a tribute to Sumantra Ghoshal (1948–2004)

In this blog i have tried to acknowledge contributions of some great minds in business and management, today i pay a tribute to Sumantra Ghoshal (1948–2004). he was undoubtedly one of the greatest minds in history of business and management. 

he wrote numerous influential articles on management theory and practice of which perhaps the "Bad Management Theories are Destroying Good Management Practices" is the watershed piece of scholarship in management research. 


the following list was taken from his page on wikipedia and shows some of his publications: 

• Beyond Self-Interest Revisited" by Hector Rocha and Sumantra Ghoshal, Journal of Management Studies, 2006 Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 585–619
• "Bad Management Theories are Destroying Good Management Practices" by Sumantra Ghoshal, Academy of Management Learning and Education, 2005 Vol. 4 Issue 1, pp. 75–91
• "Unleashing Organisational Energy" by Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal, MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall 2003 Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 45–51
• "What is a Global Manager" by Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal, Harvard Business Review, 2003 Aug;81(8):101-108, 141
• "Managing Personal Human Capital" by Lynda Gratton and Sumantra Ghoshal, European Management Journal, 2003 vo. 21, No. 1, pp. 1–10
• "Beware the Busy Manager" by Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal, Harvard Business Review, 2002, vol. 80, No. 2, pp. 62–69
• "Strategy as a Guided Evolution" by Bjorn Lovas and Sumantra Ghoshal, Strategic Management Journal, 2000, vol. 21, No. 9, pp. 875–896
• "Management Competence, Firm Growth and Economic Progress" by Sumantra Ghoshal, M Hahn and Peter Moran, Contributions to Political Economy, Vol. 18, pp. 121–150, 1999
• "Markets, Firms, and the Process of Economic Development" by Peter Moran and Sumantra Ghoshal, The Academy of Management Review, 1999, Vol. 24, No. 3, 390-412
• "Social Capital and Value Creation: The Role of Intrafirm Networks" by Wenpin Tsai and Sumantra Ghoshal, The Academy of Management Journal, 1998 Vol. 41, No. 4, pp. 464–476
• "Social capital, intellectual capital and the organizational advantage" by Janine Nahapiet and Sumantra Ghoshal, Academy of Management Review, 1998 23(2): 242-266
• "Theories of Economic Organisation: The Case for Realism and Balance" by Peter Moran and Sumantra Ghoshal, The Academy of Management Review, 1996, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 58–72
• "Bad For Practice: A Critique of the Transaction Cost Theory" by Sumantra Ghoshal and Peter Moran, The Academy of Management Review, 1996 Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 13–47
• "Building the Entrepreneurial Corporation: New Organisational Processes, New Managerial Tasks" by Sumantra Ghoshal and Christopher A. Bartlett, European Management Journal, 1995 Vol. 13 No.2, pp. 139–55
• "Differentiated Fit and Shared Values: Alternatives for Managing Headquarters-Subsidiary Relations" by Nitin Nohria and Sumantra Ghoshal, Strategic Management Journal, 1994, Vol. 15, No. 6, pp. 491–502
• "Interunit Communication in Multinational Corporations" by Sumantra Ghoshal, Harry Korine and Gabriel Szulanski, Management Science, Vol. 40, No. 1, January 1994, pp. 96–110
• "Beyond the M-form: Toward a Managerial Theory of the Firm" by Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal, Strategic Management Journal, 1993 No. 14, Winter, pp. 23–46
• "Matrix Management: Not a Structure, a Frame of Mind" by Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal, Harvard Business Review, 1990 Jul-Aug; 68(4): 138-145
• "Environmental Scanning in Korean Firms: Organisational Isomorphism in Action" by Sumantra Ghoshal, Journal of International Business Studies, 1988 Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 69–86
• "Creation, Adoption, and Diffusion of Innovations by Subsidiaries of Multinational Corporations" by Sumantra Ghoshal and Christopher A. Bartlett, Journal of International Business Studies, 1988 Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 365–388

i personally haven't had chance to read all of his scholarly works but by reading few i have learnt a lot about how global economy and corporate world work and how management practices and theory can be bridged effectively. i hope those who are interested in these subject pay enough attention to what sumantra has left for us 

if you haven't read his works i suggest following books to start: 

1. Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution
 (Bartlett & Ghoshal 2002), a book he co-authored with Christopher A. Bartlett, has been listed in the Financial Times as one of the 50 most influential management books and has been translated into nine languages.
2. The Strategy Process: Concepts, Contexts, Cases : Global by Henry Mintzberg, Joseph Lampel, James Brian Quinn, and Sumantra Ghoshal, 2002.
3. The Differentiated Network : Organizing Multinational Corporations for Value Creation (The Jossey-Bass Business & Management Series) by Nitin Nohria and Sumantra Ghoshal (Hardcover - Feb 19, 1997)

have you ever asked yourself; what strategy is really?

this is perhaps one of the most perplexing and enduring questions in management and business history.
Ansoff, Mintzberg, Porter and Hambrick are amongst the most renowned scholars who have tried to provide a compelling answer for this question.

given this , in a new series of post i am going to publish, i have planned to give you a brief overview of these thoughts


i begin with Michale Porter, professor porter is recognized as the father of modern strategic management , his article in 1996 HBR ( what is strategy) is also a landmark and watershed piece of scholarship in strategy literature and explained nicely what strategy is form the perspective of industrial organization (IO)

following the industrial organization paradigm , and famous five-forces model in Porterian school of strategy , strategy means positioning


when a firm formulates a strategy it sets a plan (a series of processes, procedures, decisions and actions) in order to position itself differently in the market. 

thus according to porter (1996): strategy is doing things differently or  doing different things 

when it is said that differentiation either in cost structures or in product mix ( innovation) is the essence of strategy it falls into porterian school of strategy. 


firms who follow this mindset are differentiators who see competitiveness and supremacy in being constantly different and gain profit our of their position. 


these firms are able to achieve economies of scale and economies of scope and hence monopolize themselves 

competitive position of  firms in this view is ultimately sustained by their monopoly market power 

can you name some cases in this school? 


in the next post i will explain other schools and compare them