Time Streams, Accelerators, and Catalyst in Strategic Decisions

Abstract

This paper assumes that pursuing long-term goals to build

organizational competence and capabilities, such as developing

strategic technologies, is a right thing for managers to do. However,

pressures on the managers to generate short-term financial profits

make it difficult to pursue the long-term goals. Hence, it is necessary

for long-term oriented managers to arm themselves with an overarching

philosophy to uphold their visions, goals, and projects. The first

objective of this study is to develop a philosophical framework for the

long-term oriented managers to explain and justi@ what they are doing.

Managers equipped with this framework will'find it easier to mobilize

support from internal and external constituencies. The second objective

of this study is to formulate a model for the planning managers to think

in time-streams to realize their long-term goals in the shortest possible

time.

The planning model to think in time streams involves three steps. The

first step is to visualize a desired future in terms of new products,

technologies, and trust relationships. The second step is mapping

backward (from the desired future to the present) to create catalytic

means to accelerate the realization of the vision. The third step is to

weigh the expected long-term gains against the short-term losses

coming from the means, and analyze contingencies as to when shortterm

concerns should be recognized or take priority.

As for research methods, this study draws on concepts and

definitions developed from both natural and social sciences, and applies

them to analyze historical cases in business management. This

research acknowledges the 'paradigm of new science' maintaining that

nature is so creative, innovative, and even intelligent, that she can

intimate wisdom and intelligence to modern-day organizational

managers. This study analyzes scientific facts (e.g., the

Brachistochrone) that intimate nature's intelligence to minimize the

time it takes to achieve its final (or long-term) goal. As a conclusion,