Journal of Business Strategy articles from September 1999

Journal of Business Strategy archives from September 1999

Hard Labor.(employment forecasts, United States)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 1999... If you were hoping for easing of the tight labor market in the traditionally slow last quarter, you'll be disappointed. Milwaukee-based Manpower's Employment Outlook Survey indicates that nearly 30% of the nearly 16,000 companies interviewed...

Health Care Headaches, Redux.(cost increase projections)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 1999... Based on a survey of health insurers, New York-based Buck Consultants projects that the cost of employer-provided health care benefits will continue rising into the year 2000. Medical care costs are projected to increase between 6% and 12%; the...

Moving Averages.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 1999... If you want to keep relocation costs down, transfer only those employees who rent their homes. A survey by Rochester, Wisc.-based Runzheimer International revealed that the average cost to relocate a renter is $15,022, compared with $42,160 for...

Just the Facts.(includes articles on various business survey results)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 1999... Red Ink Ebbs. Alexandria, Va.-based American Bankruptcy Institute released some good news. The number of bankruptcies filed during the 12-month period ending June 40, 1999 declined from the year-earlier record high. A total of 1,391,964...

Leadership: Setting Priorities.(excerpt from "Patton on Leadership: Strategic Lessons for Corporate Warfare")(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... From Patton on Leadership: Strategic Lessons for Corporate Warfare, by Alan Axelrod, Prentice Hall Press, Paramus, N.J., 1999. All this talk about super weapons and push-button warfare is a pile of junk. Man is the only war machine.......

Competition: Dangers of the Catbird Seat.(information changes strategy)(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... From Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy, by Philip Evans and Thomas S. Wurster, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 1999. Incumbents can behave like the owners of Britannica. They can become...

Finance: How Much Is Too Much?(for new business enterprises)(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... From "The Curse of Too Much Capital: Building New Businesses in Large Corporations," in The McKinsey Quarterly, 1999, Number 3. It seems to be common sense that if you seriously want to build a business quickly, you shouldn't skimp on...

Management: Rule 1: Keep 'Em in the Dark.(excerpt from "Chainsaw: The Notorious Career of Al Dunlap in the Era of Profit-at-Any-Price")(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... From Chainsaw: The Notorious Career of Al Dunlap in the Era of Profit-at-Any-Price, by John A. Byrne, HarperBusiness, New York, 1999. Two days later, on Wednesday, [Frank Feraco, newly hired president of Sunbeam's outdoor leisure group]...

Applying Information Age Principles to a Network of Partners.(information management)(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... Information Age Principle 1. Information Awareness 2. Effective Decision Architecture 3. Knowledge Dissemination 4. Organizational Focus What It Means Within a Company 1. Ensuring that each part of the organization...

Strategy as Sports! War! ... Food?(corporate strategies)
September 1, 1999... Students of corporate strategy are used to seeing metaphors used to help explain strategic concepts. Most typical are those metaphors using sports, war, or the military. In fact, it was from military strategists, such as Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, or...

Multiple Spaces for Multiple Tasks.(flexible workspace designs)(Statistical Data Included)(Interview)
September 1, 1999... For employees at some 40 field offices of San Jose-based Cisco Systems, "going to the office" has taken on new meaning. Many of them have no desk or office to call their own; instead they choose from among a variety of workspaces-small...

Feng Shui More Than Superstition.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... Literally "wind and water," feng shui is a complicated process that analyzes situations and directions in an attempt to create harmony with the earth. In the western workplace, though, some of its most common-sense tenets can be adapted to...

Divide and Conquer.(mapping/geographic information systems software)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 1999... Although there no reported human deaths from drowning in data, many businesses seem about to go under for the third time. Just finding the route to the surface of that data deluge is impossible for some. At many companies, data still exists in...

Mapping and Data Solutions for Strategic Visualization.(includes product descriptions of various suppliers)
September 1, 1999... This is a sampling of providers of GIS and mapping solutions. Many of these vendors offer downloadable demonstration software on their Web sites so you can "test drive" the software. Autodesk-CAD Leader Offers World Map GIS Solutions ...

Preserve, Protect, and Defend.(information security planning)
September 1, 1999... The explosive growth of information technology is proving to be a double-edged sword. It has given rise to a wealth of new and innovative ways of doing business. It offers new ways to leverage information, improve processes, and reduce costs,...

Strategists of the century.(In which we name those people who had the greatest influence on business strategy over the last 100 years.)(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... Normally, in the September/October issue of the Journal of Business Strategy, we nominate the "Strategists to Watch" in the coming year. We choose leaders who have appreciable challenges before them and describe the strategies they are...

Frederick Winslow Taylor(1856-1915): The Science of Business.
September 1, 1999... Not many business gurus can lay claim to seeing their name turned into a dictionary term. But Frederick W. Taylor could, and in his own lifetime. Unfortunately, "Taylorism" is seldom used in a positive way. To many, Taylorism is an amusing...

