Journal of Business Strategy articles from September 2004

Journal of Business Strategy archives from September 2004

Editor's note.(Editorial)
September 1, 2004... It is so rare for a business strategist and author to make headlines that we almost clap with delight. Nick Carr has shaken up the IT and business strategy community as well as many others with his views on information technology. While he says...

"Impact" as a verb and the decline of western civilization.(Alternative strategies)
September 1, 2004... I must admit that I have long been a crank when it comes to jargon. I object strenuously to words and usage that cause normal people to yawn and scratch. I am enraged by the commonest verbal formulations. Neologisms can give me a migraine. A...

Emeritus directors: a job for life?(Corporate governance)(retirement)
September 1, 2004... With the exception of serving as a justice of the United States Supreme Court, there are few employment opportunities where a person might hold a position or title for life. Interestingly, however, and with increasing frequency, there is an...

The corrosion of IT advantage: strategy makes a comeback.
September 1, 2004... When a valuable new technology emerges, it provides forward-looking companies with opportunities for gaining a strong and durable edge over the competition. Distinctive applications of the technology often take years for rivals to replicate....

Preparing for a new global business environment: divided and disorderly or integrated and harmonious?
September 1, 2004... For well over a decade, globalization has been a key factor in decisions by major corporations seeking growth and profits. Many executives continue to build their strategies around the assumption that the future will bring more opening of...

Higher-order needs drive new growth in mature consumer markets.
September 1, 2004... For most of the past decade, even during the long economic expansion, it has been tough to find growth in consumer markets. With a few exceptions, consumer sectors such as packaged goods, media, travel, food, and electronics had relatively poor...

From idea to innovation: making creativity real.
September 1, 2004... For business leaders, innovation is a constant concern. Innovation fuels growth and there is no strategy without it. Over their careers, chief executive officers usually collect a lot of experience in innovation, so I will not lecture about a...

Think like a sociopath, act like a saint.
September 1, 2004... "... a degree of paranoia helps protect organizations... " (Yiannis Gabriel, (1999), Organizations in Depth: The Psychoanalysis of Organizations, Sage, London, p. 209.) "... because fear is terrorism's only weapon, the terrorist's primary...

Project management: key tool for implementing strategy.
September 1, 2004... As recently as a decade ago, strategy was promoted as big-picture thinking: the "vision thing," in Lou Gerstner's words. But as organizations did away with strategic planning departments and put the onus for strategy on-line management, and as...

The business optimist gets advice and reinforcement.(Books to consider)(Book Review)
September 1, 2004... Double-Digit Growth: How Great Companies Achieve It--No Matter What Michael Treacy Published by Portfolio During the times when inflation and GNP growth in the US were higher, investors gradually expanded their expectations of what...

Why head-in-the-sand leadership sinks the ship.(Books to consider)(Book Review)
September 1, 2004... Why Smart Executives Fail: What You Can Learn from Their Mistakes Sydney Finkelstein Published by Portfolio In 1812, Napoleon initiated the disastrous campaign that marked the beginning of the end for his regime. He crossed the Polish...

Strategy implementation gets another building block.(Books to consider)(Book Review)
September 1, 2004... Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton Published by Harvard Business School Press Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton are the innovators behind the Balanced Scorecard, which...

Consilio Manuque.(Book Review)
September 1, 2004... With this issue of Journal of Business Strategy we continue serializing one of the more amusing business books of recent times, even though it is about ancient times. Our thanks to authors Michael Mainelli and Ian Harris for providing this...