Open Strategy has emerged as an alternative approach in response to increasing environmental complexity and uncertainty, promoting greater transparency and inclusivity in strategy processes. By engaging a broader range of stakeholders beyond top managers, board members or actors with formal mandates to engage in strategy, Open Strategy aims to overcome cognitive biases, foster innovation, and enhance strategic adaptability and strategy implementation. In the context of family businesses, the concept of openness in the strategy process assumes a unique connotation due to the interplay between family and business systems, and its influence on strategic processes. This webinar discusses some of the unique implications of Open strategy in the family firm context. While some family firms may resist openness, fearing loss of autonomy, misalignment with family legacy, and the exposure of internal dynamics, others may integrate external voices, leveraging their unique social ties to maintain inclusivity while preserving strategic control. However, despite its potential benefits, Open Strategy also presents challenges for family firms, including slower decision-making, governance complexities, and leadership role ambiguity. Additionally, while transparency can enhance stakeholder trust, it may also expose sensitive family dynamics, threatening their reputation. This webinar seeks to discuss these tensions and start a discussion on how Open Strategy may unfold via various practices in family businesses.
To participate, please register at the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/A1w_8K92SgGXOqfxKPqOJA
Julia Hautz is professor of strategic management at the University of Innsbruck (Austria). Previously she was an interim professor of strategy at the University of Cologne (Germany) and a visiting scholar at the University of Bath School of Management, and the University of Oxford’s Said Business School. Her research focuses on open strategy. She explores open practices in the strategy process, and their consequences in terms of cognitive diversity, strategy implementation, implications for the roles of leaders and strategists, and associated tensions and struggles. Her work has been published, among others, in Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Perspectives, Long Range Planning, Global Strategy Journal, Journal of Product Innovation Management, International Journal of Management Reviews, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review and Journal of Strategic Information Systems. Julia is currently Associate Editor at Long Range Planning. She is actively engaged in building and encouraging research on open strategy. She has co-edited the first academic special issue dedicated to open strategy in Long Range Planning (together with Richard Whittington and David Seidl). She is co-author of the book Open Strategy Open Strategy: Mastering Disruption from Outside the C-Suite (MIT Press) which has been nominated for the Thinkers50 Strategy Award in 2021.
