MIT Sloan Management Review

To coordinate work across different business units, executives should think of the organization as a nexus of commitments, or personal promises between employees, that must be actively managed.

An organization's ability to recover from disruption quickly can be improved by building redundancy and flexibility into its supply chain. While investing in redundancy represents a pure cost increase, investing in flexibility yields many additional benefits for day-to-day operations.

In service businesses as in others, work can be performed and stored in anticipation of demand. By wisely choosing what kind of inventory to hold, companies can improve quality, response times, customization and pricing.

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

After decades of anticipation, the promise of automated decision-making systems is finally becoming a reality in a variety of industries.

INTELLIGENCE: RESEARCH BRIEF: Vigilance is the key to avoiding potential organizational nightmares.

Successful outsourcing of back-office business functions requires knowing not only your company's needs but also the 12 core capabilities that are key criteria for screening suppliers.

Spreading foreign operations and outsourcing relationships over a broad, well-balanced mix of regions and countries reduces risk and increases potential reward.

RESEARCH BRIEF: Emerging supply-chain e-technologies provide opportunities for growth –

Throughout an organization, individuals make decisions daily that influence the need for and the value received from information technology. A simple one-page framework can help companies allocate IT decision rights and accountabilities so that individual IT decisions align with strategic objectives.