Journal of Business Strategy articles from March 2001

Journal of Business Strategy archives from March 2001

The Next Big Thing.(computer usage)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... A friend who lives in a rural area of western Ireland has an abhorrence for machines of any stamp (she swears they break down the instant she enters a room, just to vex her). Despite this deep-seated antipathy, she bowed to the inevitable...

Economists Look at the Year Ahead.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... Economists Look at the Year Ahead 1999 2000 (actual) (forecast) Real gross domestic product [*] 4.2 5.2...

The Year of Living Cautiously.(corporations downsizing)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... U.S. corporations announced a record number of planned job cuts in January, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. There were 142,208 layoffs announced in January--the largest number in any month since the outplacement firm launched its...

The Tangled Web.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... According to a survey released by Roper Starch Worldwide and sponsored by WebTop, 71% of Internet users get frustrated when searching the Internet for accurate information, and 86% of users feel that Web searching could be more efficient. On...

What Web Customers Want.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... If you want to offer online customer service, plan carefully. A survey by Yankelovich Partners for the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals in Business found that 77% of users of Web-based services went online because they expected...

Cybercriminologists.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... According to Gartner Group, Inc., approximately 97% of all law enforcement funding for cybercrime investigation in the United States is spent on about 300 federal agents--less than 0.1% of the 600,000 law enforcement agents serving the United...

IS Black Holes.(information system development)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Nearly a third of all information system development projects are canceled before completion. Penn State professors Effy Oz and John J. Sosik found that five factors lead to project abandonment: lack of corporate leadership; poorly communicated...

Diminished Expectations.(fewer teens think they will earn $1 million before age 40)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... Only 13.1% of teens surveyed in 2000 by Junior Achievement believe they'll earn $1 million by age 40; 15.3% of students responding to the 1999 survey believed they'd crack $1 million. The top five job choices among those surveyed were: doctor,...

Poor Career Bets.(casino employees )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Job satisfaction for casino employees is 12% lower than that for workers in other industries. A study by HR Solutions, Inc. found that gaming industry employees were less satisfied with their physical working conditions and specific job duties...

Old Economy Rules for the New Economy.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... What does it take for a tech sector company to succeed? About the same as it takes for companies in more traditional sectors: both flexibility and leadership. Financial analysts surveyed by Leo Burnett Technology Group ranked sound...

Consumer Confidence.(Conference Board statistics)(Illustration)
March 1, 2001... Consumer Confidence July '00 143 Aug '00 141.1 Sept '00 142.5 Oct '00 135.8 Nov '00 133.5 Dec '00 128.6 Jan '01 115.7 Feb '01 106.8 Source: The Conference Board Note: Table made from...

Discontinuous Processing.(Creative Destruction: Why Companies That Are Built to Last...)(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
March 1, 2001... From Creative Destruction: Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market--and How to Successfully Transform Them, by Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan, Currency/Doubleday, New York, 2001. [I]f history is a guide, no more than a...

Service with a Snarl.(Emotional Branding: How Successful Brands Gain the Irrational Edge)(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
March 1, 2001... From Emotional Branding: How Successful Brands Gain the Irrational Edge, by Daryl Travis, Prima Venture, Roseville, CA, 2000. When [British Rail Service executives] went to the offices of [ad agency] Allen Brady & Marsh in London, they were...

Myth Communication.(Executive Instinct; Managing the Human Animal in the Information Age)(Excerpt)
March 1, 2001... From Executive Instinct: Managing the Human Animal in the Information Age, by Nigel Nicholson, Crown Business, New York, 2000. Here are some of the common beliefs about management and organization and how they stand up to the view of human...

The Global War Zone.(The Mind of the C.E.O.)(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
March 1, 2001... From The Mind of the C.E.O., by Jeffrey E. Garten, Basic Books, New York, 2001. No one can confidently predict where the Internet will take us any more than someone could have known how swiftly the steam engine would lead to...

Stop Guarding the Paper Clips.(The Art of Innovation)(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
March 1, 2001... From The Art of Innovation, by Tom Kelley, with Jonathan Littman, Random House, New York, 2001. There was a time when mutual mistrust was the order of the day. Companies used to have office supply managers. More often than not, the...

