The Need for Organisational Resilience - Chapter 1

centralisation versus decentralisation. Additional understanding of these concepts will be provided by the Battle of the Philippine Sea on 19-20 th June 1944. Chapter 5: Leadership. The city of Stonne – overlooking Sedan and the river Meuse − was the location of the counterattacks by the French on 14 th May. The events that

led to the German breakout from the bridgehead along the Meuse will serve as the context

for examining the aspect of leadership in Chapter 5. Events during the Battle of Hürtgen

Forest between September 12th and December 16th 1944 will contribute to this discourse.

Chapter 6: Logistics. Chapter 6 will evaluate the opposing concepts of logistical dependence versus independence, looking at the events between 18 th May – 20 th May, also

known as the ‘race to the Channel’. Additional insights will be provided by referring to the

Africa Campaign in 1941.

Chapter 7: Roads to Resilience. Chapter 7 will bring all these different insights

together and will reflect on how organisational resilience can be established in an

organizational context, and what pitfalls may await you on the road to being organisationally

resilient.

Limitations of the book

Each chapter of the book starts with an overview of the unfolding events. It is intended to

provide a detailed account of the evolving situation on the ground. The timeline is

augmented by an account of a major strategic, operational or tactical objective, and how

both sides responded in trying to achieve this objective. The context in which both parties

operated will set the scene for a breakdown of their ‘ways of working’ into distinctive

managerial components. Their advantages will be evaluated and their application put in

perspective, addressing how ‘well’ they applied their intended approach. Given the

complexity of the situation, this is rarely a simple determination. Evaluation in the historical

context of 1940 is subsequently translated into reflecting on the ‘So What?’ question. In

other words, what does it all mean for a manager? Is one way of being resilient better than

the other? How can I use these different ways of working in my particular context, and how

do I make sense of the options?

The events of 1940 are unique and extreme in their nature. Hence, there are limitations

in terms of how these historical events can be translated into the modern business

environment. It is important to note some key comparisons between what happened then

and what we do in the civilian world of today, as there are a range of contextual differences

that make overall comparison more challenging:

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