Journal of Business Strategy articles from July 1999

Journal of Business Strategy archives from July 1999

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Many companies, especially high-tech firms, can benefit by setting up their own internal venture capital fund, according to Michael Grossi, a senior consultant with Boston-based Renaissance Worldwide. The handful of companies that manage...

The Unbearable Tightness of Labor.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 1999... If the labor market has been uncomfortably tight for you lately, don't expect to see a change soon. Milwaukee-based Manpower expects the employment market to remain about the same through the summer. Nearly one-third of the respondents from...

Just the Facts.(airline customer satisfaction, research and development spending, Americans working in foreign countries)(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Customer Dissatisfaction. In this era of customer-centric strategies, you've got to wonder whether airlines have a clue. The Milwaukee-based American Customer Satisfaction Index reported that in the last five years the ACSI score for the...

Quality of Life.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Forget those splashy surveys ranking the "Best Places in America to Live." The quality of life determinant is not whether the area has a world-class symphony orchestra or top-ranked teaching hospital, but whether it has a good climate. So say...

Competition: Competing for the Future.(Excerpt)(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... From "Reinventing the Basis for Competition," by Gary Hamel, in Rethinking the Future, edited by Rowan Gowan, Nicholas Brealey Publishing, London, 1997 (hardcover), 1999 (paper). When you're competing for the future, you're trying to walk...

Leadership: Terror Tactics.(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
July 1, 1999... From If You Want to Make God Really Laugh, Show Him Your Business Plan: The 101 Universal Laws of Business, by Barry J. Gibbons, AMACOM Books, New York, 1999. ... I never hired anybody or accepted anybody in an existing team that I took...

Management: Success Factors.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... From The End of Marketing as We Know It, by Sergio Zyman, HarperBusiness, New York, 1999. When I worked for Coca-Cola, and as a consultant as well, I enjoyed tremendously going to the field and asking the question, "Why did you miss plan?"...

Marketing: Cave Paintings.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... From Kotler on Marketing: How to Create, Win, and Dominate Markets, by Philip Kotler, Free Press, New York, 1999. Neanderthal marketing consists of the following practices: * Equating marketing with selling * Emphasizing customer...

Reorganization: The Illusion of Progress.(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
July 1, 1999... From Hot Groups: Seeding Them, Feeding Them, & Using Them to Ignite Your Organization, by Jean Lipman-Blumen and Harold J. Leavitt, Oxford University Press, New York, 1999. [Managers] have used their natural drive and energy to make...

The Secret Formula.(corporate strategies of Internet companies)
July 1, 1999... From the dawn of recorded business history, there has been a "secret formula" that every successful business leader has followed. Those who didn't know the formula, or those who chose to ignore it, were doomed to failure. That formula is, of...

Branding: Shotgun or Rifle?
July 1, 1999... Based on the evidence, brand must be one of the biggest guns in the corporate arsenal and thus worthy of significant investment. After all, consumer product companies regularly spend hundreds of millions of dollars to support brands; Wall...

Damage to Brand.(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 1999... The wrong kind of information, delivered vigorously enough, can actually have an insidious effect on brand equity. We can see this effect in the personal computer industry, which recently experienced a major shift in market power based on...

Performance Measures: Calibrating for Growth.
July 1, 1999... The ability to create a continuous pipeline of new businesses representing new sources of profit is what distinguishes corporations that continue to grow. These exemplary performers can innovate in their core businesses and build new ones at...

Differentiating Metrics Across the Horizons.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Founded as a software distributor by entrepreneur Masayoshi Son in 1981, Softbank enjoyed more than a decade of successful growth, reaching a market capitalization of $9 billion in 1997 with compound annual growth of 28% in sales and 87% in net...

Secrets of the Rich and Famous.(The best employee performance measurement system ever designed won't work in your company unless it aligns with your culture and strategy.)
July 1, 1999... "You get what you measure." Measure the right things, goes this truism, and employee performance, up and down the organization, will surely follow. Like most truisms, this one has some validity. Many organizations credit their success in...

