In the rush to dramatically compress product development cycle times, improve market responsiveness, and redefine customer-focused operations and service quality, many companies have turned increasingly to redesigning — “reengineering” — operational business processes. Yet the majority of these efforts focus almost exclusively on redesigning internal operations in areas such as invoicing (Ford), insurance application processing [...]

Just after 2:00 A.M. on 26 March 1991, the night crew at the Chaparral Steel minimill in Midlothian, Texas, cast the first production run of “near net-shape” steel beams in the United States. General Manager Lou Colatriano grinned with tired satisfaction and headed home for his first break in forty-four hours. From a sketch on [...]

“Information is not innocent.”—James March1
During the past decade, many firms have concluded that information is one of their most critical business resources and that broadening information access and usage and enhancing its quality are key to improving business performance. The “information-based organization,” the “knowledge-based enterprise,” and the “learning organization,” forecasted by management experts, all require [...]

Senior executives commonly ponder such questions as “What might give us continued competitive advantage?” and “What new products should we make or markets should we enter and how?” These questions go to the heart of a firm’s strategic vision — the shared understanding of what the firm should be and how it must change. I [...]