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

There is a great old movie called Network, about television news and a crazy anchorman who gets everyone in New York to open their windows and shout, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” That’s basically the message from the three authors of this new Perspective about complexity. We should be telling our clients, “Don’t take it anymore. It costs … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Bob Victor, Kenneth Keverian, Vikas Taneja | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Management, Operations

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Pricing is becoming more science than art. But because the science is complex, most managers rely heavily on art-or instinct. As a result, they almost always miss the pricing sweet spot. A powerful, fact-driven tool called the profit parabola can help managers monitor competitors’ prices, learn how their pricing affects their own position, respond intelligently to competitors’ moves, and test incrementally or radically different pricing … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Marin Gjaja, Peter Stanger, Wouter-Jan Schouten | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Pricing

Empowerment can be abandonment when employees are given responsibility without guidance or training. A vice president who suddenly shows up one day and tells his plant manager that he will have sign-off authority for $1 million instead of the $5,000 he formerly had isn’t empowering his employee, he’s setting him up to fail.

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

While benchmarking works well for bringing inside the best practices of others, it often amounts to strategy by mimicry. It’s not very good for devising an original “best practice” that doesn’t already exist. Cross-functional teams are good at pooling existing knowledge, breaking down barriers, and finding new ways to work inside the existing game. But these same teams often shy away from more speculative data … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Best Practices, Innovation

Why does IT integration often hinder a smooth corporate merger process? Among the reasons are that defining a well-structured approach can slip far down the priority list, and companies can get bogged down deciding which applications should be kept or discarded by the combined entity. BCG research and case work have identified six key IT integration lessons from banking mergers that can benefit companies in … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Antoine Gourevitch, Christophe Duthoit, Ralf Dreischmeier, Simon Ken | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business

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In a quest for cost savings and improved efficiency, many companies outsource portions of their IT. Few companies, however, ultimately capture the value they expected. This article provides eight levers to help remedy the situation.

Content: Article | Authors: Anthony Datel, Peter Balnaves, Ralf Dreischmeier | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Outsourcing / BPO

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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

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