Henry Ford (1863-1947): Loving the Line.(life and work profile)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 1999... "Time loves to be wasted," Henry Ford reportedly once said-and it was a waste the obsessive tinkerer abhorred, because when it was gone it could never return. So it is not surprising that his Ford Motor Company was the first to adopt the...

Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. (1875-1966): The Original "Organization" Man.(former chief executive officer of General Motors Inc.)
September 1, 1999... When Alfred P. Sloan arrived at General Motors in 1918, the car manufacturer was 10 years old and in dire straits. By 1920, he wrote in his classic autobiography/management text, My Years With General Motors, "the automobile market had nearly...

W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993): Quality Controller.
September 1, 1999... Historians say that people are often appreciated more by foreigners than by those around them, a sentiment proven true by the immense popularity of Mikhail Gorbachev in the U.S. and of George Bush abroad. And it was almost true of W. Edwards...

Walt Disney (1901-1966): Linking Vision with Reality.(profile)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 1999... Born with the turn of the century, Walt Disney single-handedly created an empire. His name is synonymous with family entertainment, quality experiences, and, of course, Mickey Mouse, the world's most famous cartoon character. Blessed with...

Ray Kroc (1902-1984): Flipping Over Efficiency.
September 1, 1999... Often, it's not the person who invents the better mousetrap, but the person who has the vision to set that mousetrap where all the critters are. Ray Kroc was already 53 years old when he opened his first McDonald's in suburban Chicago. It...

Peter F. Drucker (b. 1909): Management's Modernizer.
September 1, 1999... Would you be willing to pay a consultant $8,000 a day for advice? You might, if that consultant's name was Peter F. Drucker. The Economist has called Austrian-born Drucker "the greatest thinker management theory has produced," and he is widely...

Sam Walton (1918-1992): Everyday Low Prices Pay Off.
September 1, 1999... Samuel Moore Walton personified the American dream in the late 20th century by parlaying a shrewd knowledge of rural buying habits into a retail empire. In so doing, he changed the profile of retailing to a discount-oriented industry through...

Akio Morita (b. 1921): A Founder of Japan, Inc.
September 1, 1999... This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of the Sony Walkman, the now-ubiquitous portable radio/cassette (some 186 million have been sold worldwide) that heralded an age of personal electronics. In many ways, the device sums up what...

Jack Welch (b. 1935): He Brings Good Things to GE.
September 1, 1999... It's ironic that a top strategist of the century is the same man who dismantled a vaunted strategic planning department almost immediately after moving into the corner office. In 1983, just two years after being named chairman and CEO of...

Michael E. Porter (b. 1947): A Man with a Competitive Advantage.
September 1, 1999... "Almost no consensus exists about what corporate strategy is, much less about how a company should formulate it," Michael Porter wrote in 1987. By then, he'd taught at Harvard Business School for more than a decade, having received tenure at...

Bill Gates (b. 1955): Standards Operating Procedure.
September 1, 1999... Bill Gates and Paul Allen sold the rights to their first commercial software effort, a programming language for an early PC, for $3,000, plus royalties. That sale almost doomed the fledgling Microsoft. Its founders quickly learned that, if...

Space Did not permit.
September 1, 1999... Who Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933) What American political scientist and management philosopher Why Follett focused on human relations in business and their link to business operations. A humanist in an era that...

Leadership: Copy or Build.(Review)
September 1, 1999... Leadership as a topic never goes away and probably never will as long as it's such an important part of being a successful strategist. And so we tackle this hearty evergreen again. The latest crop to face Stack's ax all take different spins on...

100 Years of Strategy.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... In 1900, there were 76 million people in America, and only 8,000 registered vehicles. Of course, only someone with more money than brains would want an automobile. A car ride was nasty, brutish, and long--there were fewer than 40,000 miles of...

Hard Labor.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 1999... If you were hoping for easing of the tight labor market in the traditionally slow last quarter, you'll be disappointed. Milwaukee-based Manpower's Employment Outlook Survey indicates that nearly 30% of the nearly 16,000 companies interviewed...

Moving Averages.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... If you want to keep relocation costs down, transfer only those employees who rent their homes. A survey by Rochester, Wisc.-based Runzheimer International revealed that the average cost to relocate a renter is $15,022, compared with $42,160 for...

What High-Tech Firms Need.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... What High-Tech Firms Need Inception Growth Fortification Public Policy Tax Incentives *** * Public Investment *...

Red Ink Ebbs.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 1999... Alexandria, Va.-based American Bankruptcy Institute released some good news. The number of bankruptcies filed during the 12-month period ending June 40, 1999 declined from the year-earlier record high. A total of 1,391,964 bankruptcies were...

Setting Priorities.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... From Patton on Leadership: Strategic Lessons for Corporate Warfare, by Alan Axelrod, Prentice Hall Press, Paramus, N.J., 1999. All this talk about super weapons and push-button warfare is a pile of junk. Man is the only war machine.......

Dangers of the Catbird Seat.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... From Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy, by Philip Evans and Thomas S. Wurster, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 1999. Incumbents can behave like the owners of Britannica. They can become...

