Business Forum articles from September 1993

Business Forum archives from September 1993

Defense conversion: facts and fantasies.
September 22, 1993... What are the prospects for defense conversion? The Department of Defense's procurement budget was $127 billion (in current dollars) in 1985. This year, it is $45 billion. That is a lot of lost ground to be made up. Indeed, the top 18 aerospace...

The dangerous ploy of downsizing.
September 22, 1993... Contrary to the management philosophy of most European and Asian competitors, United States corporations are more frequently using downsizing as a means of improving their bottom line. In fact, the practice is so prevalent history will likely...

Rightsizing for industrial competitiveness: important thoughts to consider.
September 22, 1993... Over the past decade, downsizing and restructuring became the predominant reaction to global competition, low productivity, and increasing labor costs in corporate America. Recessionary pressures have forced business and industry to maintain...

Principles for infusing ethics in your company.
September 22, 1993... In today's organizations, ethical issues permeate every department and are every person's responsibility. Therefore, the reputation of the firm is actually determined by the employees--even though the CEO is charged with being the "ethics...

Paradigm shifts in quality management and ethics development.
September 22, 1993... The authors bring together two major trends in the world of work today--quality management and ethics development. They recommend the benefits of shifting from a detection and control paradigm to a coordination and strategic impact paradigm....

New women in Japan: taking care of themselves.
September 22, 1993... On a July afternoon, just after arriving in Tokyo, I was following Yoko's spiked high heels and tailored dark suit through the lush, sticky-warm landscape of a hotel garden. Although we were in the trendy Roppongi district in the middle of...

Toasts: rhetoric and ritual in business negotiation in Confucian cultures. (includes related article)
September 22, 1993... One of the baffling episodes for most North American business people who travel to China, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong is the ritual of the welcome banquet and its toasts. Bemused travelers return with accounts of banquets in every port of call,...

New health benefits rule has big impact on businesses and workers. (Financial Accounting Statement Number 106)
September 22, 1993... A new rule that requires U.S. firms to account for the future cost of retirees' health benefits has triggered a bewildering array of responses including moves to reduce benefits, lawsuits, establishment of corporate wellness programs, and...

The Seven Cultures of Capitalism.
September 22, 1993... Authors Charles Hampden Turner and Alfons Trompenaars of The Seven Cultures of Capitalism (Currency/Doubleday, 1993) have examined and compared the most prominent capitalist nations (Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Sweden, and the...

Arithmetic - the western way.
September 22, 1993... Publishing material that is misleading or incorrect should be the number one sin editors try to avoid. The prestigious Los Angeles Times recently failed miserably in that respect. William Pfaff wrote a column in which the headline screamed,...