Creating a world class business through a merger of two equals: an interview with Paul Walsh, Chief Executive Officer of Diageo Plc

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore, from a practical point-of-view, a number of key strategic issues that critically influence organisations' competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a semi-structured interview with Mr Paul Walsh, CEO of Diageo. Diageo is a highly successful company and Mr Walsh has played a central role in making Diageo the number one branded drink company in the world. Findings – The paper discusses the key attributes of successful merger, lessons from a complex cross boarder acquisition, rationale for strategic alliance with competitors, distinctive resources, and the role of corporate social responsibility. Research limitations/implications – It is not too often that management scholars have the opportunity to discuss with the CEOs of large multinationals the rational of key strategic decisions. In this paper these issues are explored from the perspective of a CEO of a large and successful company. The lessons, while not generalisable, offer unique insights to students of management and management researchers. Originality/value – The paper offers a bridge between theory and practice. It demonstrates that from Diageo's perspective the distinctive capabilities are intangible. It also offers insight into how to successfully execute strategic decision. In terms of originality it offers a view from the top, which is often missing from strategy research.

BSkyB transformation from a new loss-making venture to a successful organisation: case study and interview with Jeremy Darroch, Chief Executive of British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc

Purpose – This paper aims to articulate strategic dilemmas faced by a Chief Executive of a highly successful company and how such dilemmas were resolved. Design/methodology/approach – The case is based on a semi-structured interview with Mr Jeremy Darroch – Chief Executive of BSkyB – and analysis of documentary evidence. Findings – It is often difficult to implement strategies that simultaneously yield high organic growth rate, innovation, and a healthy balance-sheet. The paper sheds light on how Sky has met this challenge. Research limitations/implications – The research offers a unique insight into the views of a principal strategist and articulates the background to offer context, however, because of its design the findings are not generalisable. Originality/value – Very few articles offer insight into the thinking of those with principal responsibility for design and delivery of strategy. This paper offers such an insight based on a detailed interview with a highly successful Chief Executive.

Building from scratch a marketing services giant by acquisition: case study and interview with Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive of WPP

Purpose – Mergers and acquisitions are among the most intensely used strategic decisions. Yet research by both academics and consulting groups suggests that many mergers and acquisitions fail to add value. On the other hand there are many companies that successfully use mergers and acquisition to grow and add shareholder value. One such company is WPP. The aim of this paper is to explore why WPP has been successful in its acquisition strategy while so many other companies fail. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on documentary evidence and a semi-structured interview with Sir Martin Sorrell – Chief Executive and founder of WPP. Research limitations/implications – The case study offers a unique insight into thinking of a successful acquirer and sheds light on how mergers and acquisitions are managed by WPP. However, because of its design the findings are not generalisable. Originality/value – This case study sheds light on how mergers and acquisitions can be used to create a £9 billion company from a standing start. Furthermore, very few case studies offer insight into the thinking of entrepreneurial Chief Executives who established the business, grew it to become the largest and most profitable marketing services company in the world and engineered close to 300 acquisitions.

Successful strategy making in Bupa not-for-profit provident: a case study and interview with Mr Ray King, chief executive of Bupa

Purpose – The focus of extant strategy literature is on for-profit organisations and within these group public organisations. There are other forms of organisations and following the deep recession of 2008 there is greater interest in other forms of organisation. In this case study and interview the aim is to examine strategy, strategic decisions and strategic management of a not-for-profit provident. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on documentary evidence and a semi-structured interview with Ray King, chief executive of Bupa. The perspective of CEO is key in strategy and such perspectives are relatively rarer. Findings – Bupa invests its surplus to provide better healthcare. Free from the pressures of quarterly reporting and shareholders it can pursue long-term value creation for members rather than short-term surpluses. Research limitations/implications – The case study and interview offers a unique insight into strategy-making within a successful mutual provident that has grown organically and externally becoming an international leader in health insurance. Originality/value – This case study sheds light on strategy-making within a not-for-profit provident that has diversified and grown significantly over the past six decades. Furthermore, very few case studies offer insight into the thinking of a chief executive who has successfully managed a business in a turbulent environment.

