341 Posts found for Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

After months of drafting vision statements and rearranging organizational boxes, many companies have bogged down in the muddy terrain that separates theory from implementation, change on paper from change in reality. What went wrong? In their eagerness to unlock the creativity of the worker, some companies neglected a most valuable and necessary player in any change process – the middle manager.

Editor’s Note: written in early … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jeanie Duck | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

There’s hardly a company today that isn’t grappling with the difficulty of change. The problem isn’t so much figuring out what to change – everyone knows that business has to become faster and better – it’s how to get from here to there. Unfortunately, the approach to managing change that seems most reasonable and least arduous also turns out to be wrong. The problem is … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jeanie Duck | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Change Management

The value-adding task of filling the gap between work prescriptions and actual situations creates stress. Without recognition, stress becomes distress, and people stop investing the intelligence and energy that make the whole difference in quality. Only recognition can make doubt, anxiety, and fear meaningful – “My pain was not in vain” – and help reorient stress toward the positive building of one’s working identity. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Recent financial scandals have created a crisis in the relations between public companies and their investors. Companies need to find ways to restore their credibility and reconnect with their investor base. Paradoxically, most good companies already have the right analytical tools at hand. Seen from the perspective of the financial markets, a company’s ultimate product is its equity. So, companies need to start applying to … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Eric E. Olsen, Gerry Hansell | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Finance, Public Relations

Most senior managers will step into a new job at some point within the next five years. Many will be recruited or promoted to the top post in their companies. A strong report card during the first 100 days can set the tone for the next 1,000. We asked 20 CEOs to come up with the agenda they would follow if they could start over … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Patrick Ducasse, Tom Lutz | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Career, Leadership

China’s 1.3 billion consumers are at a crossroads. They are embracing new economic ideas and habits, and devouring goods that have long been unavailable, unaffordable or forbidden. At the same time, they are part of a culture and an economic system that remain quite different from those of developed countries. In this special report, experts from Wharton and Boston Consulting Group offer insights on how … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Sources: Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: International – China

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Many senior executives view dividends as a low priority on the strategic agenda. They’re wrong. The unique set of circumstances that made dividends unfashionable during the long bull market of the 1980s and 1990s is fast disappearing. In the current economic environment, dividends are an especially important lever for generating above-average shareholder returns. Revisiting a company’s dividend policy can also greatly improve the strategy debate … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Eric E. Olsen, Gerry Hansell | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Finance

This perspective presents a compelling argument that, when determining the profitability unleashed by an innovation, the process or model of the innovation is every bit as important to consider as the innovation itself. The perspective highlights the need for companies to analyze in a systematic way the potential of all new products to generate cash. The authors review three general models for innovation and make … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Harold L. Sirkin, James P. Andrew | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Innovation

Power is based on the ability of one party to influence those things (the “stakes”) that matter to other parties to a degree that causes those other parties to eventually do something they would not have done without the first part’s actual or implied intervention. Despite popular belief, power is not particularly related to an imbalance of information available to the parties. Instead, the asymmetry … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Power / Authority

Every company has metrics that track performance. The key question is whether these metrics really provide visibility to performance as viewed by the customer.

Content: Quotation | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Customer Related, Measurement

Most companies fail to capture all of the opportunities for generating growth, profit, and competitive advantage through pricing. What’s more, many companies do an especially poor job of managing pricing as they come out of an economic downturn. Pricing for the recovery is an opportunity they can’t afford to miss. The authors discuss how companies can pull the appropriate pricing levers for the cost structures, … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Henry M. Vogel, Ulrika Dellby | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Pricing

Many multinationals expanding into China’s inland cities become caught in a “value trap.” Mounting losses follow initial investments. Fragmented markets and immature distribution systems confront local managers. China experts Jim Hemerling and Hubert Hsu present options for avoiding this common pitfall including: a new business model grounded in cost reduction; a better perspective on China’s non-urban consumer; and the opportunities creative partnering with local companies … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Hubert Hsu, Jim Hemerling | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: International – China

Marketers are launching more products than ever. But the costs of bringing them to market are skyrocketing, and consumers are becoming harder to reach. A joint team of Boston Consulting Group and TBWA/Chiat/Day researched success rates, launch costs, and winning strategies. Our conclusions: build go/no go stage gates; deliver realistic expectations for launch-year volume; create launch models that reflect realistic success rates and budgets; and … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Carl Rutstein, Francois Dalens, Jeff Gell | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Innovation, Marketing / Sales

Sales force deployment and compensation are among the most powerful means a company has to improve growth, market share, and profitability. Yet few companies take the time to align their payout systems with current strategy. That often translates into misallocation of resources in pursuit of the wrong selling mission. The author demonstrates the consequences of not aligning sales force compensation with strategy. He then explains … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Paul Gordon | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Human Resources, Marketing / Sales

Global players aren’t in China just to pursue growth. They are also there to compete head-on with the Chinese. But the biggest challenges multinationals encounter in China are often self-generated, because they fail to commit themselves fully to the effort. To keep from getting sidelined, China-bound companies must prepare to do business outside the big cities, make sure the home organization is motivated to support … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: George Stalk Jr., Hubert Hsu | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: International – China

Gillette’s introduction in 1903 of a safety razor with a disposable blade turned out to be brilliant. In fact, many companies, particularly in the durables sector, could benefit from similar strategies. Challenged by faster innovation cycles, aggressive Asian entrants, consolidating retailers, and the growth of private label, they could find new opportunities with their own versions of razors and blades. The authors present four proven … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Joe Manget, John Bogert, Joseph Wan, Rolf Bixner | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Strategy

This report sets forth the organizational practices and design principles of companies that are operating successfully in rapidly developing economies, particularly China and India. Whether global companies are currently engaged in sourcing, manufacturing, selling, or conducting R&D in these markets-or, very often, doing all four-they are finding the task of organizing their activities there a significant challenge.

Content: Article | Authors: Arindam Bhattacharya, David C. Michael, Jim Hemerling, John Wong | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: International, International – China

Consumers want to communicate, but it seems most marketers haven’t figured out how to listen.

Content: Quotation | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

The challenge of managing a customer’s experience comes from the fact that it happens out on the front lines of the company. In many cases, few employees know firsthand what is happening to customers. More frequently, managers who are making major decisions on new investments or process redesign have little idea of the end-to-end impact those decisions will have on the customer experience.

Content: Quotation | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales