Journal of Business Strategy articles from March 2002

Journal of Business Strategy archives from March 2002

Myths and legends. (Publisher's Note).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... In recent months, a veritable pantheon of business legends have either retired or announced their intention to do so. In June, Herb Kelleher bailed out as CEO of Southwest Airlines; GE's Jack Welch left the dais a couple of months later. And in...

The rich are different. (Short Takes).(survey finds customer relations vital to business success)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2002... Companies that focus on "relationship-centric" activities are more likely to be top performers than those that focus on decreasing working capital, supply chain efficiency, and spinning off non-core businesses, according to a joint study by...

Crisis Management. (Just the Facts).(Pricewaterhouse-Coopers surveys executives on disaster recovery plans)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)(Polling Data)
March 1, 2002... In response to the September 11 attacks, nearly half the CEOs of multinational corporations surveyed by Pricewaterhouse-Coopers said they had created or revised corporate disaster recovery plans or imposed travel restrictions, and 43% revised...

Pay's Off. (Just the Facts).(companies to reduce pay increases for 2002)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2002... Companies will be slashing employees' pay hikes this year, a survey by The Conference Board found. More than 40% of the 77 major companies surveyed are reducing planned pay increases in 2002. Executives in a wide range of industries will...

The Buyer's Market. (Just the Facts).(ExecuNet's Executive Talent Demand Index)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2002... ExecuNet's Executive Talent Demand Index (ETDI) decreased 22% in the year 2001. After climbing 1% in the first quarter of 2001, demand for executive talent dropped 20% in the second quarter, 27% in the third quarter, and 38% in the fourth...

Labor Productivity Growth, 1990-2001. (Short Takes).(Brief Article)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2002... Labor Productivity Growth, 1990-2001 United European All States Union Japan OECD Labor productivity (average annual growth) 1990-1995 1.1% ...

Don't plan ahead. (Innovation).(from New Ideas About New Ideas: Insights on Creativity from the World's Leading Innovators)(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
March 1, 2002... From New Ideas About New Ideas: Insights on Creativity from the World's Leading Innovators, by Shira P. White with G. Patton Wright, Perseus, Cambridge, MA, 2002. Many traditional companies have formalized the process of brainstorming,...

Unwavering trust. (Knowledge Management).(from The Wealth of Knowledge: Intellectual Capital and the Twenty-first Century Organization)(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
March 1, 2002... From The Wealth of Knowledge: Intellectual Capital and the Twenty-first Century Organization, by Thomas A. Stewart, Doubleday-Currency, New York, 2002. Trust needs to be seen to be good business. Bosses should display it in stormy times as...

Postdeal-Making. (M&A).(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
March 1, 2002... From "Learning from High-Tech Deals," by Kevin A. Frick and Alberto Torres, McKinsey Quarterly, 2002, Number 1. Gold standard companies know that execution is at least as important as strategy in any kind of market environment. Their...

Success scales. (Metrics).(from The Next Economy: Will You Know Where Your Customers Are?)(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
March 1, 2002... From The Next Economy: Will You Know Where Your Customers Are? By Elliott Ettenberg, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2002. How was success measured? In the Old Economy, it was share of market. This is why economies of scale were critical and why it...

Corporate antibodies. (Change Management).(from X-Engineering the Corporation: Reinventing Your Business in the Digital Age)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2002... From X-Engineering the Corporation: Reinventing Your Business in the Digital Age, by James Champy, Warner Business Books, New York, 2002. In truth, however, incremental change is fruitless when it comes to embracing a technology that by...

The strategic sweet spot. (Real-Time Strategy).(adoption of new technologies)
March 1, 2002... There is an area on a golf club or tennis racket that players call the sweet spot. They know that if they swing and connect with the ball at that exact spot, they get the best possible results. That's very sweet, indeed. Strategies,...

Leading through uncertain times. (Crisis Management).(contingency plans)
March 1, 2002... When times are uncertain, whether because of human actions or natural catastrophes, executives face challenges that can be managed best by advance planning and preparation. While September 11 was catastrophic, many other events have significant...