Visceral behaviours and leadership: a dark side of boardroom life?

Purpose – Characteristics of leaders whose behaviour is visceral include taking action based on instinct rather than intellect and exhibiting coarse, base and often negative emotions. Despite the challenge of precisely defining the nature of visceral behaviour, the purpose of this paper is to provide insight into this less attractive side of boardroom life. Design/methodology/approach – Following a literature review of the research into the negative behaviour leaders exhibit, the paper highlights four forms of visceral behaviour based on focused and intimate qualitative case studies involving the experiences of those on the receiving end of that behaviour within a boardroom context. Findings – Based on interviews with an international sample of five chief executive officers (CEOs), plus three subordinates with substantial profit and loss responsibility, the study reveals a distinctly human experience from which no one is exempt. The idiosyncratic nature of the visceral behaviour experienced resulted in each study participant's unique experience. The authors conclude that leaders need to adopt specific measures in order to control and reduce the darker human tendencies. Research limitations/implications – The experiences of study participants are presented in four case studies, providing insight into their experiences whilst also protecting their identity. The study participants were drawn from a sample of companies operating globally within a single sector of the manufacturing industry. The concepts the authors present require validating in other organisations with different demographic profiles. Originality/value – The paper presents a model based on two dimensions – choice and level of mastery – that provides the reader with insight into the forms of visceral behaviour to which leaders succumb. Insight enables us to offer managers strategic suggestions to guard against visceral behaviour and assist them in mitigating its worst aspects, in both those with whom they work and themselves.

Age and firm growth: evidence from three European countries

This article provides new insights into the dependence of firm growth on age along the entire distribution of growth rates, and conditional on survival. Using data from the European firms in a global economy survey, and adopting a quantile regression approach, we uncover evidence for a sample of French, Italian and Spanish manufacturing firms with more than ten employees in the period from 2001 to 2008. We find that: (1) young firms grow faster than old firms, especially in the highest growth quantiles; (2) young firms face the same probability of declining as their older counterparts; (3) results are robust to the inclusion of other firms’ characteristics such as labor productivity, capital intensity and the financial structure; (4) high growth is associated with younger chief executive officers and other attributes that capture the attitude of the firm toward growth and change. The effect of age on firm growth is rather similar across countries.

Risking the ire of investors in pursuit of long-term value: an interview with Cynthia Carroll, the CEO of Anglo American plc

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how key strategic decisions are made in practice at successful FTSE 100 companies. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a semi-structured interview with Ms Cynthia Carroll, Chief Executive of Anglo American plc. Findings – The interview outlines a number of important factors on: the evolution of strategy within Anglo American, strategy execution, leadership at board and executive levels, and capturing synergies within the company. Originality/value – The paper bridges the gap between theory and practice. It provides a practical view and demonstrates how corporate leaders think about key strategic issues

John Lewis Partnership lessons in logical incrementalism and organic growth: a case study and interview with the Chairman, Mr Charlie Mayfield

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how strategy is developed and implemented in an organisation with an unusual ownership model. Partnerships are not a prevalent form of ownership but as this case demonstrates they can be extremely effective. Furthermore this case demonstrates how logical incrementalism can be used to implement major strategic decisions. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on company documentary evidence and a semi-structured interview with Mr Charlie Mayfield, Chairman of John Lewis Partnership. A chairman has a helicopter view of business whose perspectives are rarely captured by strategy researchers. This case study offers an insight into strategic thinking of a chairman and chief executive of a successful company. Research limitations/implications – The case study and interview offer a unique insight into the rationale behind strategic decisions within a successful partnership that has grown organically in a highly competitive retail market without high gearing. Originality/value – This case study sheds light on strategic moves within partnership. Furthermore, very few case studies offer insight into the thinking of a chief executive who has successfully managed a business in a turbulent environment.

