Has strategy changed in the wake of the recent economic frenzy and subsequent downturn? Is the New Economy finished? Has the Old Economy returned? At this point, most managers understand what the advent of the Internet implies — operating efficiency for most companies, a terrific channel for some and a
Organizations today must quickly and continually assess which parts of their value chain are vulnerable, which parts are defensible, which alliances make strategic sense, and which threats are deadly.
Uncertainty is an inevitable aspect of most projects, but even the most proficient managers have difficulty handling it.
Not long ago, continuity and stability were the watchwords of corporate operations. Now, with companies facing ever more demanding customers and tougher competition, ongoing operational performance improvement has become a strategic imperative.
Forget capital; it‘s relatively easy to obtain. The scarce, sought-after strategic resource is expertise, which comes in the form of employees. With people in ascendancy over capital, say the authors, it is time to recall what a company actually is: a social institution designed to engage people in the achievement of a valuable and meaningful purpose.
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Using the metaphor of improvisational theater, the author lays out six elements of strategic improvisation that executives can apply to transform their organizations into experimental arenas. Companies that engage in such continual improvisation are better equipped to explore highly threatening disruptive technologies and embrace radical change.
When senior managers at United Parcel Service (UPS) first decided more than 15 years ago that package tracking had become a competitive necessity in the package-delivery industry, they discovered that developing the capability was not as simple as writing or buying a package-tracking application.
The authors examine the theoretical and practical problems associated with trade promotions, and they explain how the right kind of deal can be created — a transparent system that generates mutual trust and provides benefits to both manufacturers and retailers. The key is proper implementation of what is thus far a little understood tool: the pay-for-performance trade promotion, in which retailers get rewarded according to how much they sell, not how much they buy.
Managers don”t have to be told that to innovate they need to embrace drastically different practices from the ones they use for routine work. So why don”t they do it? According to the author, when business leaders see what innovation actually requires, they often recoil. In this article, Sutton has developed eight techniques to move teams and companies from working by rote to innovating.
The most effective boards have highly knowledgeable directors, the information they need to make decisions and, most important, the power to act.
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The question isn’t whether CEOs determine their companies’ fate, but under what circumstances they have the most power to do so.
With today's economy moving at the speed of light, it's no wonder that companies are increasingly choosing to buy the ability to innovate, rather than to develop it in-house. But technology-grafting acquisitions are risky business. Although some provide a jump-start on the competition, others turn out to be costly mistakes.T
Corporate diversification is a prime example of a once-popular management idea that has fallen from grace. In the 1960s, the “conglomerate kings” — giants such as Gulf & Western and ITT — snapped up dozens of businesses to general acclaim.
Reverse auctions can save money and create better relationships with suppliers. But there also can be a backlash.
Retaining top executives can improve the performance of acquired companies — as long as they’re the right executives.
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A new technique for estimating the cost of equity capital may help managers make better investment decisions.
It's a marketing truism: Higher buying rates and lower service costs make long-term customers more valuable. That, of course, influences what companies spend on customer acquisition and retention. But according to an August 2001 working paper titled “Customers as Assets,” by Sunil Gupta and Donald R.
Different experiences and points of view don’t, by themselves, make work groups more productive. The important factor is how people interrelate.
The Internet is at a crossroads. The dot-com debacle has raised the possibility that the idea of universal access upon which the Web is based may not be economically viable.
The longer the United States, other industrialized nations and the developing world head down different policy tracks on global warming, the harder it will be to achieve the coordination necessary for effective action.