Table Of ContentLeading and
Transforming
Organizations
Businesses must stay agile and be responsive to the complexities and disruptions
brought about by digital transformation. The recent pandemic has also accelerated
business digitization. Packed with insights and strategies, this book breaks down the
roadmap to organizational success into core areas. It explains how companies can
adapt, prepare, and optimize their business performance through strategic position-
ing, business sustainability, and crisis management.
Rajaram describes strategic positioning as a mix of strategies for organizations
to gain competitive advantage and ensure long-term success. He also talks about
business sustainability and explores how organizations need to re-innovate their
approaches to tap into opportunities created by the rapid changing customer needs
and evolving environmental interventions. The book also illustrates how companies
can navigate out of a crisis successfully.
This book will be an excellent, essential guide for leaders, practitioners, and any-
one who is formulating effective organizational strategies.
Kumaran Rajaram, PhD, is Senior Lecturer with the Leadership, Management, and
Organization Division at Nanyang Business School, and Deputy Academic Direc-
tor (Liaison) with Nanyang Technoprenuership Centre, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore.
“Dr. Kumaran Rajaram provides excellent insights on effective leadership from his
experiences in large organizations, in academia, as an entrepreneur, and consultant.
This book gives leaders tools and skillsets to resolve various dilemmas. The dilemma
of dealing with current pressing needs and strategizing for the future; dilemma of
being agile yet developing a strong culture; dilemma of being competitive/bot-
tom-line driven yet managing with strong ethical foundations. While other manage-
ment/leadership books exist, Dr. Rajaram’s book astutely shows how his insights can
be applied in the context of fast technological advancement, digitalization, and new
work arrangements such as remote work.”
FOO Maw-Der, PhD (MIT), Professor, Nanyang Business School,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Director, Nanyang
Technopreneurship Center; Director, Asian Business Case Center
“This book astutely examines and discusses strategic issues concerning leaders in con-
temporary volatile times. The concepts and examples provided are relatable to both
scholars and practitioners, thus offering both theoretical and practical insights. It is a
highly recommended read for instructors and researchers who are keen to adopt sus-
tainable and agile leadership strategies to navigate dynamic business environments!”
Chong SinHui, PhD, Assistant Professor, Division of Leadership,
Management and Organization, Nanyang Business School,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
“Current executives and business leaders are experiencing greater change, pressure,
uncertainty, and complexity than ever before. And, it seems likely that the presence
of these factors will only increase. This may be the biggest threat to organizations
and the biggest challenge for organizational leaders. To prepare future leaders to nav-
igate this environment successfully, different approaches to developing leaders and
leading are necessary. Leading and Transforming Organizations: Navigating the Future
is a unique scholarly/practice-oriented book that informs both current leaders and
next-generation leaders on the cutting-edge ideas that are necessary for navigating
the tumultuous now as well as the increasingly tumultuous future.”
Ryan Gottfredson, PhD, Associate Professor, College of Business and Economics,
California State University, Fullerton, United States
“Dr Rajaram’s book discusses cutting-edge topics and latest skills with which lead-
ers, strategists, and managers need to be well-versed and equipped to face twen-
ty-first-century challenges, including developing transformative leadership skills in
a remote VUCA work environment, meeting ethical and sustainable business stan-
dards, and adapting to and striving in digital ecosystems. I recommend Dr Rajaram’s
book to any leader, strategist, and manager involved in leading and transforming an
organization for the twenty-first century.”
Ludvig Levasseur, PhD, Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship,
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and Junior Research Fellow,
Institute for Development Strategies, O’Neill School of
Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University
“This book is a timely reminder of the importance of leadership in the organizational
context. The world is going through rapid changes due to nationalism, the pan-
demic, climate change, war, and economic upheaval. Organizations must adapt to
such socio-political changes. This book raises important factors that can help orga-
nizations succeed in such changing circumstances. Leaders play a vital role in this
process. The book provides novel leadership strategies in re-evaluating organizational
strategies and commitments that can incorporate the changing nature of employees
and work, management, and governance in the face of crises and change.”
