Arnoldo Hax, the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Management Emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management and an operations management expert who introduced a customer-centered approach to competitive strategy with his Delta Model, died April 20. He was 87. Hax joined MIT Sloan in 1973 as a member of the Operations Management group. An industrial engineer who believed that management could be improved through rationalization, Hax was an early member of the strategy group at MIT Sloan, and strengthened ties with the School of Engineering. 'He was a big proselytizer for the idea that management can be made more effective,' says Professor Emeritus Michael Scott Morton of MIT Sloan. 'The Delta Model was the synthesis of the factors that he saw as most important in setting a strategy.' Customer bonding is at the heart of strategy; it is 'fundamental' for a company to get to know the customer and provide a unique value proposition from its competitors, Hax said in a 2010 interview with Emerald Publishing....
To 'do well by doing good,' you need a good strategy....
In a fast-evolving competitive environment, businesses can be tempted to routinely update their strategy. This is a mistake. Strategy setting should occur once a decade. Despite management folklore, theyâre not âconstantly reinventing themselves.â Yes, theyâve been vigilant. True, thereâs plenty of work to occupy managers and advisors taking stock, and calibrating new initiatives, as opportunities arise. But they tend to avoid frequent changes in direction. Instead, they set a long-term horizon â usually a decade or more â to pursue growth while staying true to the kind of business they set out to be....
