Martin Kornberger

How do we organize ourselves to accomplish shared goals? Our well-worn modes of collective action--from markets to hierarchies, from institutions to movements--have so far provided a limited vocabulary to investigate, let alone invent, new forms of open, networked, and trans-sectoral collaboration. Yet new forms of collective action are continually emerging, defined by openness, polycentricity, and plurality while still strategic and goal-oriented. Martin Kornberger pursues these experimental models to offer a vocabulary for the hitherto "untapped capability" to organize and strategize distributed and collective action. He introduces a novel set of concepts including shared concerns, symbols, interface designs, participatory architectures, evaluative infrastructures, network strategy, and leading as diplomacy, which together combine goal-orientated, purposeful action with scale, openness, and creativity. With a new vocabulary we can explore alternative ways of thinking and strategies to address the significant challenges and crises of our times.

A realist's guide to management, the authors capture the complex life of organizations, providing not only an account of theories, but also an introduction to their practice with examples from everyday life and culture discussing the key themes and debates along the way.

Brands are a fait accompli: they represent a mountain range of evidence in search of a theory. They are much exploited, but little explored. In this book, Martin Kornberger sets out to rectify the ratio between exploiting and exploring through sketching out a theory of the Brand Society. Most attempts to explain the role of brands focus on brands either as marketing and management tools (business perspective) or a symptoms of consumerism (sociological perspective). Brand Society combines these perspectives to show how brands have the power to transform both the organizations that develop them and the lifestyles of the individuals who consume them. This holistic approach shows how brands function as a medium between producers and consumers in a way that is rapidly transforming our economy and society. That's the bottom line of the Brand Society: brands are a new way of organizing production and managing consumption. Using an array of practical case studies from a diverse set of organizations, this book provides a fascinating account of the way in which brands influence the lives of individuals and the organizations they work in.

'If strategy is the queen of business, then this book offers us the perfect introduction to her court! It is accessible, lively, and informative. The book repays the reader with wonderful account of how strategy works. It also lets the reader in on some of the darker secrets of strategy' - André Spicer, Associate Professor of Organisation Studies, Warwick Business School Studying Strategy is a welcoming, lively and thought provoking account that helps students get to grips with strategy's key issues and broad debates and introduce them to the latest ideas. Conceived by Chris Grey as an antidote to conventional textbooks, each book in the ‘Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap’ series takes a core area of the curriculum and turns it on its head by providing a critical and sophisticated overview of the key issues and debates in an informal, conversational and often humorous way. Suitable for students of strategy at Undergraduate, Masters and MBA level, professionals involved in strategic decision making and anyone interested in how strategy works.