MIT Sloan Management Review

Does vertical integration make sense, particularly when an industry is moving offshore to regions of cheaper labor?

A CEO’s new vision often blurs into an indistinct image once the initial blitz is over. To ensure that the vision is more than just a daydream, companies should follow a five-phase model that some organizations have used successfully to avoid disaster or complacency.

In most large organizations, CEOs and senior management get the best technology and the best technology support, but this practice may actually put revenue at risk, according to two Unisys Corp. studies conducted over the last year.

How can executives prioritize their time to ensure that they are focusing on the countries and subsidiaries that need the most attention?

You can bank on a tenfold improvement in the cost and capability of collaboration technologies over the next five years. What will your organization do with that?

Differences in organizational values within of a top management team can impair how the group functions, with perceived differences having much larger repercussions than real ones.

Employees spend increasing amounts of time in meetings and love to complain about them. But privately they see meetings as a productivity tool — one that companies can learn to use better.

Many companies are not getting full value from their boards, often because of weak or underutilized directors. A set of best practices can help companies avoid such waste at the top.

When a behind-the-scenes decision must be “downloaded” to employees, the way it is communicated has a lot to do with its acceptance and eventual success or failure.

As managers revamp their organizations for closer alignment with customers, one of the biggest challenges is determining how far and fast to go.

Executives can avert the seemingly inevitable decline of many mature corporations by viewing their organization as a portfolio of business opportunities at various life cycle stages.

Despite the commoditization of information technology, companies are growing increasingly dependent on it for strategic advantage.

Managing change does not mean dealing with chaos. In fact, continuous change is a predictable cycle with four phases, each requiring certain resources and a specific type of champion.

Customer service is not found on a T-shirt or a bumper sticker or in a mission statement.

To manage research and development projects, companies need to ensure that informal social networks are reinforced — and not thwarted — by formal organizational structures.

Do we finally have the right technologies for knowledge work? Wikis, blogs, group-messaging software and the like can make a corporate intranet into a constantly changing structure built by distributed, autonomous peers — a collaborative platform that reflects the way work really gets done.

For manufacturers and service companies alike, the ability to sell integrated solutions requires completely new organizational structures and capabilities.

It takes a tremendous amount of detailed management on both the client and supplier sides to realize the expected benefits of offshore outsourcing of IT work. Here are 15 best practices that can accelerate learning and make the strategy eminently worthwhile.

The purchasing function can go beyond mere cost cutting by rote. It can add value by driving innovation and superior long-term cost performance.

Although most companies undertake acquisitions with an eye toward fueling growth, the resulting infusion of new ideas, perspectives and processes can produce lasting benefits that are broader and deeper.