It is hardly a novel insight that global competitive forces compel multinationals to fully leverage the distinctive resources, knowledge, and expertise residing in their subsidiary operations. Questions of what are “winning” global strategic moves for the modern multinational have increasingly intoxicated international executives.1 Yet for all the fanfare about global strategies and their increasingly undeniable [...]

Why is it that some firms introduce distinctive new products time and time again, when so many other firms are far less able to generate new products? More specifically, some firms, while strong in product design, fail to gain commercial reward, but their more successful counterparts exhibit the right mix of capabilities in implementation, manufacturing, [...]

When Americans do business with the Japanese, conflicts are inevitable. The breadth and depth of differences between the two countries are enormous.1 Yet the effective management and resolution of conflict are critical to financial success, especially given the staggering increase in business interactions between Americans and Japanese.2 Unfortunately, efforts by each side to resolve conflicts [...]

In 1988, Don Clausing and I wrote an article on the “House of Quality,” a product development technique that had long been used in Japan and that was gaining popularity in the United States.1 Since then, over a hundred U.S. firms have adopted the technique for part or all of their product development activities. The [...]

Vertical integration is a risky strategy — complex, expensive, and hard to reverse. Yet some companies jump into it without an adequate analysis of the risks. The authors have developed a framework to help managers decide when it’s useful to vertically integrate and when it’s not. They examine four common reasons to integrate and warn managers against a number of other, spurious reasons.

Aconsensus is emerging that the hallmark of tomorrow’s most effective organizations will be their capacity to learn. To survive in the competitive turbulence that is engulfing a growing number of industries, firms will need to pinpoint innovative practices rapidly, to communicate them to their employees and suppliers, and to stimulate further innovation.
However, there are two [...]

Traditionally, leadership has been described as the ability of a superior to influence the behavior of subordinates and persuade them to willingly follow a desired course of action. The leader’s task is to unite all assigned personnel in an organization and coordinate them in an effort to achieve sought-after results.
From one viewpoint, leaders are leaders, [...]

For most multinational corporations (MNCs), Africa is the forgotten continent. Characterized by the media mostly in terms of political turmoil, malnutrition, and AIDS, Africa seems inconsequential as a potential market or as a low-cost manufacturing source. Yet several MNCs enjoy good, sustained profitability from their African operations. In addition, substantial political and economic changes now [...]