Sarbari Bordia, PhD, Professor, Deputy Director Research,
Research School of Management, Australian National University
“Dr. Kumaran is spot on in identifying the three pillars for transformative change
– leadership (self and team), innovative culture and dynamic strategizing for value
proposition. The topics are timely for a post-pandemic era where the corporates are
trying to find the fine balance between the internal challenges around the future of
work and the external ones driven by disruption, high-competitive intensity, shorter
life cycles, shifting customer preferences and macro-economic factors. Innovation
is oxygen for companies – and Dr. Kumaran lays down both the big picture and a
detailed playbook that make corporate transformation a reality.”
Manish Sinha, PhD, CFA, Director and Head of Venture Building,
Nanyang Technological University – NTUitive Pte Ltd
“Dr. Rajaram’s book is a very resourceful one for professionals in any industry that
try to cope with and navigate the turbulent and complex landscape in the digital era.
It is also a perfect resource for researchers and teaching faculty to understand some
of the key challenges and concepts that the business leaders deal with today. Deliver-
ing a mix of deep-dive theories and real-world applications, the book provides a set
of evidence-based and practice-oriented frameworks as well as recommendations. I
highly recommend this book to anyone trying to gather knowledge in this subject.”
Mr. Paul Li, Head, Strategic Partnerships, Nanyang Executive Education,
Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University
“Dr. Kumaran’s book on Leading and Transforming Organizations: Navigating the
Future comes at the right time of unprecedented global change. As organizations
scramble to adapt to the digital economy transformation, they must be agile. From
a holistic perspective, strategic positioning is about how a company differentiates
itself from its competitors and delivers value to its targeted markets. In my capac-
ity as head of strategy at my organization, I recognize the significance of strategic
positioning in advancing its development. While a strategic positioning approach
enables an organization to devise the right mix of strategies that can help them gain
an edge over their competition, the book’s greatest value is that it teaches readers
how to restrategize through re-value propositions, enabling organizations to be agile
and responsive and promoting strategies that allow them to do so.”
Dr. Samson Tan, Head, Strategic Development, Libraries and Education,
Civica Pte Ltd, Singapore
“This nine-chapter book on Leadership and Transformation is an excellent book
intended for researchers and practitioners, as well as teachers and students of Lead-
ership and Strategy. It covers a wide gamut of topics and issues that are faced by busi-
ness leaders: the future of work, innovation to address grand challenges, strategizing
the value proposition, ethics and corporate governance, digitalization and technol-
ogy management, change management, crisis management, sustainability and pre-
paring for the future. The book can be used as a valuable reference by practitioners
and researchers alike and as a reference resource at both undergraduate and graduate
levels by students and instructors. The beauty of Dr. Rajaram’s book is that it covers
both long-term strategic issues such as leadership, innovation, change management
and preparing for the future, as well as operational issues such as crisis management,
sustainability and agility.”
Professor S. Viswanathan, Nanyang Business School,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
“This book is a mind-opener for an audience that cares about the vital issues leaders
and strategy-makers of organizations are facing today. In particular, it elaborates on
the need for transformation and adaptation in a business environment that has never
been more ‘VUCA’ (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) before. It con-
textualizes crucial leadership responsibilities against the backdrop of the COVID-
19 pandemic; the digital transformation bringing about various opportunities and
threats; and the changing world of work. I highly appreciate the hands-on approach
combining a rich theoretical underpinning with illustrative examples and outcome
orientation. Leadership scholars will find plentiful inspiration for research strength-
ening their expertise in innovative value creation and strategy re-design, which will
also enable them to support their business constituencies even better. Organizational
leaders will find encouragement and practical guidance to design strategic transfor-
mation and to strengthen their crisis management capabilities.”