Power Play.(hockey as business management analogy)(Column)
March 1, 2001... Talk with any business person for more than a few minutes about corporate strategy and the sports metaphors begin to pour out. "The bases are loaded," "you get three strikes and you're out," and "we were thrown a curve ball" are favorites from...

Don't Let Downtime Be the Downfall of Your Web Site.(Column)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... When it comes to availability, Web site operators should take a page from Yogi Berra's playbook. When asked whether he would be dining at a famous restaurant, the legendary Yankee catcher said, "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."...

REVERSING THE VALUE CHAIN.(electronic commerce)(Column)
March 1, 2001... Most companies look at their core competencies when they want to build competitive advantage. But they're grabbing the wrong end of the value chain. WHEN YOU BUY A LENGTH OF CHAIN IN THE hardware store, you can't tell one end of the chain...

ALIEN INTELLIGENCE.(computers)(Column)
March 1, 2001... Computer intelligence won't ever match human intelligence, but it will soon be absolutely essential to business success. AN OLD BLACK-AND-WHITE SCIENCE FICTION movie called Devil Girl from Mars opens with a bunch of tipplers in a pub in...

MINING THE STORE.(data mining )
March 1, 2001... Data mining tools aren't simply toys for big companies with money to burn. They can help firms of all sizes strengthen the bottom line. FOR THE LAST TWO YEARS, NORTH AMERICAN CEOs surveyed by the Conference Board and Accenture cited...

HEY, COACH!(executive coaching)
March 1, 2001... When nobody's got time to be a mentor, it may be time to outsource the function to an executive coach. CHANGE--EVEN THAT OF A MOSTLY POSITIVE nature--does funny things to people, as Brenda Atkinson (not her real name) discovered one day...

ARE BALANCE BENEFITS FOR REAL?
March 1, 2001... Companies tout work-family programs, but how well do they really work? AT A PROMINENT FORTUNE 100 CORPORATION, a number of high-level female managers had reached their boiling point. For some time, they had been requesting changes in their...

DECIPHERING COLLABORATIVE COMMERCE.
March 1, 2001... Collaborative commerce goes well beyond putting all your products and services on a Web site, and its rewards go beyond increased sales. When global telecommunications giant Siemens won a major award last year for its knowledge management...

BUILDING THE NEXT FRONTIER.
March 1, 2001... The job site is no longer the only meeting ground in the construction industry. More and more companies are holding at least some of their meetings online. In the construction industry, there are some things that no amount of technology...

WHY YOUR CIO LOOKS SO STRESSED.
March 1, 2001... Computers may he rising to the levels of their own incompetence. YOUR PEOPLE COME TO YOU recommending a hot new tool that will generate additional revenue and improve productivity. It costs just $80,000 for both hardware and software, and...

Profit from the Core: Growth Strategy in an Era of Turbulence.(Review)
March 1, 2001... Chris Zook with James Allen Harvard Business School Press, Boston www.hbsp.harvard.edu Authors' Credentials: current Director and Head of Bain & Company's Worldwide Strategy Practice; former Director of Bain & Company's Worldwide...

Corporate Combat: The Art of Market Warfare on the Business Battlefield.(Review)
March 1, 2001... Nick Skellon Author's Credentials: Speaker and consultant, known especially for his "Corporate Combat" presentation. Nicholas Brealey Publishing, London www.nbrealey-books.com Thesis: Use the principles of warfare to beat the...

Strategics: The Art and Science of Holistic Strategy.(Review)
March 1, 2001... William J. Cook Jr. Quorum, Westport, CT www.quorumbooks.com Author's Credentials: Founder and CEO of Colonial-Cambridge, a strategic consulting company. Thesis: Strategy is not planning. Strategy is about creating systems,...

Simplified Strategic Planning: A No-Nonsense Guide for Busy People Who Want Results Fast.(Review)
March 1, 2001... Robert W. Bradford and J. Peter Duncan with Brian Tarcy Chandler House Press, Worcester, MA www.chandlerhousepress.com Authors' Credentials: Vice President of the Center for Simplified Strategic Planning (CSSP); President of CSSP;...