An economic adage states that “Success breeds success.” Stated otherwise, it suggests that the fruits of successful performance will fund a firm’s growth initiatives. Corporate Growth and Organizational Development is about diversification via internal or external multi-industry activities. Whether a firm grows organically or through transactions with other firms, its successful growth requires matching investments in organizational development and other resources with the growth path chosen to ensure that the firm will have appropriate skills to reinforce its successful transition to a more-complex firm. Starting with competitive advantages achieved at the level of the business unit, the course investigates how value is ultimately created when a firm expands at the business unit level―geographically, upstream or downstream, or into related activities. Then it investigates how the firm’s headquarters office provides appropriate support for enhancing the value of a firm’s diversification strategy. Finally a metric is introduced for fine-tuning the elements of the firm’s program of growth. My research findings concerning operating synergies suggest that although a firm’s corporate advantage can be premised on many sources of operating advantage, the most enduring and adaptive source of advantage arises from the way that the firm uses its people. A program of well-considered organizational development reinforces the power of operating synergies that the firm’s managers have attained and suggests additional growth opportunities. This course will help you to identify the various dimensions of a corporate advantage model that gauges how well headquarters contributions are supporting the members of the firm’s corporate family to maximize their potential advantage (or not). The course will also help you to develop a keen sense for the balance existing between controllable and uncontrollable dimensions that enhance corporate growth, as well as how firms might improve said balance.

Kathryn Harrigan

Henry R. Kravis Professor of Business Leadership

Professor Harrigan, who teaches strategic management courses about corporate growth (as well as turnaround management), is a specialist in corporate strategy, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, diversification strategy, in turnarounds, industry restructurings and the competitive problems of mature- and declining-demand businesses, and in industry and competitor analysis. Most recently, Professor Harrigan has researched the role of technological synergies in corporate strategy. She has served...

View full profile