The leadership testing ground: Mergers may be the truest test of great leaders. (Special Focus).(leaders' characteristics have impact on merger success or failure)(related article: Six Reasons Why (types of mergers))
March 1, 2002... NOBODY CAN EVER SAY THE MERGER world is boring. In recent weeks, government regulators frowned upon the marriage plans of British Airways and American Airlines. Last year saw the same thing happen when European commissioners ruled that General...

CEOs stranded in Wonderland: A CEOs number-one asset is credibility, but he or she doesn't have much time to build it. (Special Focus).(related article: Drivers of CEO Reputation)
March 1, 2002... IN THE NURSERY SCHOOL STORY, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, no one can please the Queen of Hearts. Every time someone tries to please her, she is disappointed and commands, "Off with his head!" The Red Queen is alive and well and can be found seated on...

New leadership directions: The old roadmap into the executive suite is being redrawn. (Special Focus).(next generation of chief executive officers must have new mindset)
March 1, 2002... IN A WORLD WHERE NEW TRAILS ARE BLAZED DAILY, yesterday's road map is useless. This is particularly true for those who hope to find their way into the executive suite. Aspiring leaders are finding that the career path the last generation of...

Car talk: Assessing telematics; New technology businesses can create new profit streams for mature companies. But it takes careful planning. (Technology Strategies).
March 1, 2002... Are these successes replicable in other industries? They can be. We have developed a broadly applicable Framework to help companies in mature industries assess whether they can create new technology businesses. We focused on the automotive...

Taking the measure of e-marketing success: Don't just cross your fingers and hope your e-marketing initiatives are paying off, measure the payoff. (Strategic Metrics).(electronic business performance management through key performance indicators)
March 1, 2002... Today, E-business has become everyone's business. The Web is no longer a novelty, but a mainstream business strategy being leveraged by nearly every market-facing operation around the world. e-Business initiatives require the same masterful...

Reconstruct your business around customers: Your customers reach you through numerous channels, but all those channels should have a single focus. (Marketing).
March 1, 2002... DESPITE ALL THE POSITIVE CHANGES INTERNET TECHnologies have brought to the business community, companies have had little success in managing customer relationships across their business. They're finding it hard enough to evaluate the progress...

Stagecoach: Wells Fargo and the American West. (Stack Attack).
March 1, 2002... Philip L. Fradkin Simon & Schuster Source, New York www.simonsays.com Authors' Credentials: Pulitzer-Prizewinning journalist and former assistant secretary of the California Resources Agency with eight non-fiction books on the American...

The McKinsey mind: Understanding and Implementing the Problem Solving Tools and Management Techniques of the World's Top Strategic Consulting Firm. (Stack Attack).
March 1, 2002... Ethan M. Rasiel and Paul N. Friga McGraw-Hill, New York www.book.mcgraw-hill.com Authors' Credentials: Former McKinsey associate and author of The McKinsey Way; former McKinsey associate, now acting director of the North Carolina...

Getting the Bugs out: The Rise, Fall, and Comeback of Volkswagen in America. (Stack Attack).
March 1, 2002... David Kiley An Adweek Book, John Wiley & Sons, New York www.wiley.com Author's Credentials: Longtime auto industry journalist, currently Detroit Bureau Chief of USA Today. Thesis: How a company blazed a path, lost its way (and...

The Oracle of Oracle: The Story of Volatile CEO Larry Ellison and the Strategies Behind His Company's Phenomenal Success. (Stack Attack).
March 1, 2002... Florence M. Stone Amacom, New York www.amacombooks.org Author's Credentials: Business book author who has written Business the Amazon.com Way and Business the Dell Way, among other management titles. Thesis: There's no real...

Who's the boss? (The Last Word).(quotations about bosses)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Turns out, "boss" has pejorative connotations in some minds. Who knew? Around here, we regard it as synonymous with "supervisor" and a close cousin to "leader." But a search for quotes yielded views of both the sunny and dark sides of that...

Women's Work. (Just the Facts).(growth of women-owned private companies)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2002... The number of women-owned firms continues to grow at twice the rate of all U.S. firms, and employment and revenues at those firms are growing at one and a half times the rate for all firms, according to a report by Center for Women's Business...