Formation/Cours

At the end of the course, the student should be able to:
– understand the importance of Organisational Resilience
– appreciate that Organisational Resilience – in a historical and commercial context – can be established by two fundamentally opposing approaches
– be able to criticise any form of Organisational Resilience
– to evaluate Organisational Resilience from a strategic, operational, and tactical perspective, as well as to inform your perspective from an angle of leadership and Logistics
– apply key principles of Organisational Resilience in a commercial environment

The study of history should be, as Clausewitz suggested, “meant to educate the mind of the future commander, or, more accurately, to guide him in his self-education, not to accompany him to the battlefield; just as a wise teacher guides and stimulates a young man’s intellectual development, but is careful not to lead him by the hand for the rest of his life.”

Military encounters can give insight into major management issues not because they are directly relevant to day-to-day organisational issues, but because they offer managers the chance to explore extreme examples and identify key points that they can take back to their own work. Each one may find different points that are relevant to their own context, but dealing with uncertainty and working out how to deal with strong competitors in a fast-moving environment are issues that most organisations can identify with. It is a thought-provoking case that resonates with many of today’s challenges.

This course relies on problem-based learning, centred on you. You will be given access to a book that provides you with a rich insight into the case study of the Fall of France 1940. The defeat of France by Nazi Germany in May 1940 can be considered as a real-life David versus Goliath story. The inferior party prevails in a stunning, puzzling manner over a force that was considered ‘invincible’ at that time. However, it is less a question of what resources are at your disposal, but whether you can out-manage or out-smart your opponent. In management speak, how to establish and maintain Organisational Resilience in an environment characterised by Uncertainty, Volatility, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA).

In this context, we will explore and evaluate the opposing concepts of

– Linear versus Adaptive Strategy
– Concentration versus Dispersion
– Centralisation versus Decentralisation
– Administrative versus Adaptive Leadership
– Logistical independence versus dependence