Why do organisations decline, and what happens when they do? Strategy and Managed Decline: London Transport 1948-87 is a historical case study looking at how London Transport, a world beater in 1948, declined from being an international exemplar to dilapidation in 30 years.

A growing body of literature in the area of business administration has focused on the phenomenon of decline. These studies span multiple levels of analysis and draws on a range of disciplines, including strategic management, economics, and economic geography. Managing Decline: A Research Overview provides a summary of this research by focusing on three key levels of analysis: industries, clusters, and organizations. The targeted reviews in this book map each individual level of analysis separately and the discussion section outlines overarching themes regarding decline and its management. The three levels are analyzed by identifying different forms, causes, processes, and management options regarding decline. This is accompanied by the identification of key academic discourses that have been used to analyze decline. The discussion section highlights broader themes regarding the nature and management of decline that span across the different levels of analysis. This book provides an easy-to-access summary on the nature and management of decline for academic scholars and business practitioners, and is essential reading for getting an overview of this broad field of research.

This shortform book presents key peer-reviewed research on industrial history. In selecting and contextualising this volume, the editors address how the field of textile history has evolved. Themes covered include entrepreneurial, technological and labour history, whilst the book highlights the strategic and social consequences of innovations in the history of this key UK sector. Of interest to business and economic historians, this shortform book also provides analysis and illustrative case-studies that will be valuable reading across the social sciences.

This is an account of Britain's rise and fall, and an introduction to the main explanations of decline and political strategies for reversing it. The book has been updated and has a new concluding chapter which assesses the state of debate and the British economy after the Thatcher decade.

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world. Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” In Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” He introduces nine sources of power—ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth—that are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can easily be put to work on Monday morning, and uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007–08 financial crisis. Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.

Industrial restructuring has become a way of life, the inevitable accommodation to rapid changes in technology, to a global economy that affects large and small communities through the constant flow of goods and people, and to the challenging patterns of economic viability that alter that flow. Managing Decline examines the impact of coal mine closures in Yubari City, Hokkaido, once one of Japan's most prosperous coal-producing cities, and asks how Japanese culture has influenced the enactment of and response to industrial policy for restructuring in this community. For many years, coal formed the backbone of Japan's economic development, but the dangers and costs of mining became increasingly expensive for the industry and government. Global changes in coal production and exchange finally prompted Japan's decision in 1986 to shut down nearly all domestic coal mines in favor of coal imports. Japan's policy for industry restructuring has been applauded as one of the most comprehensive in addressing the needs of the industry, the workers, and the community. At the micro-level, however, the people in the community most affected by the policy decisions have been excluded from the process. Managing Decline reveals the stratified effects, as well as compensation, for the different groups in Yubari. Although the policy settlement package goes to the coal miners, community redevelopment ignores their needs, prompting them to leave the city and benefiting instead land owners and public employees. Revealed as well as the ways in which Japan's cultural values, particularly the vertical social structure as it affects decision making, status, occupations, and company organization, and the importance of maintaining the family system, figure in the policy process and its consequences. The author's research, based on two years' residence in Yubari during the last few years of the closures, makes an important contribution to community studies of social change in Japan. It is also the first field study to examine the effects of industrial policy for restructuring in Japan at the worker and community level.

Understanding Strategic Analysis is a concise and practical guide for organisational strategic analysis, strategy development, decision-making, and implementation. The book takes the reader step by step through the background of strategic management and the process of developing a new strategy. It considers how to assess the strategic capabilities and context of the organisation, how to identify and choose between the various strategic options, and how to successfully implement the change in strategy. Mini-case studies and reflective questions provide stimuli for class discussion, whilst chapter objectives and summaries structure and reinforce learning. The final chapter sets out a complete worked example to illustrate the process as a whole. Refreshing and concise, this text provides valuable and practical reading for postgraduate, MBA and executive education students of strategic management, as well as practising managers in organisations of all sizes. Online resources include a short Instructor’s Manual, chapter-by-chapter PowerPoint slides, and a test bank of exam questions.

Spengler's work describes how we have entered into a centuries-long "world-historical" phase comparable to late antiquity, and his controversial ideas spark debate over the meaning of historiography.

This book discusses the latest advances in people-centered design, operation, and management of broadly defined advanced manufacturing systems and processes. It reports on human factors issues related to various research areas such as intelligent manufacturing technologies, web-based manufacturing services, digital manufacturing worlds, and manufacturing knowledge support systems, as well as other contemporary manufacturing environments. The book covers an extensive range of applications of human factors in the manufacturing industry: from work design, supply chains, evaluation of work systems, and social and organization design, to manufacturing systems, simulation and visualization, automation in manufacturing, and many others. Special emphasis is given to computer aided manufacturing technologies supporting enterprises, both in general and in the manufacturing industry in particular, such as knowledge-based systems, virtual reality, artificial intelligence methods, and many more. Based on the AHFE 2017 International Conference on Human Aspects of Advanced Manufacturing, held on July 17-21, 2017, in Los Angeles, California, USA, the book provides readers with a timely snapshot of the enterprises of the future and a set of cutting-edge technologies and methods for building innovative, human-centered, and computer-integrated manufacturing systems.