MIT Sloan Management Review articles from March 2002

MIT Sloan Management Review archives from March 2002

From the editors.
March 22, 2002... One of the most referenced concepts in current management literature is the Schumpeterian notion of creative destruction: the idea that capitalist systems rely on the wrenching shock of the new to disrupt obsolete processes and technologies...

Issue selling in the organization: To turn a great idea into gold, a manager first has to get the boss's attention -- and that's a scarce commodity. (Strategy).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... In this age of rapid change, organizations must relentlessly improve their structures, processes and systems if they hope to outperform their competitors. The best companies know which ingredients go into a successful change effort and how to...

Is global software an oxymoron? Customer satisfaction among software users depends on a number of factors, the relative importance of which varies by country and culture. (E-Business).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Assessing the different needs of local markets may be taken for granted in most industries, but many software firms have taken a more convenient route toward product development. They focus on functionality that they feel will be globally...

What's the best commercialization strategy for startups? the external environment dictates to a great degree whether competition or cooperation is the preferred road. (Entrepreneurship).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Through 25 years of radical breakthroughs in biotechnology, the top ranks of the pharmaceutical industry have remained virtually unchanged. Meanwhile, in the disk drive industry, each new generation of technology has caused the market leaders...

Performance-benchmarked portfolios: Unlike traditional stock options, benchmarking performance to company-specific risk creates a more accurate incentive and reward mechanism. (Executive Compensation).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Stock options were originally intended to tighten the link between executive pay and performance. In practice, however, they've proven to be a clumsy tool. In the bull market of the 1990s, options enriched many a mediocre CEO, while the...

Becoming an Internet Generation Company: Yes, the Internet can transform business, but for too many companies, its doing so at a glacial pace. (Information Technology).
March 22, 2002... The Internet has been described as the most radical innovation of the 20th century -- a technology poised to transform every aspect of business. For some companies, that interpretation certainly seems accurate. With their constant network...

The perils of power: Farsighted investors can check wayward founder-CEOs by creating strong and independent boards. (Governance).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Fast-growing founder-run companies are more likely than other companies to need strong boards -- and less likely to have them. That's the message of a study by Annette L. Ranft and Hugh M. O'Neill. The researchers looked at 91 U.S....

Building scientific networks for effective innovation: a company's interaction with the scientific community is crucial to its ability to incubate and commercialize new ideas. (Innovation).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... A number of academic studies have suggested that in science-driven business sectors, being part of both scientific and commercial networks is crucial to driving innovation. A forthcoming paper in Research Policy, titled "Innovation as...

The principles of decision making: Walking the fine edge between efficiency and consensus. (Organizations).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... The need for speed places a premium on efficient decision making. But effective strategic moves also require organizational buy-in, which is best achieved through time-consuming consensus building. Harvard Business School assistant professor...

Foundations for growth how to identify and build disruptive new businesses.
March 22, 2002... Many companies believe in the concept of disruptive innovation but are skeptical about making it work. Here's a blueprint to help managers understand if the conditions are right for disruption -- and how to pull it off again and again. ...

The comparative advantage of X-teams: the current environment demands a new brand of team -- one that emphasizes outreach to stakeholders and adapts easily to flatter organizational structures, changing information and increasing complexity.
March 22, 2002... Often teams that seem to be doing everything right -- establishing clear roles and responsibilities, building trust among members, defining goals -- nevertheless see their projects fail or get axed. We know one such team that had a highly...

The evolution of the organizational architect.
March 22, 2002... Organizations often relegate the job of aligning business needs and technology support to IT or operations, but with the strategic uncertainties of e-business, a separate coordinating role may be the only solution. After nearly two...

The elements of platform leadership: with vision that extends beyond their current business operations or the technical specifications of one product, platform leaders can create an industry ecosystem greater than the sum of its parts.
March 22, 2002... You would think that a company like Intel, which in 2001 provided nearly 85% of the microprocessors for personal computers, would feel relatively secure. But companies holding the keys to popular technology don't live in a vacuum. In many...

Pricing as a strategic capability.
March 22, 2002... Companies that know how to set the right prices for their products and services understand that pricing isn't simply a matter of good tactics. By investing in specific areas of organizational capital, they've made it a strategic weapon that...

Six myths about informal networks -- and how to overcome them.
March 22, 2002... Informal groups of employees do much of the important work in organizations today. To help those networks reach their full potential, executives must come to grips with how they really function. Over the past couple of decades, management...

Maximizing value in the digital world. (Essay).
March 22, 2002... Content creators cannot effectively protect absolute rights to digital content through legal or technological means -- and they likely undermine themselves by trying. Instead, they should use life-cycle theory to segment the market, establish...

Managing the total customer experience. (Essay).
March 22, 2002... Offering products or services alone is no longer enough: Organizations must provide their customers with satisfactory experiences. Competing on this dimension means orchestrating all the "clues" that people detect in the buying process. ...

Is your e-business plan radical enough? to succeed on the Web put someone in charge who knows the business. The CIO is critical, but only as a partner. (Essay).
March 22, 2002... During the dot-com frenzy of the late 1990s, most large, traditional companies scrambled to find successful e-business strategies to fight off the aggressive new challengers. Unsure of how to proceed, many turned over their Internet efforts...

Don't just relate -- collaborate. (Opinion).(Brief Article)(Editorial)
March 22, 2002... Collaboration has become an established way of doing business with suppliers, channel partners and complementors. But, with a few notable exceptions, working directly with customers to co-create value remains a radical notion. As consumers...