes an organisation successful and unique is intangible. People can describe it, but they cannot provide hard data that answers even basic questions about where an organisation has invested and how well the investment is working. In the latest issue of Strategy Magazine, Mary Adams argues that we need effective tools to measure these aspects of business in order to realise their potential for innovation.
Read the full article »
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SPS members receive Strategy Magazine every three months
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Broadening strategy work and skills
As the pace of change accelerates, and the nature of strategy planning work shifts from emphasising analysis and forecasting to being more concerned with communication, co-ordination and control, strategy and organisation have to be approached as interlinked, practical activities.
Richard Whittington, Eamonn Molloy, Michael Mayer and Anne Smith argue for a greater recognition of 'craft skills' in strategy, alongside traditional analytical skills, and call for a broadening of the skill base beyond economic analysis, both in firms and on business schools' curricula. Formal strategy making should not be rejected, but renewed by injecting craft directly into the process.
Read the full executive summary »
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SPS members receive Long Range Planning six times a year (worth GBP120 pa). Non-members can buy and download individual articles at Science Direct.
SPS members enjoy access to the online library, with downloadable versions of over 250 articles published in Strategy Magazine and more than 100 executive summaries from Long Range Planning. Find more information on SPS membership benefits.
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Encore careers
In search of personal fulfilment, many workers are now turning to so-called 'encore' careers: jobs in health care, education, green industries, government, social entrepreneurship and the non-profit sector doing work for the greater good.
More information about Shaping Tomorrow »
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SPS members enjoy free access to Shaping Tomorrow (worth GBP95 pa) - an organised database of over 25,000 future, strategy and change management resources, plus a weekly newsletter highlighting ten new trends.
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Events and Workshops
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The Business Performance Summit 2010
The summit is taking place 14-15 June 2010 at the Radisson BLU Scandinavia Hotel, Dusseldorf, Germany.
It showcases the latest strategies and operating tools through a two-day programme, offering performance improvement case studies, including: business performance in converging businesses at Sony Ericsson; the continuing 'Beyond Budgeting' journey at Statoil; and capitalising on 'operational excellence DNA' at GE.
For details of the programme, visit visit the website, email Laurence Allen or call +44 (0)20 7202 7690.
Ashridge Open Programmes
SPS members are entitled to a 10% discount on any of Ashridge's open strategy programmes.
Ashridge has a wide variety of short, residential programmes to help individuals and organisations to achieve their development needs. These programmes focus on blending the practical experience of their faculty with leading-edge business thinking, to inspire and challenge you.
In addition, learning in small classes – typically between 12 and 30 participants – promotes collaboration on your own issues and ensures individual support, enabling all participants to return, better able to transfer learning, to the workplace.
For more details, visit Ashridge. Please quote your SPS membership number when booking.
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