Many Happy Returns.(Some companies are finding that reverse logistics offers them a way to make a profit from their returned goods.)
July 1, 1999... Watching truck after trunk, filled with shiny new product, roll out of the distribution center is a sight to warm any executive's heart. It means those orders have been rolling in. But those same executives will do their best to ignore the...

Global E-Commerce, Local Problems.(Technology can immeasurably enhance global business effectiveness, but it doesn't provide all the answers.)
July 1, 1999... The best-selling authors in business agree that the organization of work must be revamped if corporations are to perform more effectively in a global market. Peter Drucker writes of the "networked organization," Michael Hammer and James Champy...

Global Technology Sources.
July 1, 1999... Below is a brief description of the products offered by the global technology providers mentioned in this article. ALIS Technologies 100 Alexis Nihon Boulevard Suite 600 Montreal, Quebec, H4M 2P2 Phone: (514) 747-2547 ...

Health Care's Other Crisis: Dwindling Choices.
July 1, 1999... Employers are facing an alarming convergence of three trends in the health care industry that will challenge every company's ability to control medical costs and maintain employee satisfaction. This triple-header of bad news includes: *...

Be Nimble, Be Quick.
July 1, 1999... As Stack was finishing up this column, Merrill Lynch made the stunning announcement it will offer low-priced, un-brokered, on-line trading by the end of the year (it had previously delivered limited on-line access only to selected highest net...

The Unbearable Tightness of Labor.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 1999... If the labor market has been uncomfortably tight for you lately, don't expect to see a change soon. Milwaukee-based Manpower expects the employment market to remain about the same through the summer. Nearly one-third of the respondents from...

Reality Check.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... In the movie biz, it's, "Can we cut to the chase?" In the biz biz, it's, "What's the bottom line?" Revenue minus expenses--that's the compelling measure for those of us in the biz biz. If revenues minus expenses yields a positive number, life...

Office Costs per Occupant.(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 1999... Office Costs per Occupant Property Operations $1,272 Maintenance 368 Utilities 430 Cleaning 241 Security 173 External Landscape 60 Office...

Quality of Life.
July 1, 1999... Forget those splashy surveys ranking the "Best Places in America to Live." The quality of life determinant is not whether the area has a world-class symphony orchestra or top-ranked teaching hospital, but whether it has a good climate. So say...

Competing for the Future.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... From "Reinventing the Basis for Competition," by Gary Hamel, in Rethinking the Future, edited by Rowan Gowan, Nicholas Brealey Publishing, London, 1997 (hardcover), 1999 (paper). When you're competing for the future, you're trying to walk...

Terror Tactics.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... From If You Want to Make God Realty Laugh, Show Him Your Business Plan: The 101 Universal Laws of Business, by Barry J. Gibbons, AMACOM Books, New York, 1999. ... I never hired anybody or accepted anybody in an existing team that I took...

Success Factors.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... From The End of Marketing as We Know It, by Sergio Zyman, Harper- Business, New York, 1999. When I worked for Coca-Cola, and as a consultant as well, I enjoyed tremendously going to the field and asking the question, "Why did you miss...

Cave Paintings.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... From Kotler on Marketing: How to Create, Win, and Dominate Markets, by Philip Kotler, Free Press, New York, 1999. Neanderthal marketing consists of the following practices: * Equating marketing with selling * Emphasizing customer...

The Illusion of Progress.
July 1, 1999... From Hot Groups: Seeding Them, Feeding Them, & Using Them to Ignite Your Organization, by Jean Lipman-Blumen and Harold J. Leavitt, Oxford University Press, New York, 1999. [Managers] have used their natural drive and energy to make...

Branding: Shotgun or Rifle?
July 1, 1999... Based on the evidence, brand must be one of the biggest guns in the corporate arsenal and thus worthy of significant investment. After all, consumer product companies regularly spend hundreds of millions of dollars to support brands; Wall...

