Baseline articles from November 2003

Baseline archives from November 2003

By the Numbers: November 2003.
November 1, 2003... Why Firms Outsource (and Whether It Works) Companies are hiring outsiders to handle many of their computing chores not so much to save money as to focus more on their basic busi-nesses. Yet the "outsourcing" doesn't always work out. An...

New Balance: Shoe Fits.
November 1, 2003... You are a salesman for the New Balance Athletic Shoe company. You're driving to Boulder, Colo., one Monday in July to meet with the regional buyer from your top account, The Sports Authority. Your cell phone rings. It's Jim Tompkins, president...

New Balance Player Roster.
November 1, 2003... Insiders Jim Davis, Chairman and CEO Davis bought New Balance for $100,000 in 1972--on the day of the Boston Marathon. At the time, the company made 30 pairs of running shoes a day. The former electronics salesman and his wife, Anne, now...

Gotcha! Collaborative Sales Forecasting.
November 1, 2003... Background: New Balance felt a burn in its purse strings, not its hamstrings, when it tried to collect demand forecasts from its 120-member sales force. Forecasts were hard to fill out. Few forms were turned in. Telephone connections...

Roadblock: Unequipped Sales Reps.
November 1, 2003... The Obstacle: Choosing to design and make any product more than six months before it will get sold is a dicey proposition. Meeting demand that far in advance means the sales force has to have a solid view of what consumers want and when...

Following Footwear, Step by Step.
November 1, 2003... A pair of men's 991 running shoes, grey, size 13D, has just left the Foot Locker athletic-shoe store in Towson, Md. And a replacement pair is coming. Soon. How New Balance replaces the 991, a bread-and-butter running shoe designed for...

Long Strange Trip: Nike Finally Regains Footing.
November 1, 2003... Nike could not "just do it" when it tried to straighten out a newly installed system for speeding materials through its factories and into the marketplace. In fact, it has taken nearly three years for the shoemaker's profits and shares to...

SRC Software: On the Button.
November 1, 2003... SRC may be helping companies such as New Balance Athletic Shoe gaze into the future. But most of SRC's prospective customers are just trying to get a handle on the 19-year-old company's past, and how it got where it is today. The company was...

Primer: Federated Identity Management.
November 3, 2003... What is it? A system that allows individuals to use the same user name, password or other personal identification to sign on to the networks of more than one enterprise in order to conduct transactions. How is it used? Partners in a Federated...

Battling That Pesky Weight Problem.
November 5, 2003... In life-and-death decisions, people want facts. Health insurance with "medium" coverage doesn't cut it at the emergency room, and the nation's vague multicolor terror-alert system has generated plenty of nervous confusion. Still, despite...

Calculating Costs of a Demand-Planning System.
November 7, 2003... Dirty shoes, not dusty shoes. That's the goal for your athletic-shoe company. You want plenty of the former--shoes on customers' feet, getting dirty in active wear that will keep them coming back for more. And you must avoid the latter--unsold...