Journal of Business Strategy articles from January 2003

Journal of Business Strategy archives from January 2003

Cry me a river. (Publisher's Note).
January 1, 2003... The water surrounding the businessman in our cover image undoubtedly represents the sea of tears shed by investors everywhere, and by more than a few business leaders. Between sobs, all of them choke out their fears that the Dow Jones...

What's going online. (Short Takes).(consumer confidence in online transactions)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... More Americans are going online now than at the end of last year, and more users are satisfied with their online experience, but trust remains a major concern, according to the Consumer Internet Barometer, produced jointly by NFO WorldGroup,...

Just the facts. (Short Takes).(business statistics)
January 1, 2003... Turnover. According to the Department of Labor, 56% of employees will not last more than two years in a job. The cost of employee turnover nationwide is $5 trillion per year. Absenteeism. According a CCH survey, conducted by Harris...

Total wage/salary increase budgets fo 2003 cut.(Brief Article)(Illustration)
January 1, 2003... Total Wage/Salary Increase Budgets for 2003 Cut Actual Original Current All Industries [N=75] 2002 2003 2003 Executive 3.5% 4.0% 3.8% Exempt Salaried 3.5 4.0 ...

Risk management. (Short Takes).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Michael Chagares, a business risk consultant for Marsh USA, recommends that executives should pay special attention to risk management issues if any of these potential warning signs arise: * The company's business model changes * There...

Cop talk. (Communication).(From Wireless Horizon: Strategy and Competition in the Worldwide Mobile Marketplace)(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... From Wireless Horizon: Strategy and Competition in the Worldwide Mobile Marketplace, by Dan Stein-bock, AMACOM, New York, 2002. In 1921, The Detroit Police Department installed the first land-mobile radiotelephone systems for police car...

A change in climate. (Priorities).(global warming)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Pal Hawken quoted in What's Next: Exploring the New Terrain for Business, by Eamonn Kelly, Peter Leyden and Members of Global Business Network, Perseus, Cambridge, MA, 2002. When we're faced with a situation, we automatically inventory...

Duh! (Customer Service).(From Value Shift: Why Companies Must Merge Social and Financial Imperatives to Achieve Superior Performance)(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... From Value Shift: Why Companies Must Merge Social and Financial Imperatives to Achieve Superior Performance, by Lynn Sharp Paine, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2002. A key determinant of service quality, it turns out, is how companies treat their...

The elephant walk. (Alternative Scenarios).(strtegic business planning)
January 1, 2003... The existence of a periodical named the Journal of Business Strategy might seem to presuppose a general agreement on the meaning of the phrase "business strategy." For better or worse, there seems to be no such agreement. It may, in fact, be...

Do you really know what the competition is doing? (Competitive Analysis).
January 1, 2003... Recently, a leading technical provider in the life sciences arena was blindsided by a competitor. Naturally, the company had known this competitor existed, but regarded it as an anemic threat, at best. Although it was gaining some market share,...

It's time to redraft your mission statement. (Leadership).
January 1, 2003... Everybody's talking about mission statements, but even those few who are doing anything about them are missing important opportunities. Business Week reports that firms with well-crafted mission statements have a 30% higher return on certain...

Surviving and thriving when your customers contract: when your customers are tightening their belts, you need to develop strategies and tactics that keep your own company from starvation. (Special Focus).
January 1, 2003... The ever-lengthening slump in the telecom industry has become well-documented fact. A number of former high-flyers have descended into bankruptcy, others have sought merger partners, and all of the survivors have battened the spending hatches....

Six priorities that make a great strategic decision: good strategies don't arise spontaneously, they come from attention to a spectrum of important priorities. (Special Focus).
January 1, 2003... When telecom companies were the darlings of Wall Street, Iridium seemed to have everything going for it. The company was committed to a far-sighted vision for a satellite phone system; had identified and targeted a potentially profitable...

Innovate or die: it's not easy, but it is possible to enhance your organization's ability to innovate. (Special Focus).
January 1, 2003... Your may once have been able to hone your competitive edge by streamlining operations and slashing prices. No more. Today, innovation is central to growth. The "Triad" (i.e., the United States, the European Union, and Japan) gets more than half...

The need for speed: only those institutions that can adapt and respond quickly to shifts in consumer preferences are likely to survive. (Corporate Culture).(corporate agility)
January 1, 2003... WE KNOW ALL TOO WELL ABOUT THE PACE OF LIFE IN the late 20th and early 21St centuries, and much has been written to portray the speed at which we move--moms and dads making a mad dash from the office to the soccer field, overworked IT...

Make more strategic use of customer satisfaction surveys: customer surveys can yield need-to-know intelligence, but all too often they produce only nice-to-know facts. (Customer Relations).
January 1, 2003... LATE LAST YEAR, THE CEO OF AN INTERNATIONAL SUPPLIER OF test equipment to the semiconductor industry sat down at his desk to review the findings of his firm's recent customer satisfaction survey. He was excited because the company was in the...

The character of organizations: the dictum, "know thyself" applies to organizations as well as to people. (Organizational Dynamics).
January 1, 2003... EVERYONE KNOWS THAT ORGANIZATIONS COME IN DIFFERent shapes and sizes, but they also differ in character. That is, they differ in the same way individuals do. Moreover, just as there is no perfect individual personality, there is no such thing...

Boot camp for business negotiators. (Stack Attack).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect, which means you have to know what to practice that's right for you. Even in negotiation. We negotiate our way through life, yet many of us are uncomfortable with the idea of a...

Time II. (The Last World).(aphorisma)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Time may heal all wounds, and we can hope it wounds all heels. It is in short supply and infinite: And it's been deemed worthy of philosophical musings since the beginning of recorded history. With time and patience the mulberry leaf...