New leadership strategies for the enterprise of the future

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine new leadership approaches for competing in a flat world. Among the many demands placed on twenty‐first century leaders is the need to develop entirely new business strategies. Decision making must take into account many complex interactions and multiple scenarios. Yet strategic time horizons are becoming more compressed, requiring shorter planning cycles. Even if the right strategy is formulated, execution is often difficult. In addition, in today's dynamic market environment, both strategy and execution need to be quickly adjusted as conditions change.Design/methodology/approach – The nine‐tiered framework presented has been successfully applied by the authors in a variety of settings. The approach integrates top‐down strategic planning with bottom‐up execution, all within the context of a knowledge‐based organization.Findings – The paper finds that the ability of an organization to compete in a flat world is enhanced when all elements of the enterprise a...