How Much Is Too Much?(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... From "The Curse of Too Much Capital: Building New Businesses in Large Corporations," in The McKinsey Quarterly, 1999, Number 3. It seems to be common sense that if you seriously want to build a business quickly, you shouldn't skimp on...

Rule 1: Keep 'Em in the Dark.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... From Chainsaw: The Notorious Career of Al Dunlap in the Era of Profit-at-Any-Price, by John A. Byrne, HarperBusiness, New York, 1999. Two days later, on Wednesday, [Frank Feraco, newly hired president of Sunbeam's outdoor leisure group]...

MULTIPLE SPACES FOR MULTIPLE TASKS.
September 1, 1999... Flexibility is becoming as important to office design as it is to business strategy. FOR EMPLOYEES AT SOME 40 FIELD OFFICES OF SAM JOSE-based Cisco Systems, "going to the office" has taken on new meaning. Many of them have no desk or...

DIVIDE AND CONQUER.
September 1, 1999... You can collect huge masses of data about your customers, but if you don't sort it, it won't do you any good. Mapping software may be just what you need. ALTHOUGH THERE NO REPORTED HUMAN DEATHS FROM drowning in data, many businesses seem...

PRESERVE, PROTECT, AND DEFEND.
September 1, 1999... Don't regard computer security issues as fires to put out. First assess the real risks, then establish a coordinated strategy for protecting against them. THE EXPLOSIVE GROWTH OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY is proving to be a double-edged...

STRATEGISTS of the CENTURY.
September 1, 1999... In which we name these people who had the greatest influence on business strategy over the last 100 years. NORMALLY, IN THE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER ISSUE OF THE Journal of Business Strategy, we nominate the "Strategists to Watch" in the coming...

Results-Based Leadership: How Leaders Build the Business and Improve the Bottom Line.(Brief Article)(Review)
September 1, 1999... David Ulrich, Jack Zenger, and Norm Smallwood, foreword by Warren Bennis Harvard Business School Press, Boston Authors' Credentials: Ulrich is a professor at the School of Business, University of Michigan, codirector of U Michigan's...

bookreviewsThe Book of Five Rings for Executives.(Brief Article)(Review)
September 1, 1999... Donald G. Krause Nicholas Brealey Publishing, London Author's Credentials: Author of The Art of War for Executives and a book on leadership drawing from Sun Tzu and Confucius; president of a management consulting firm. Thesis:...

Co-Leaders: The Power of Great Partnerships.(Brief Article)(Review)
September 1, 1999... David A. Heenan and Warren Bennis John Wiley & Sons, New York Author's Credentials: Heenan is trustee of the Estate of James Campbell, in charge of assets over $2 billion, former senior executive with Citicorp and Jardin Matheson,...

Business the Richard Branson Way: 10 Greatest Secrets of the World's Greatest Brand-Builder.(Brief Article)(Review)
September 1, 1999... Business the Richard Branson Way: 10 Greatest Secrets of the World's Greatest Brand-Builder Business the Bill Gates Way: 10 Secrets of the World's Richest Business Leader [Multi-volume review] Branson & Gates by Des Dearlove;...

Why Employees Look for New Jobs.(Statistical Data Included)(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... Why Employees Look for New Jobs Percentage Not Satisfied Compensation 77% Workplace Environment 73% Day-to-Day Activities 70% Benefits 68% People They Interact With 62%...

The Smart Money Is On...(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 1999... Venture-backed investments in the second quarter of 1999 hit a record $7.67 billion, far exceeding the previous record of $4.31 billion in first quarter of 1999, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers Money Tree Survey. Investments increased...

Chain Links.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... According to Waltham, Mass.-based PRTM, Leading companies have cut total supply chain management to between 4% and 5% of sales, which is 5% to 6% less than median performers as a percentage of sales.. This can translate into a $25 million to...

Beer Tastes.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 1999... Does beer advertising pay? Only 54% of American beer drinkers polled by Maritz AmeriPoll of Fenton, Mo., could recall any beer ads they heard during the past month, and 51% said they were unlikely to try a new brand of beer.

FENG SHUI--MORE THAN SUPERSTITION.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... Literally "wind and water," feng shui is a complicated process that analyzes situations and directions in an attempt to create harmony with the earth. In the western workplace, though, some of its most commonsense tenets can be adapted to...

Health Care Headaches, Redux.(cost of employer provided health care benefits)(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... Based on a survey of health insurers, New York-based Buck Consultants projects that the cost of employer provided health care benefits will continue rising into the year 2000. Medical care costs are projected to increase between 6% and 12%; the...

Applying Information Age Principles to a Network of Partners.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1999... Applying Information Age Principles to a Network of Partners Information Age Principle What It Means Within a Company Information Awareness Ensuring that each part of the organization captures the...

Strategy as Sports! War! ... Food?
September 1, 1999... Students of corporate strategy are used to seeing metaphors used to help explain strategic concepts. Most typical are those metaphors using sports, war, or the military. In fact, it was from military strategists, such as Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, or...