Extreme bounds of democracy

What determines the emergence and survival of democracy? The authors apply extreme bounds analysis to test the robustness of fifty-nine factors proposed in the literature, evaluating over three million regressions with data from 165 countries from 1976 to 2002. The most robust determinants of the transition to democracy are gross domestic product (GDP) growth (a negative effect), past transitions (a positive effect), and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development membership (a positive effect). There is some evidence that fuel exporters and Muslim countries are less likely to see democracy emerge, although the latter finding is driven entirely by oil-producing Muslim countries. Regarding the survival of democracy, the most robust determinants are GDP per capita (a positive effect) and past transitions (a negative effect). There is some evidence that having a former military leader as the chief executive has a negative effect, while having other democracies as neighbors has a reinforcing effect.

The art of shooting the moving goal - explorative study of EA pilot

Enterprise Architecture (EA) has been recognised as an important tool in modern business management for closing the gap between strategy and its execution. The current literature implies that for EA to be successful, it should have clearly defined goals. However, the goals of different stakeholders are found to be different, even contradictory. In our explorative research, we seek an answer to the questions: What kind of goals are set for the EA implementation? How do the goals evolve during the time? Are the goals different among stakeholders? How do they affect the success of EA? We analysed an EA pilot conducted among eleven Finnish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in 2011. The goals of the pilot were gathered from three different stages of the pilot: before the pilot, during the pilot, and after the pilot, by means of a project plan, interviews during the pilot and a questionnaire after the pilot. The data was analysed using qualitative and quantitative methods. Eight distinct goals were recognised by the coding: Adopt EA Method, Build Information Systems, Business Development, Improve Reporting, Process Improvement, Quality Assurance, Reduce Complexity, and Understand the Big Picture. The success of the pilot was analysed statistically using the scale 1-5. Results revealed that goals set before the pilot were very different from those mentioned during the pilot, or after the pilot. Goals before the pilot were mostly related to expected benefits from the pilot, whereas the most important result was to adopt the EA method. Results can be explained by possibly different roles of respondents, which in turn were most likely caused by poor communication. Interestingly, goals mentioned by different stakeholders were not limited to their traditional areas of responsibility. For example, in some cases Chief Information Officers' goals were Quality Assurance and Process Improvement, whereas managers’ goals were Build Information Systems and Adopt EA Method. This could be a result of a good understanding of the meaning of EA, or stakeholders do not regard EA as their concern at all. It is also interesting to notice that regardless of the different perceptions of goals among stakeholders, all HEIs felt the pilot to be successful. Thus the research does not provide support to confirm the link between clear goals and success.

A case study and interview with Jill McDonald CEO and President of McDonald's Northern Europe Division

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how strategy is developed and implemented within a subsidiary of a global organization, the relationship between subsidiary and headquarters and the need for continuous change and adaption to remain relevant. Furthermore, this case study describes a successful process of invention and adoption. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on documentary evidence and a semistructured interview with Jill McDonald CEO and President of McDonald’s Northern Europe Division with responsibility for the UK, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and the Republic of Ireland. Management research rarely captures the views of the top executive, yet the top executives have a broad picture and are key strategic decision makers. Findings – The case study and interview offers a unique insight into factors contributing to McDonald’s unprecedented success (it has paid an increased dividend for the past 37 years). It also sheds light on its successful internationalization strategy. Originality/value – The case study draws on published material and augments this with an in-depth interview with the Chief Executive. Very few case studies offer insight into the thinking of a Chief Executive managing a subsidiary of a global organization. Its value lies in the lessons that managers and students of management can draw on the approach adopted by a highly successful global organization.

Managing land-use conflict around urban centres: Australian poultry farmer attitudes towards relocation

In analysing the release of agricultural land to urban development, the urban fringe literature has not focused on whether farmers are able to relocate from the urban fringe to remoter rural areas. Through interviews with representatives from the poultry industry in two Australian states, this paper identifies that poultry farm relocation strategies are constrained by off-farm economic relations, the land-use planning system and financial considerations. Closely aligned to these constraints on relocation is the on-going process of poultry farm intensification, which is seen as presenting rising problems for land-use management around expanding metropolitan centres in Australia. Of particular concern is the potential for amenity complaints and associated land-use conflicts, which have not been comprehensively investigated. Recognising that existing environmental and land-use planning controls are ineffective in producing amicable solutions when conflict involving poultry farming is at its most intense, the paper calls for improvements to the regulatory system, including greater consideration for how the process of relocation can be encouraged. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.