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Where does the intellectual capital of your organisation or business unit lie, and what can be done to develop and exploit it to gain long-term competitive advantage? How does your business involve customers? Are efforts made to understand what they want? Is the firm certain about what its customers value? 27 01 Business Strategy 11/3/05 12:15 PM Page 28 2 Ideas at work S etting strategy is complex because of the complicated, shifting array of challenges and opportunities an organisation faces over time.

Controlling businesses A wave of financial and accounting scandals in the early years of the new millennium, involving, among others, Enron, WorldCom and Andersen, focused attention on the way that organisations are controlled. The possibility that even respected firms might be guilty of accounting shenanigans depressed stockmarket prices. How are we to regain faith in standards of corporate governance, and what are the implications for businesses? The regulatory route Supranational bodies, such as the European Union, have steadily increased regulations in areas such as corporate governance, data protection and employment.

Is the firm certain about what its customers value? 27 01 Business Strategy 11/3/05 12:15 PM Page 28 2 Ideas at work S etting strategy is complex because of the complicated, shifting array of challenges and opportunities an organisation faces over time. For decision-makers to come to grips with this mounting complexity it helps to have an understanding of theories of management and leadership that have emerged during the past century. Decision-making approaches The classical administrator The classical administrator is the most traditional model of the decisionmaker or strategist.