Electronic markets may soon affect the evolution of the national information infrastructure (NII), or in formation superhighway, as well as the emerging global infrastructure. As the NII is connected to consumers’ homes, market activity will rapidly expand.
How can companies combat the overconfidence and tunnel vision common to so much decision making? By first identifying basic trends and uncertainties and then using them to construct a variety of future scenarios. The author shows how two major companies got a richer picture of the possible future through scenarios — and dramatically improved their strategic planning.
In recent years, changes in the business environment have made it harder for firms to maintain long-term sales growth and profitability levels. Global competition has increased dramatically. A larger selection of products and services is available to the same set of buyers, with little growth in overall markets.
A NEW KIND OF INFORMATION SYSTEM IS EMERGING THAT WILL REDUCE THE TIME TO MARKET, HELP TAILOR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES TO customers’ needs, and make processes more responsive to unexpected events. Expressive systems allow users to adapt quickly and easily to exceptions from standard operating procedure. The authors describe how expressive systems work and suggest ways of modifying the roles and structure of IS departments to implement the new technology.
JAPAN’S DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS, LONG THE TARGET OF CRITICISM, ARE CHANGING. DEREGULATION, NEW MANUFACTURING IMPERATIVES, consumer behavior, and the economy have interacted to reshape Japanese distribution. The trends have important implications for global business, since the system now offers areas of opportunity for Western manufacturers and retailers.
Long-term sustained management of a strategic alliance is turning out to be the dominant challenge of effective IT outsourcing. From a relatively unusual entrepreneurial activity, IT outsourcing has recently exploded across the global corporate landscape.1
ERRORS IN DATA CAN COST A COMPANY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, ALIENATE CUSTOMERS, AND MAKE IMPLEMENTING NEW STRATEGIES DIFFICULT OR IMPOSSIBLE. The author describes a process AT&T uses to recognize poor data and improve their quality. He proposes a three-step method for identifying data-quality problems, treating data as an asset, and applying quality systems to the processes that create data.
With the decline of some well-established firms, the diminishing competitive power of many companies in a burgeoning world market, and the need for organizational renewal and transformation, interest in organizational learning has grown. Senior managers in many organizations are convinced of the importance of improving learning in their organizations.