Organizational Transformation

 Introduction 

In 1985, Porter ⁽²⁾ suggested that a company has a chain of activities which create value and which are 'performed to design, produce, market, deliver and support its product'. Porter also pointed out that each activity employs purchased inputs, human resources and some form of technology. Saunders ⁽³⁾ said that "A business strategy needs to give direction to these activities and to ensure that the interrelationships between them are taken into account. Thus, the strategies for these activities should support the overall strategy of the business with regard to mission, objectives, competitive scope and competitive advantage." Saunders is clearly advocating an integrated strategy that permeates all elements of the business and thereby enables these elements to positively contribute to product value.

Galliers and Baets ⁽⁴⁾ effectively agree with Porter and Saunders, and many others for that matter, e.g. Dutta & Doz ⁽⁵⁾, Jordan and Tricker ⁽⁶⁾, Ward and Peppard ⁽⁷⁾, in this respect. Galliers and Baets ⁽⁴⁾ describe this in a "Circle of Forces", which is illustrated below.

Fig. 1 - Circle of Forces
Galliers and Baets ⁽⁴⁾

 Data