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

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Global R&D is making headlines but companies’ experiences to date are mixed at best. This article examines why many companies that are already moving are achieving only lukewarm results.

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

The most powerful force subverting conventional value chains, partly because it acts as a catalyst and accelerator for all the others, is a revolution in the economics of information. Information has always been the glue that held value chains together. The cost of getting sufficiently rich information to suppliers, channels, and customers made proprietary information systems and dedicated assets a necessity, and gave vertical integration … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Information, Strategy

In a deconstructed value chain, one of the surest paths to dominance is to establish a standard in a key business layer…The existence of standards benefits consumers in two fundamental ways. In the layer itself, a single standard greatly expands value for consumers by allowing them to take advantage of powerful network effects…Standards also have an enormous second-order economic impact. The adoption of a standard … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Economics, Strategy

The idea that there is a relation between risk and returns is a cornerstone of modern portfolio theory. And yet, the concept has yet to affect the way most companies manage the real assets of the corporate portfolio. It’s an enormous missed opportunity. It is possible to integrate a rigorous assessment of uncertainty and risk into the very process of setting portfolio strategy. The result … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Balu Balagopal, Guy Gilliland | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Finance, Risk Management

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Strategy is fast becoming a science of behavior. In a business environment characterized by continuous innovation and rapid change, an organization’s behavior increasingly is its strategy. And managers’ ability to influence that behavior is central to building sustained competitive advantage. This paper describes a systematic approach for understanding organizational behavior and targeting interventions to align that behavior with a company’s goals. The approach is based … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Robert Howard, Yves Morieux | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

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Many executives are searching for a simple, yet effective measure of overall operational performance. This paper posits that working capital productivity is an indirect indicator of a well-run operation.

Content: Article | Authors: George Stalk Jr., Harold L. Sirkin | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Finance, Management

There is a near-universal tradeoff between richness and reach of information. Richness is variously the amount, quality, specificity, recency, or trustworthiness of the information shared in a transaction; and reach is the number of people or entities involved. Typically, we can transact with lots of richness if we are willing to give up reach (a conversation) or with lots of reach if we are willing … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Communication, Information

Increased spans of control force managers to do their jobs differently. If you have just three of four direct reports, you will be tempted to meddle and micromanage. But if you have 15 reports, you have time to do only two things: communicate your goals and manage exceptions. Effective management requires trust in your reports and an ability to focus on the trouble spots. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Management

A force critical to lowering transaction costs is trust. Trust substitutes for search, negotiation, monitoring, and enforcement; it substitues for hierarchical control internally and for the legalisms of contracts externally. The core elements of trust are threefold: reciprocity (the understanding that the parties will deal with each other repeatedly), reputation (the understanding that other potential parties are watching), and a common semantic (a shared language … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Economics, Trust

In general, organizational structure tends to channel and constrain value creation. Structures exist to prvoide formal authority for decisions and to arbitrate when consensus cannot be reached. Those functions are both necessary and valuable. But increasingly, value creation is occurring across structural boundaries through network overlays of one sort or another: functions work with other functions to improve the management of common processes; locations work … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Organizational Behavior

The concept of uncertainty provides the basis for a rigorous understanding of power in human behavioral systems. Power is the capability to act in – and on – the system: it is a function of the uncertainties one controls for other members in the system. Actors with power set the rules of the collective game and thus influence the behavior of others. In this way, … [ Read more ]

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

In today’s stock-market environment, companies need to take advantage of the full range of levers available to generate shareholder value. In particular, they must identify and manage the key tradeoffs across the three chief components of a comprehensive value-creation strategy: improving fundamental value, exploiting differences in industry valuation multiples, and setting priorities for the use of free cash flow. The report, the sixth in BCG’s … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Daniel Stelter, Eric E. Olsen, Pascal Xhonneux | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Finance, Strategy

Globalization is on the CEO’s agenda at virtually every major company. The recent emergence of a set of rapidly developing economies (RDEs) as highly advantageous places to do business is dramatically reshaping the global economy, forcing executives to rethink their strategies, their operations, and their organizations. Underlying this new wave of globalization are five principal currents of activity that are combining with unprecedented force. [BNET … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Dave Young, Jim Hemerling, Thomas Bradtke | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: International

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Whether for strategic, financial, or technological reasons, companies today are increasingly finding that they must completely transform critical elements of their businesses. As a result, the ability to manage such efforts quickly, effectively, and confidently has become an important source of competitive advantage and shareholder value. The problem, however,is that transformation, by its very nature, severely stretches organizations-often pushing skills, resources, and comfort levels to … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Alan Jackson, Harold L. Sirkin, Perry Keenan | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Change Management

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In late 2004, The Boston Consulting Group conducted its second annual global survey of senior executives on innovation and the innovation-to-cash (ITC) process. A total of 940 executives, representing 68 countries and all major industries, participated. This report highlights some of the top-level findings from the survey and explores the implications. It also offers a framework to guide managers as they continue to think about … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Innovation