PERFORMANCE MEASURES: CALIBRATING FOR GROWTH.
July 1, 1999... When it comes to performance metrics, one size definitely does not fit all--the right metric applied at the wrong time can stunt corporate growth. THE ABILITY TO CREATE A CONTINUOUS PIPELINE OF new businesses representing new sources of...

SECRETS OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS.
July 1, 1999... The best employee performance measurement system ever designed won't work in your company unless it aligns with your culture and strategy. "YOU GET WHAT YOU MEASURE." MEASURE THE RIGHT things, goes this truism, and employee performance, up...

MANY HAPPY RETURNS.
July 1, 1999... Some companies are finding that reverse logistics offers them a way to make a profit from their returned goods. WATCHING TRUCK AFTER TRUNK, FILLED WITH SHINY new product, roll out of the distribution center is a sight to warm any...

GLOBAL E-COMMERCE, LOCAL PROBLEMS.
July 1, 1999... Technology can immeasurably enhance global business effectiveness, but it doesn't provide all the answers. THE BEST-SELLING AUTHORS IN BUSINESS AGREE that the organization of work must be revamped if corporations are to perform more...

HEALTH CARE'S OTHER CRISIS: DWINDLING CHOICES.
July 1, 1999... While health care costs rise, choices of health plans diminish, and employers are caught in the middle. But there are ways to tight back. EMPLOYERS ARE FACING AN ALARMING CONVERGENCE of three trends in the health care industry that will...

Building Wealth: The New Rules for Individuals, Companies, and Nations In a Knowledge-Based Economy.(Review)
July 1, 1999... Lester C. Thurow HarperCollins, New York Author's Credentials: MIT professor, economist, author of The Zero-Sum Society. Thesis: What individuals, companies, and societies must do to be economically successful in an economy where...

Creating Value In the Network Economy.(Review)
July 1, 1999... Edited with an Introduction by Don Tapscott Harvard Business Press, Cambridge, Mass. Editor's Credentials: Chairman of think tank Alliance for Converging Technologies, author of Paradigm Shift. The 19 "contributors" are a mix of...

The Alchemy of Growth: Practical Insights for Building the Enduring Enterprise.(Review)
July 1, 1999... Mehrdad Baghai, Stephen Coley, David White Perseus Books, Reading Mass. Authors' Credentials: All are McKinsey consultants. Thesis: Growth is the secret to business success. Scope: Mostly 1980s to 1996. File Under: Growth,...

Profit Patterns: 30 Ways to Anticipate and Profit from Strategic Forces Reshaping Your Business.(Review)
July 1, 1999... Adrian J. Slywotzky and David J. Morrison, with Ted Moser, Kevin A. Mundt, James A. Quella Times Business (Random House), New York Authors' Credentials: All but Morrison are consultants with Mercer Management. Morrison was coauthor...

The Illusion of Progress.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... From Hot Groups: Seeding Them, Feeding Them, & Using Them to Ignite Your Organization, by Jean Lipman-Blumen and Harold J. Leavitt, Oxford University Press, New York, 1999. [Managers] have used their natural drive and energy to make...

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained.(high-technology industry sets up own venture capital firms)(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Many companies, especially high-tech firms, can benefit by setting up their own internal venture capital fund, according to Michael Grossi, a senior consultant with Boston-based Renaissance Worldwide. The handful of companies that manage...

Just the Facts.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Customer Dissatisfaction. In this era of customer-centric strategies, you've got to wonder whether airlines have a clue. The Milwaukee-based American Customer Satisfaction Index reported that in the last five years the ACSI score for the...

The Secret Formula.(Profits = revenues - costs)
July 1, 1999... From the dawn of recorded business history, there has been a "secret formula" that every successful business leader has followed. Those who didn't know the formula, or those who chose to ignore it, were doomed to failure. That formula is, of...