Prof. Dr. Volker Rundshagen, Management and Tourism Studies,
University of Applied Sciences Stralsund, Germany
“A thoughtful book that niftily guides organizational leaders through complex
transformation journeys. Readers involved in enormous transformation efforts will
find this book indispensable. The book helps navigate the complexity of change by
making sense of the situations, examining personal readiness, heightening awareness
of people engagement, and charting multiple workstreams to drive implementa-
tion. Relevant theories and models are explained and linked closely to real-world
examples. The book synthesizes the complex and competing ideas about leading and
transforming organizations into a succinct yet complete framework that leaders can
apply immediately. Rich in illustrations and broad in scope – this is a must-have
resource for students and practitioners.”
Phang Yew Keong, Nigel, Associate Professor (Practice)
and Associate Dean (Executive Education), Nanyang Business School,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
“This is a unique book. Most books on leadership focus only on organizational issues
and/or traits of a good leader as though the firm strategy is a separate factor. And
most books on strategy treat the firm itself as key actor and downplay the charisma,
the style, and the behavior of individual leaders within the firm. In contrast, this
book addresses the intersection between leadership, strategy, and management. The
book provides insights into how it is the firm leader (or the leadership team) who
shapes the culture of the firm, directs the transformation process, and guides the firm
in re-strategizing and re-positioning itself to achieve a competitive advantage in its
chosen market. The leader or the leadership team is also the one that keeps the firm
agile, well-governed, and constantly prepared to deal with current and future dis-
ruptions. Each chapter is infused with deep discussions of contemporary issues that
enable strategy and management scholars to rethink the validity of existing theories.
Each chapter also offers practical frameworks and in-depth case studies that enable
practitioners to derive useful prescriptions for their actual leadership work. The book
serves as an excellent guide to practicing enlightened leadership in today’s volatile
business environment and within organizations that are populated by a new breed of
workers that hold a whole new set of values.”
Lewis Lim, PhD, Associate Professor of Marketing (Practice),
Academic Director, Nanyang Professional MBA Programme,
Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Leading and Transforming
Organizations
Navigating the Future
Kumaran Rajaram
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Kumaran Rajaram
The right of Kumaran Rajaram to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rajaram, Kumaran, author.
Title: Leading and transforming organizations : navigating the future /
Kumaran Rajaram.
Description: 1 Edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, 2023.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022038691 (print) | LCCN 2022038692 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Organizational change. | Management—Technological
innovations. | Strategic planning. | Organizational effectiveness.
Classification: LCC HD58.8 .R3435 2023 (print) | LCC HD58.8
(ebook) | DDC 658.4/06—dc23/eng/20221027
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022038691
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022038692
ISBN: 9781032260501 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781032260488 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003286288 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003286288
Typeset in Adobe Garamond Pro
by codeMantra
Contents
List of Illustrations .........................................................................xiii
About the Author ............................................................................ xv
Foreword.......................................................................................xvii
Preface ........................................................................................... xix
Acknowledgments ...........................................................................xxv
STRATEGIC POSITIONING AND TRANSFORMATION
1 Leadership and the Future of Work .........................................................3
1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................3
1.2 Self-leadership ....................................................................................4
1.3 Transformative Leadership .................................................................5
1.4 Future of Work ..................................................................................6
1.5 Transformative Leaders: Case Studies .................................................7
1.6 Strategy 1: Create an Appropriate Culture .......................................11
1.7 S trategy 2: Adopting Growth and Winning Mindsets ......................13
1.8 Strategy 3: Pursue Two Separate Journeys at Once ...........................15
1.9 S trategy 4: Develop a Road Map Before the Disruption Occurs .......17
1.10 Strategy 5: Make the Transformation Meaningful ............................19
2 Value Creation Innovative Culture ........................................................29
2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................29
2.2 Innovative Culture ...........................................................................30
2.3 Organizations That Adopt Innovative Culture .................................31
2.4 Strategy 1: Re-examine Hierarchy ...................................................33
2.5 Strategy 2: Cultivate External Relationships .....................................35
2.6 Strategy 3: Understand the Market Segment ....................................36
2.7 Strategy 4: Enable Collaborative Innovation ....................................38
2.8 Strategy 5: Tolerate Failure but Not Incompetence ...........................39
ix
