1297 Posts found for Source: strategy+business

For the 20th anniversary of strategy+business, we, the editors and staff of this magazine thought we’d celebrate this grand story of management thinking by holding, in effect, a grand party. We’d invite all the luminaries of management thought, from antiquity to today, to join us in spirit. Or at least to have their ideas in the room. And you’re invited too.

This catalog will give … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Art Kleiner, Nancy A. Nichols | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Economics is not about your taste. Economics, once people have risen above basic needs into the middle class, is about the tastes of other people, whether you like it or not.

It’s hard to say how much of the present-day economy is based on taste instead of need, since, as Abraham Maslow pointed out, the line shifts. At the very least, not only entertainment, but … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Economics

Ten years of research reveal the best R&D strategies for the decade ahead.

Content: Article | Authors: Barry Jaruzelski, Brad Goehle, Volker Staack | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Best Practices, Innovation

We found four factors that were correlated—four things that might account for the degree of collective intelligence in a team. The first was the most obvious: the intelligence of the individual team members. We had expected that the group intelligence would correlate with the average or maximum intelligence of individual group members. But we were surprised to find that the correlation was not very strong. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Thomas Malone | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Teamwork

How skilled return migrants can be your company’s agents of change.

Content: Article | Author: Dan Wang | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: International, Organizational Behavior

The professor at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management explains the root of unethical behavior.

Content: Thought Leader | Authors: Jessica Kennedy, Laura W. Geller | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Ethics, Organizational Behavior

Careful planning for an independent future can maximize value when companies liberate assets.

Content: Article | Authors: Kyle Long, Thomas J. Flaherty | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Strategy

One of the most encouraging recent management trends has been the move away from rigid, numerically based annual performance reviews. As larger companies follow Silicon Valley early adopters in rethinking the wisdom of the annual performance review, the question arises: What might replace it? What might a more human and flexible way of assessing employee contribution and gauging developmental needs look like? As yet, no … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Sally Helgesen | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

It’s tempting to dwell on the negative traits of your culture, but any corporate culture is a product of good intentions that evolved in unexpected ways and will have many strengths. They might include a deep commitment to customer service (which could manifest itself as a reluctance to cut costs) or a predisposition toward innovation (which sometimes leads to “not invented here” syndrome). If you … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Caroline Kronley, Ilona Steffen, Jon R. Katzenbach | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Most companies don’t pass the coherence test because they pay too much attention to external positioning and not enough to internal capabilities. They succumb to intense pressure for top-line growth and chase business in markets where they don’t have the capabilities to sustain success. Their growth emanates not from the core but from the acquisition of apparent “adjacencies” that are often anything but and the … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Cesare R. Mainardi, Paul Leinwand | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Strategy

We have found, through numerous cultural interventions with a wide range of organizations […] that companies that eschew all-encompassing culture change initiatives and instead focus on three specific elements—critical behaviors, existing cultural traits, and critical informal leaders—have the most success. We call these “the critical few.”

Content: Quotation | Authors: James Thomas, Jon R. Katzenbach, Rutger von Post | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Change Management, Culture, Management, Organizational Behavior

How you treat your employees determines how they treat customers.

Content: Quotation | Authors: James Thomas, Jon R. Katzenbach, Rutger von Post | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Customer Related, Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

If agility is chasing opportunities presented to you by a chaotic market, then agility is not a recipe for success. It’s a guarantee of incoherence and volatile performance. But if you stay true to your identity, aware of your unique strengths and where your capabilities add the most value over time, then you won’t just be agile. You’ll be “smart agile.” Yours will be a … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Cesare R. Mainardi | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Strategy

Customers always come first for this Chinese appliance maker — even as it continually reinvents itself and expands around the world.

Content: Case Study | Authors: Bill Fischer, Fang Liu, Umberto Lago | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Management | Industry: Consumer Products | Company: Haier

I’ve heard [game designer] Jane McGonigal describe play as the voluntary overcoming of unnecessary obstacles. Is work the voluntary overcoming of necessary obstacles?

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Work

I don’t think there’s any perfect organizational structure. But we tend, unfortunately, to perceive reorganization as a negative thing. Companies use structures as a means to an end—to coordinate activity, to capture and share information, and to get the right expertise to bear on the right problem. There’s nothing wrong with changing structure.

But there’s a nuance to it. In a fast-moving environment, structures that require … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Rita Gunther McGrath | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Information, Organizational Behavior

Industry is a very traditional concept in corporate strategy. Industrial organization economics says that the structure of the industry determines the profitability of the firms within it, and those firms with favorable positions within an industry will outperform those with less favorable positions. I would argue that is a dangerous idea because in many sectors, the most significant competition you’re going to face will come … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Rita Gunther McGrath | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Competition, Strategy

Companies need to provide some stability in the midst of change. There has to be a mix. People need to be able to count on their leaders and the values of the firm. They need to have a common understanding of what’s within the strategy and what’s excluded from the strategy. There needs to be clarity about the relationships and the development of people. These … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Rita Gunther McGrath | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Change Management, Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

The trouble with innovation is that it’s unpredictable. New businesses tend to be small and failure rates are high. They don’t operate with the same rhythm as core businesses, and their size and scope are insignificant relative to core businesses. That’s problematic if you’re running a P&L, and that’s why resource allocation should not be wedded to a particular line of business. It should be … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Rita Gunther McGrath | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Finance, Innovation, Management, Strategy

How does a capable strategist choose the best adjacencies strategy for his or her company? I say focus intently on answering this question: What adjacency moves would best enable you to bolster the value proposition of your current business or exploit and scale the distinctive capabilities you already have? Gird yourself to resist the alluring temptation to pursue adjacencies to compensate for slowing growth in … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Ken Favaro | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Strategy