Building an information system that works is an activity that is far from certain. Even experts sometimes run afoul of the technical and project management challenges in system development — a fact underscored by American Airlines and its partners’ recent failure to deliver the Confirm travel reservation system. Failures like these are surely regrettable, but [...]

Japanese competitiveness in a number of industries is the result of a combination of factors. Among the most important are a series of innovations and practices in manufacturing and product development that have been referred to as “lean”: aimed at high productivity as well as high quality in engineering and manufacturing, resulting in high price-performance [...]

The author feels that decision making should focus on “value-focused thinking” — clearly defining and structuring fundamental values in terms of objectives, and using these to guide and integrate decision making. He explains techniques for creating improved alternatives for decision problems and for identifying better decision opportunities, illustrating these through their application at Conflict Management, Inc.

By strategically outsourcing and emphasizing a company’s core competencies, managers can leverage their firm’s skills and resources for increased competitiveness. The authors suggest ways to determine what those core competencies are and which activities are better performed externally. They assess the relative costs and risks of “making” or “buying” and present methods for containing risks while enjoying the benefits from their dual approach.

Changes in business strategy usually precede structural adaptation, according to predominant theories, with strategy causing a realignment of a firm’s management processes.1 While there has been some debate on the degree of strategic choice,2 this is the dominant view, both descriptively and normatively. It is also a perspective that researchers on the strategic management of [...]

The past twenty years have seen the development of a global marketplace in almost all major industries. Since 1962, worldwide exports have increased from 12 percent to more than 30 percent of world GNP,1 totaling $3.5 trillion in 1992.2 If one considers the potential exposure to import penetration, more than 70 percent of goods now [...]

Most of us have come to equate the term “restructuring” with layoffs. The reason is simple: during restructurings, management’s focus is typically on developing severance and incentive packages to reduce employee head count. By focusing primarily on how people leave the restructured organization, however, companies too often neglect the matter of who leaves. Senior managers [...]

In the 1980s, U.S. manufacturers turned to quality as a way to create competitive advantage and sustain customer loyalty. The 1990s are emerging as the era for customer satisfaction in service industries. Service quality and customer satisfaction are important to marketers because a customer’s evaluation of a purchase is thought to determine the likelihood of [...]