Journal of Business Strategy articles from November 1994

Journal of Business Strategy archives from November 1994

Strategy a clef.
November 1, 1994... I know an executive who routinely asks job applicants about the non-fiction books they've been reading. There aren't really any right answers. He's just looking for an eclectic mix, a sense that the applicant is "a serious person." But he...

How is a computer company like a tunnel?(WordPerfect Corp. creates on-hold radio station for customers waiting on the phone for help)(Brief Article)
November 1, 1994... The movement to benchmark best practices long ago crossed industry lines, but the strange, hybrid results can still startle the outside observer. Take the issue of how to deal with a client spending time on hold when telephoning a company....

GE brings good things to shareholders' minds.(General Electric Co. rates number one in corporate image survey)(Brief Article)
November 1, 1994... General Electric has the best corporate image of the 20 largest publicly traded companies according to a poll by New York-based Shareholders Surveys division of Storyboard Tests. AT&T and Wal-Mart ranked second and third respectively....

Glancing around the globe.(business news in China, Austria, and Switzerland)(Brief Article)
November 1, 1994... Worldwide: More than 80% of multinational companies--American, European, and Asian--are moving to centralize global strategy, says Frank Tortorici of New York's Conference Board. China: What's hot besides telecommunications? Businesses that...

Wheel of diversity keeps on turning.(diversity training specifically for men)(Brief Article)
November 1, 1994... Just when you thought you were as aware of diversity issues as anyone could be--virtually every study shows that two-thirds of the new entrants into the workforce from now through the year 2000 will be women, and one-third will be people of...

Seeds sown in 1994, an overview.(trends)(Statistical Data Included)
November 1, 1994... The way we look at it, once is interesting, twice is a trend, and three times is a significant trend. Here's a look at 10 trends that may sprout in the seasons to come--with or without planning. I'LL HAVE THAT WITH RED WINE WHAT: Sales...

ERRATUM.
November 1, 1994... Prices at the University of Texas Executive Education program listed in May/June start at $1,100.

How industrial policy affects planning.
November 1, 1994... From an editorial by Robert Avila in "Outlook," a newsletter published by the Futures Group in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Industrial policy is a somewhat grandiose political term for what government has been doing since priests or princes...

Personal anchors for a sea change.
November 1, 1994... From Life Without Job Security," by Tom Brown, interviewing Cliff Hakim, author of We are All Self-Employed: A New Social Contract Affecting Every Worker and Organization, in the August 15, 1994, edition of Industry Week, Penton Publishing,...

Misguided Morality.(United States' morals and foreign relations)
November 1, 1994... America's strategists are at sixes and sevens. At issue: how to chart the United States' moral compass. Repeatedly, we intervene in a host of nations--Bosnia, Rwanda, Somalia, Haiti--to redress grave human suffering. To date, our responses have...

The Care and Cultivation of Corporate Main Brains.(making use of business intelligence, choosing the right personnel)(Statistical Data Included)
November 1, 1994... Part of the challenge of strategy is the "educated guess" component--perhaps the most esoteric angle of the planning arts. It's also the most important. Mastering it comes from exposure to vast amounts of such varied information as the hard...

Einstein: Still No Equal.(Albert, thoughts of)
November 1, 1994... "Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible," said the great theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, Now, nearly half a century later, his words still have merit in many contexts. Given the chaos created by quantum leaps in...

Story Time.(business fiction)(Excerpt)
November 1, 1994... BACK IN APRIL OF '93, JUST AS WE WERE IN THE MIDDLE OF overhauling the Journal of Business Strategy, we received an unsolicited manuscript titled "The Mariner and the Deep Blue Board: A Strategic Fable." Was it a column on boards-of-directors?...

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A BIRD WATCHER.(Kenny Rogers Roasters' vice president, Gregory Dollarhyde)
November 1, 1994... Kenny Rogers Roasters has been pecking away at competitor Boston Chicken for the past three years. The company's recipe for success includes founder John Y. Brown--the ex-Kentucky governor -- Brown's pal Kenny Rogers, and executive vice...

UNIONS AND MANAGEMENT: THE OLD LABELS DON'T STICK ANYMORE.(Statistical Data Included)
November 1, 1994... After a long slide, organized labor is back waving some high-flying numbers--and demanding a higher profile in the lives of workers and management. Here's a look at what this means for corporate strategists, especially those determined to dodge...

Equifax: Gets Extra credit.(reorganization under CEO Jack Rogers)(Statistical Data Included)
November 1, 1994... OF COURSE YOU'VE HEARD OF EQUIFAX, INC., THE ATLANTA-BASED CREDIT-information-services agency. Remember two months ago, when you picked out the handsome gray Lexus that's now sitting proudly in your reserved parking spot just outside your...

Competing for the Future: Breakthrough Strategies for Seizing Control of Your Industry and Creating the Markets of Tomorrow
November 1, 1994... by Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad. Published: Harvard Business School Press, Boston. Authors' credentials: Arguably the top MBA-level professors of strategic management and corporate strategy (neither teach at Harvard, however). Thesis:...

OPS Time: The Secret to Perfect Timing for Success
November 1, 1994... by Robert Taylor. Published: Longstreet Press, Atlanta. Author's credentials: Owner of large bank and construction firm. Thesis: Human behavioral patterns and so-called biological rhythms can be dissected and applied in a way that...

The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning
November 1, 1994... by Henry Mintzberg. Published: Free Press, New York. Author's credentials: Professor. Thesis: Strategy formulation is very different from planning. Scope: Roundup of all U.S. academic theory from 1962 to 1990s including the SWOT...

Corporate Renaissance: The Art at Reengineering
November 1, 1994... by Kelvin F. Corss, John J. Feather, and Richard L. Lynch. Published: Blackwell, Oxford, U.K. Authors' credentials: Amalgam of business and consulting experience. Thesis: You can't change a corporation's culture by working on the...

Manufacturing 2000
November 1, 1994... by William L. Duncan. Published: Amacom, New York. Author's credentials: Director of material management for McDonnell Douglas and John Deere. Thesis: Maintaining a strong domestic manufacturing base is entirely possible and...

Corporate-Level Strategy: Creating Value in the Multi-business Company
November 1, 1994... by Michael Goold, Andrew Campbell, and Marcus Alexander. Published: John Wiley, New York. Authors' credentials: Big-league consultants. Thesis: Only a few multi-business companies have corporate strategies that create substantial...

Managing Imitation Strategies: How Later Entrants Seize Markets from Pioneers
November 1, 1994... by Steven P. Schnaars. Published: Free Press, New York. Author's credentials: Professor of marketing. Thesis: The benefits of innovation and early-market entry have been grossly oversold; imitation is not only more abundant than...

Learning From Teaching.(business executives taking on roles as teachers)
November 1, 1994... Ginger Conwell isn't the type of teacher that the second graders at George Washington Carver Elementary School in Santa Ana, California, are used to. For one thing, she's an engineer--a female engineer--one who plans and coordinates...

Let the Circle Be Unbroken.(evaluation through the 360-degree feedback system)(Brief Article)
November 1, 1994... The latest management evaluation technique is the 360-degree feedback system. It's not just your boss who assesses your performance, but your peers, subordinates, and even yourself (how you percieve yourself is compared to how others rank you)....