Strategy Deployment in Business Units Patterns of Operations Strategy Cascading Across Global Sites in a Manufacturing Firm

This book reveals and presents the root-causes that lead to varying improvement performances across different locations of a global positioned manufacturing organization. Conducting a multiple case study analysis of manufacturing sites around the world, the author found that the quality of the strategy deployment process is vital, especially when it is clear to all affected employees—a situation we refer to as strategy cascading. But having a sound strategy cascading alone is not enough. The author worked out that a company, which achieves to align its sound strategy cascading with the company context and leadership style of its top-management team, is likely to realize more operations improvements than do companies that missed to do so.

Introduction.- Review of the Literature on Strategy Cascading, Context, and Leadership.- Research Design and Data Collection.- The Relevance of Organizational Context to Strategy Cascading.- The Effect of Leadership on Strategy Cascading.- Assessment of Strategy Cascading Quality and Improvement Performance.- Results on Strategy Cascading, Context, and Leadership Style.- Theoretical and Managerial Implications.- Appendix: Interview Guide.

Maik Schlickel’s research focus is on strategy cascading and its alignment with leadership style and company context. Currently, Maik is head of quality management at Hella KGaA Hueck & Co. Before that he was first consultant conducting process optimization projects all around the world and then Operational Excellence Manager with global responsibility for the production system throughout nine manufacturing locations of a business division.