Journal of Business Strategy articles from July 1994

Journal of Business Strategy archives from July 1994

Corporate death sentence.
July 1, 1994... Federal judges can execute at will - execute U.S. corporations, that is. Buried in the 1991 sentencing-guidelines is a clause that gives courts the power to put any business out of business - permanently. This so-called "death sentence"...

Passage to India. (re-entry of Coca-Cola Co. in Indian market)
July 1, 1994... If at first you don't succeed, try, try again - only this time choose a local partner. At least that's one way of looking at what Coca-Cola has done in India, where it hasn't been sold in a decade-and-a-half, ever since the government demanded...

Dress codes erode.
July 1, 1994... In a time of increasing acceptance of such things as in-house daycare, flexible hours, and telecommuting, dressing down is just another example of corporations making workplaces more user-friendly (to say nothing of closer to home). For...

Innovative new application of antitrust law.
July 1, 1994... Like the Scriptures, antitrust law is open to interpretation. You might never have thought of technological innovation, for instance, as a market in itself. But, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, you'd better think again. On November...

People engineering.
July 1, 1994... "We lack a theory of human behavior that actually fits the way human beings work," says Dag Forssell, pointing Out that current psychology doesn't really give the strategist any answers about getting employees to carry out a plan. "To effect a...

Linking pay to business objectives. (Compensation)
July 1, 1994... * Scenario One: Ameritech, the Midwest telephone service company, inherits a fairly traditional work culture from its days as part of AT&T. The new business objectives call for the creation of a major new division (Ameritech Information...

What about thou shalt? (business ethics) (Ethics) (Column)
July 1, 1994... Codes of ethics typically define what "thou shalt not" do. They also mostly deal with legalities. Because of this approach, codes rarely prevent unethical conduct because such conduct is in a "gray zone" that is difficult to codify. Prior to...

Keep on keepin' on. (managing organizational change) (Planning Theory) (Column)
July 1, 1994... Classic theory says that there are three major steps in a change management program: unfreezing, changing, and refreezing. The early gurus of change management who developed the theory had as their goal changing the way specific processes were...

The new lean planning machine. (planning departments)(includes related article) (Rollouts)
July 1, 1994... WALTER B. SCHAFFIR HAS SEEN IT SO MANY TIMES, IT SOMETIMES seems like he's stuck in a Sisyphian nightmare. A company starts a planning department, which then spends its time creating busywork for everyone else in the organization. Or the head...

Clorox brightens its outlook. (Clorox Co.) (Rollouts)
July 1, 1994... Dan Simpson started a planning department at The Clorox Co. four years ago. But it wasn't until the company's new chairman and CEO, Craig Sullivan, arrived two years later that the department's mission brightened considerably. When the...

Digital's crash and turnaround. (Digital Corp.) (Rollouts)
July 1, 1994... Some companies have the luxury of pondering whether they need a strategic planning department. For Digital's Bob Palmer, who took over the company in 1992 after a dramatic crash in the computer giant's once-skyward earnings, the question wasn't...

Profitable pointers from non-profits. (non-profit organizations) (Role Models)
July 1, 1994... A DECADE AGO, A SMALL TEXAS COMPANY CREATED A LONG-range planning committee, instituted customer-focused marketing strategies, and forged an innovative set of service-quality initiatives. Since then the company has grown eight-fold, halved its...

Dais ex machina. (lecturers and speakers on corporate strategy)(includes related article) (Roll Call)
July 1, 1994... What's the hot topic on the speakers' circuit these days? Hold onto your hat: It's corporate strategy. "Corporations are looking at strategy in a new way," says Michael Dahl, former associate dean at the University of Tennessee. "They want...

Today's easy riders are all business ... not! (corporate executives' days off) (Road Trips)
July 1, 1994... When you're on the back of a 900 CC BMW R90/6 going full speed underneath a Sunday morning menacing sky, holding on by locked thumbs to a boot-clad, black-leathered, blond-haired fellow named Tucker who has just informed you that he took the...

The interactive evolution. (interactive marketing)(includes related articles) (Special Focus: Strategic Marketing)
July 1, 1994... PROMISES. PROMISES. HARDLY ANY OTHER BUSINESS ISSUE HAS received as much hype as the notion that the interactive information superhighway will be the fast lane for strategic marketing. Maybe. Maybe not. Certainly, no other metaphor so deserves...

Gloved ones: white-collar boxing. (Out-of-Pocket)
July 1, 1994... Think this morning's board meeting was tough? Try getting into the boxing ring with Peter Lawrence. By day, Lawrence is the mild-mannered U.S. sales director in charge of business planning and development for the South China Printing...