American doctors have always fought for two things above all else: professional and business autonomy.
The western conception of the free exercise of property rights and business autonomy that goes with it, essential to any notion of capitalism, does not exist in China.
Its purchase of Hewlett Packard Enterprise saw it take over another former British computer business, Autonomy, which itself had been taken over by HP.
In business, especially social business, autonomy breeds creativity.
"I just wanted to make some what's-it-all-about-Alfie TV shows again". No financial details were disclosed, but the agreement calls for Columbia to retain all domestic and foreign distribution rights to programming produced by the new venture, Act III Television, which will operate "with total creative and business autonomy," according to the announcement.
And they seem, more than their European neighbors, to have learned from missteps and become better able to balance the need in financial businesses between autonomy and control.
Pointing to the long track record of LVMH's success, Kohan emphasizes its clear, strategic focus across 70 brands and six business segments that gives each business the autonomy to make decisions best suited for the individual brands.
Depending on the company's culture, either they insist on standardizing everything to keep costs low or, recognizing the importance of business unit autonomy, they grant exceptions to corporate standards to any business unit manager who raises a stink.
"We believe that the tradeoff of centralized control and 100percentt ownership is worth it for the business independence, autonomy, talent recruitment, and value opportunities that exist at the business unit level".
Striking the right balance between corporate intervention and business-unit autonomy is not easy.
