Companies can struggle to stay competitive when they have too many similar-minded employees. Yet a new BCG/EAPM survey shows that many companies still frame workforce diversity in terms of legal compliance. Tailored diversity measures should be employed for business reasons—to deliver better products, improve innovation, or make the organization more agile. Authors: Jean-Michel Caye, Caroline Teichmann, Rainer Strack, Pieter Haen, Stephanie Bird, Gerold Frick

Since the advent of the Internet, firms have enjoyed unprecedented flexibility to reveal information to competitors, customers, and suppliers. In this new technological environment, firms can implement transparency strategies by using information strategically to compete. In the online travel sector, for example, the business strategy of meta-search travel agents like Kayak is to provide a comprehensive view of products and prices to travelers. Other companies, like Priceline, use opaque mechanisms to conceal product features until after purchase. This article offers foundations and guidelines for sound transparency strategies that are the result of over six years of field observations and empirical research.

To improve manufacturing operations, don’t forget to fix the organizational issues that can hinder performance. These guidelines can help your company choose the optimal manufacturing setup, based on such factors as your industry, markets, customers, products, internal capabilities, competitive position, and overall strategy. Also included: tactics for managing the inevitable tradeoffs.

Every corporate downsizing event has certain predictable outcomes such as feelings of betrayal, loss of trust, turf battles, and cynicism about the corporation’s future. This typically leads to a widespread lack of commitment throughout the organization. But downsizing can also bring significant opportunities for creating new energy and enthusiasm which often go unrecognized.

In today’s interconnected economy, some companies are so central that their failure would cause significant disruptions to the economy and to society as a whole. In order to avoid the imposition of regulatory constraints on their business, such systemically important companies need to take a broader approach to value creation.

The methods used by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to promote health in a West Virginia city can also be used to raise organizational performance.

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How conjoint analysis, a tried-and-true market research tool, can be used to support organic growth.

Ever since Bruce Henderson introduced the growth-share matrix, corporate portfolio management has been a big part of the CEO agenda. But a recent BCG survey, conducted with Freiberg University in Germany, reveals a major gap between the effort companies put into portfolio management and its impact on corporate decision-making.

Editor's Note: includes and excellent overview of CPM including history and common criticisms.

Day-traders might say the Dow’s direction depends on the morning’s news. Pundits may cite the next winner of the Super Bowl or the political party of the next elected president. Fundamental analysts might say it depends on earnings growth. The DJIA is swayed both by economic and non-economic factors. This article estimates what portion of the Dow is economically driven and what portion is not explained by economic forces.

Editor's Note: this article is less topical than it sounds

Despite years of cutbacks, many companies’ pay structures are still unbalanced. Here’s a dispassionate, logical way to realign them.