1297 Posts found for Source: strategy+business

The two fields that have the longest legacy of bio-inspiration are computing and materials. The traditional processes for turning materials into finished products are incredibly wasteful and polluting. They’re called “heat, beat, and treat”: You start with a bulk material, carve it down, heat it up, beat it with enormous pressure, and treat it with chemicals. What you get is 96 percent waste, 4 percent … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Biomimicry…looks for the best practices of the 30 million species out there that have been figuring out chemistry, engineering, and physics – trying to live on this planet without destroying the place that sustains them. …We’re trying to live on this planet without destroying the things that sustain us. So let’s share best practices from the overlooked, undervalued, underappreciated geniuses that surround us. When you … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

In purely top-down structures, key information and insights from below are often missed. Decisions take too long and are not as targeted and effective as they would be if information from front-line employees were taken into account.

But what governance system to use? Not a model based on consensus or democracy. Consensus often devolves into the least-common-denominator approach. People give in to what the largest egos … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Management

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Classifying employees by their role in the success of your business rather than by their function can improve the effectiveness of recruiting, staff development, and deployment.

Content: Article | Authors: Dominique Turcq, Jeffrey Joerres | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Human Resources, Management

In acquiring Kinko’s, FedEx is testing its own mastery of the art of integrating new companies.

Content: Case Study | Author: Michael Copeland | Source: strategy+business | Companies: FedEx, Kinko’s

It took a revolution in the field of finance to produce the theories and techniques that make possible today’s sophisticated markets. This revolution started in the 1950s inside the heads of a few dozen economists, mathematicians, statisticians, and physicists working at universities and consulting firms. Modern quantitative finance came of age between the 1970s and 1990s, but is only reaching full maturity now. With the … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Rob Norton | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Economics, Finance

In every industry and country there is a limit to the size of an effective organization. If employees essentially perform repetitive tasks, like assembly-line work or telemarketing, the maximum effective size is about 1,500 people. If employees are professionals, like consultants, accountants, doctors, lawyers, or teachers, then the maximum effective size is about 150. Larger sizes produce the pathologies of centralization, rising general and administrative … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Organizational Behavior

The mathematical methods of the [economics] profession are actually metaphors that serve as both a tool of persuasion and a powerful barrier to entry against speakers of plain English. The metaphors are not neutral, as has long been assumed; some, such as the “invisible hand,” Adam Smith’s mechanism by which an individual acting in his or her own interest is also helping the community, are … [ Read more ]

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

In most countries, the law gives the shareholder the power of hiring and firing the people who run the company. These powers were fine in the past, as long as the shareholder had a common purpose with the people who ran the company. But nowadays, in nine out of 10 cases the primary shareholders are managers of other corporate entities, with purposes and goals of … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Corporate Governance

Risk tolerance is a kind of index of confidence and courage: the willingness to go forward into uncertainty and operate there at length. When decisions are made collectively, the risk tolerance of the group is a measure of mutual trust. It shows what the members believe they can accomplish as a group if conditions become turbulent during, say, a difficult merger or acquisition. But it’s … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Risk Management

Truly resilient companies treat security as an integral part of their strategy, says MIT’s leading supply chain expert.

Content: Thought Leader | Author: Amy Bernstein | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Management

Get ready for cosmopolitan slums with thriving markets, aging residents, and the most creative economies in history.

Content: Article | Author: Stewart Brand | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Economics, International

Instead of drifting into decline and irrelevance, producers of goods have a chance to seize the future.

Content: Article | Authors: Conrad Winkler, Kaj Grichnik, Peter von Hochberg | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Operations

Conventional wisdom dictates that businesses invest in their best performing units, and sell, shutter, or siphon off resources from their worst performers. But what if the conventional thinking is wrong? Leading behavioral economists now believe that investing in your “dogs,” or poor performing units, could bring far better returns than investing in your “stars,” or best performing units. It’s a counterintuitive strategy that could lead … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Harry Quarls, Kasturi Rangan, Thomas Pernsteiner | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Finance, Strategy | Industry: Investing

Currently, in some industries, the difference in the cost of labor is such that they have no choice but to outsource to, say, China. But in other industries, the choice is not always so clear. My feeling is that in many cases not all costs in terms of increased risks are taken into account. One of the problems is that we don’t have good metrics … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Outsourcing / BPO, Risk Management

Many manufacturers look at cost data primarily as justification and leverage for continually trimming expenses, rather than as a source of insights about scale, capital spending, labor deployment, technology, logistics, and supply chain efficiency – all critical factors in measuring how well a company’s manufacturing processes stack up against the competition.

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

Moral purpose is especially powerful when it prompts leaders to take radical steps that others would not take, and thus change the basis of competition in their industries. That is why moral purpose is a critical, if often unseen, element of strategic breakthroughs. A moral purpose can give a company the collective courage and persistence to strike out from the pack.

A moral purpose’s effectiveness depends … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Nikos Mourkogiannis | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Strategy

According to this influential long-wave theorist, the world is due for a technological and economic boom that truly lifts all boats. When? That’s up to us.

Content: Article | Author: Art Kleiner | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Economics, People

Lavish R&D budgets don’t guarantee performance. A new Booz Allen Hamilton study of the world’s 1,000 biggest spenders reveals the value of an innovation dollar – and the basics of a better strategy.

Content: Article | Authors: Barry Jaruzelski, Kevin Dehoff, Rakesh Bordia | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Best Practices, Innovation