Journal of Business Strategy articles from March 2003

Journal of Business Strategy archives from March 2003

Jeffersonian ideals. (Publisher's Note).(Thomas Jefferson as businessman)
March 1, 2003... 'Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people, whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit of genuine virtue," proclaimed Thomas Jefferson. And that paean to agriculture is just one of many such...

Just the facts. (Short Takes).(business statistics)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Defalcations. The bigger the theft at work, the more likely employees are to blow the whistle on the perpetrator. However, a significant minority of employees said they would look the other way when they see corporate crime. According to...

Marketing don'ts. (Short Takes).(excerpt from A Genie's Wisdom)(seven deadly sins of marketing)(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
March 1, 2003... According to marketing guru Jack Trout in his latest book, A Genie's Wisdom, there are seven deadly sins in marketing. They are: 1. Arrogance. Ego is the number one enemy of successful marketing. It kills objectivity. Consider DEC. 2....

Yearly media use by U.S. households *.(Brief Article)(Illustration)
March 1, 2003... Yearly Media Use by U.S. Households * 1992 2000 2000 % Item Hours Hours MBytes Change Television 1,510 1,571 3,142,000 4 Radio 1,150 1,056 57,800 -8...

It's who knows you. (Performance Metrics).(Oakley's corporate vision)(excerpt from Guiding Growth)(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
March 1, 2003... From Guiding Growth: How Vision Keeps Companies on Course, by Mark Lipton, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 2003. [Oakley's] obsession with style is not about getting the masses to buy its products. In fact, it designs and...

Women's work is never done. (Marketing).(excerpt from Marketing to Women)(financial services prospecting)(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
March 1, 2003... From Marketing to Women: How to Understand, Reach, and Increase Your Share of the World's Largest Market Segment, by Martha Barletta, Dearborn Trade Publishing, Chicago, 2003. When I started working with financial services companies, I'd...

Cut to the chase. (Vision).(product differentiation)(excerpt from What Clients Love)(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
March 1, 2003... Front What Clients Love: A Field Guide to Growing Your Business, by Harry Beckwith, Warner Business Books, New York, 2003. If you cannot describe what makes you different in twenty-five words or less, don't fix your copy. Fix your company.

Historical context. (Alternative Scenarios).(business cycles)
March 1, 2003... Over the years, when introducing myself as a long-range planning consultant, I have almost invariably been asked soon afterward, "So, what's the market going to do?" I have made it a point to beg off, stating that this is not my area of...

The rise of the CSO. (Organization Design).(chief strategy officer)
March 1, 2003... Back in the 1970s when I was slogging through hundreds of cases on strategy and organization at the Harvard Business School, companies had just a couple of "chiefs." The chief executive officer (CEO) led the organization, the chief financial...

Stories that sell, stories that tell: effective storytelling can strengthen an organization's bonds with all of its stakeholders. (Communication).
March 1, 2003... STORYTELLING IS ONE OF THE oldest, most powerful modes of communication. Former President Ronald Reagan was a masterful storyteller and many other politicians have used stories to gain votes and win elections. In the world of corporations and...

The dangers of product-driven success: what's the next growth act? Even for the high-flyers, there's no such thing as an invulnerable growth strategy. .(Cover Story)
March 1, 2003... TIME AFTER TIME, MANAGERS AT SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES become complacent about the amount of growth left in their current strategy They seriously underestimate the long-term importance of building more customer-centric businesses. They're not...

The genius is in the implementation: strategy implementation requires discipline, commitment, creativity, leadership, and superior execution skills. (Strategy Execution).
March 1, 2003... "FIRST YOU HAVE TO FORMULATE YOUR STRATEGY. Without it, it's like kicking a ball around with no goal and no goalkeeper in place. But this is not the end of the job, it's only the beginning. Each day you have to look at 'How can I achieve this...

The top five profit drains and how to plug them: profit drains always exist, but they're often very hard to spot. (Management).
March 1, 2003... PROFITS CAN SEEP OUT OF A P&L JUST AS FAST AND AS easily as a small water leak drips down the sink and through the pipes. Fortunately, a leaky faucet is easy to spot and repair before the pipe bursts. Not so fortunately, profit drains are tough...

How strong brands get "on intent" and stay there: make sure your brand isn't making promises it can't keep. (Special Focus).
March 1, 2003... A BBAND IS NOTHING MORE--OR LESS--THAN PEOPLE'S perceptions about a product or company The closer those perceptions are to what the company intends them to be, the stronger the brand. And because strong brands deliver strong top-line growth,...

Brand is dead: your brand has to mean business. (Special Focus).
March 1, 2003... I RECENTLY BAN INTO A FRIEND WHO WORKED AT a large insurance company. She told me she'd just survived a big corporate layoff. "That's great," I said. "How'd you do it?" "Well," she replied, "a month ago I changed my title from 'Marketing'...

Do it yourself. (Stack Attack).(Book Review)
March 1, 2003... If you're one of those who think that "Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part," you're not going to survive the next round of cuts in your business. All kinds of problems that had nothing to do with you are now...

Leader. (The Last Word).
March 1, 2003... In difficult times--and we think these early days of the twenty-first century qualify as "difficult"--effective, inspired leadership is even more necessary than when the living is easy. So here are some thoughts on what characterizes good...