MIT Sloan Management Review

In an increasingly environmentally conscious and cost-conscious world, suppliers can make their business both more sustainable and more profitable by focusing on services that extend the efficiency and value of their products.

Executives, entrepreneurs and investors are too ready to believe that commodity is destiny. The result is a dulling of strategic focus and a narrowing of the business mind.

Obesity in the United States has reached crisis proportions. Is this yet another societal problem to be loaded onto the shoulders of business leaders? For several reasons, the answer is yes -- and some companies are already showing what can be done to turn the tide.

Meeting the sustainability challenge will require the kind of cross-sector collaboration for which there is still no real precedent. It must be co-created by various stakeholders by interweaving work in three realms: the conceptual, the relational and the action-driven.

The history of the successful Swedish furniture retailer IKEA illustrates the role that adaptation and experimentation play in the development of an innovative strategy.

A truly strategic decision occurs only at the nexus of three organizational considerations -- where it adds value, how it handles and employs imitation and how it defines its perimeter.

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

Despite its potential, few managers have begun even to scratch the surface of information about intangibles and the opportunity it offers.

Managing product variety can be easy but hard to do well. And the difference can be significant.

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.