Strategic planning

Stick to the broad strategic guidelines but adapt your tactics if the market shifts.

The measure of efficiency in good business management is profit, the measure of effectiveness is market leadership. These measurements are not applicable...

The long-term competitiveness of most manufacturers depends on their product development capabilities. Yet most companies' development process is unruly...

Today's dynamic markets and technologies have called into question the sustainability of competitive advantage. Under pressure to improve productivity,...

On my first visit to Samsung’s Suwon complex, the headquarters of the company’s electronics and appliance division was even more Third World than I expected. The factory floors were bare concrete. People hand-wheeled parts to and from the production line. The research lab reminded me of a dilapidated high-school science classroom. But the work going […]

In recent years a growing number of companies have expended considerable amounts of time and money to develop strategic planning skills in their profit centers and at higher organizational levels. We applaud this effort, but as we stand back and observe large and small companies alike apply this new talent and expertise, we are struck […]

The regularity of the growth cycles of living organisms has always fascinated thoughtful he observers regularity and of has the invited growth a cycles variety of living attempts to apply the same principles—of a predictable sequence of rapid growth followed by maturation, decline, and death—to companies and selected industries. One such concept, known as the […]

Companies collect information about customers to target valuable prospects more effectively, tailor their offerings to individual needs, improve customer...

Spinouts rarely take off; most, in fact, fall into one or more of four traps that doom them from the start. Some companies spin out ventures that are...

Three ways your company can embrace uncertainty instead of trying to remove it.

Communicate strategic objectives to employees and align their day-to-day activities to their high-level objectives.

Successful executives who cut their teeth in stable industries or in developed countries often stumble when they face more volatile markets. They falter,...

The long-term competitiveness of most manufacturers depends on their product development capabilities. Yet most companies' development process is unruly...

Corporations that don't step up on climate will be left behind.

Countless books and articles offer advice on avoiding missteps at the bargaining table. But some of the costliest mistakes take place before negotiators...

Risk management is too often treated as a compliance issue that can be solved by drawing up lots of rules and making sure that all employees follow them....

Measuring the value of intangible assets such as company culture, knowledge management systems, and employees' skills is the holy grail of accounting....

A closer look at where they really put their money.

Managers and academics often lament that Wall Street's short-term focus makes it impossible for corporations to plan for the long run. Palmisano disagrees....

A framework for making plans in the midst of great uncertainty.