Journal of Business Strategy articles from May 2003

Journal of Business Strategy archives from May 2003

The profit prophets.(ways to increase profitability)(Editorial)
May 1, 2003... The name of the game in business is ensuring that revenues exceed expenses. That's such an absolute truth that even one of management's historical arch enemies agreed: "The worst crime against working people," said Samuel Gompers "is a company...

Just the facts. (Short Takes).(results of surveys)
May 1, 2003... Worries, Mate. A survey of 1,185 executives conducted by ExecuNet found that 68% are concerned about their present job or career. When asked about the cause of this concern, 23% report that their companies' prospects are not good; 20% attribute...

'Tis better to give. (Short Takes).(charitable donations)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... A recent Conference Board survey found that company contributions to worthy causes are still rising. Contributions rose to $4.5 billion in 2001 (the latest year for which official figures are available), an increase from the $3.9 billion the...

How green is my pension. (Governance).(From Trends)(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
May 1, 2003... From "Trends," by Ricardo Bayon, in the Milken Institute Review, First Quarter 2003. [Says California state treasurer and overseer of California's pension fund, Calpers, Philip Angelides]: "Post-Enron, the notion that we can divorce...

Upon mature reflection. (Time Management).(from Full Frontal PR: Getting People Talking About You, Your Business, or Your Product,)(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
May 1, 2003... From Full Frontal PR: Getting People Talking About You, Your Business, or Your Product, by Richard Laermer with Michael Princhinello, Bloomberg Press, Princeton, NJ, 2003. Make time for self-examination. Companies should view the recent...

Time and money. (Budgeting).(From Beyond Budgeting: How Managers Can Break Free from the Annual Performance Trap)(Book Review)
May 1, 2003... From Beyond Budgeting: How Managers Can Break Free from the Annual Performance Trap, by Jeremy Hope and Robin Fraser, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 2003. Despite the advent of powerful computer networks and multilayered models,...

Where did all the knowledge go? (Alternative Scenaries).(knowledge management)
May 1, 2003... As we slide to the bottom of the trough of the economic cycle, we look around us and all we see are walls of water. This is perhaps a difficult time to remember that just a few years ago the entire economy was in ferment, with a thousand...

On the Web, you're a retailer. (Marketing).(Companies that develop successful Web channels will pay as much attention to the process around how customers interact with them as they will to any other core business function.)(Web principles)
May 1, 2003... No matter who you are or what business you think you are in, you are actually in two different businesses: You create products or services, and you create the process your customers go through to buy them. This process is separate and wholly...

Using data analytics for greater profits. (Technology Strategies).(converting data into knowledge to enhance ability to make effective business decisions)(Value of an unbiased perspective)
May 1, 2003... It could be a scene from Martin Scorsese's film, Casino. The camera pans a room of baccarat tables. And there, we see the boss... Robert De Niro? Well, no. It's former Harvard Business School professor and MIT Ph.D., Gary Loveman,...

Are you getting value from your it? Assigning value to IT investments doesn't have to be guesswork. (Special Focus).
May 1, 2003... TECHNOLOGY IS A VERY EXPENSIVE PROPOSITION FOR MOST COMpanies. Although IT spending growth was down in 2002. reflecting overcapacity and the economic environment, estimates for U.S. IT spending growth in 2003 average 4% to 6%; estimates for...

ROI is not a formula, it is a responsibility: setting IT priorities based on return on investment is a fool's game. (Special Focus).
May 1, 2003... TRADE PUBLICATIONS, MARKETING BROCHURES, AND ANALYST reports devote excessive amount of ink to helping business leaders calculate IT's return on investment. Methods recommended include simple cost-benefit analysis, internal rate of return,...

Magnetic intellectual property: accelerating revenues from innovation.(Cover Story)
May 1, 2003... Corporate America can learn a great deal from venture capitalists about the best way to manage intellectual property. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY STRATEGY ALWAYS SEEMS TO BE ON THE list of corporate "shoulds." In concept, every company has...

Price is a "language" to customers: when you set a price, you're sending a message to customers. (Pricing Strategies).
May 1, 2003... COMPANIES LIKE TO TALK TO THEIR POTENTIAL CUStomers. Everyone, from the sales representative to the president, would like to help explain why a potential customer should buy a product, and how the customer needs to use it. Rather foreign to...

Finding hidden profits: profit hunts aren't just for companies in the economic doldrums. Even for industry leaders, they can be sources of growth. (Strategic Management).
May 1, 2003... Manny Maceda, Alistair RECESSIONS ARE DEFINED AS PERIODS OF NEGATIVE economic growth, usually accompanied by slowing sales. But in the recent downturn, profits were hit much harder than revenues. While the U.S. gross domestic product--the...

Dollars and sense: the path to board independence; just saying a company's board is independent doesn't make it so. (Governance).
May 1, 2003... BOARD INDEPENDENCE IS LIKE A LIGHTHOUSE ON A DARK and stormy night. It serves as the beacon of hope for corporate governance reform activists who embrace the perspective that more independent boards will result in greater oversight of corporate...

Avoiding strategy by default. (Stack Attack).(Put the Moose on the Table: Lessons in Leadership from a CEO's Journey Through Business and Life)(Revival of the Fittest: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Managers Remake Them)(Thinking Inside the Box: The 12 Timeless Rules for Managing a Successful Business)(The Art and Discipline of Strategic Leadership)(Book Review)
May 1, 2003... Stack has noticed that the good books on leadership either describe the topic in all its richness and complexity, or they provide a kind of x-ray vision that focuses attention on the critical issues for action. The books in this Stack fall into...

Leader II. (The Last World).(quotations about leadership)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... There are some interesting differences of opinion in definitions of leadership. Some people emphasize the collaborative nature of leadership, while others see an imperative to preserve the distance between leaders and followers. And there also...