A new empirical study compares innovative and competitive strategies. Blue Ocean holds its own-until competition erodes profits from innovation, after 15 or so years. The authors suggest a blend of the two approaches.
Organizations spend lots of time and resources trying to pick up their operational pace, in hopes of gaining a competitive edge. But when they work at warp speed, they end up lagging rivals in terms of strategy and performance.
According to studies done by Dana Carney of Columbia Business School, powerful people are better liars. The stress of lying produces involuntary physiological reactions-such as half shrugs, rapid speech, and cognitive impairment-but liars who have power are much better at masking or suppressing those telltale signs than liars without power. Physiologically, high-power liars closely resemble truth tellers. Bottom line: Powerful people are more comfortable lying, and it is harder to tell that they're being dishonest.
Do the managers who are in the highest tiers of leadership at your company also feel the greatest sense of responsibility? Moreover, do they actually have authority to get things done? If you map out the authority of all your managers against their titles and their sense of responsibility, the results may surprise you-and reveal hidden pockets and dangerous vacuums of power.
Executives often find themselves debating the merits of incremental innovations versus game-changers, but that's a false dichotomy, says HBR columnist Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Even if a company is lucky enough to come up with the next Kindle, Swiffer, or smartphone, blockbuster products don't spring to life or work in the marketplace without the many small changes that make breakthroughs possible, such as tweaks to processes and market development. Kanter proposes a systemic approach to generating all kinds and levels of innovation.
CEO pay has become a lightning rod for criticism and debate, but CEOs themselves have been largely absent from the conversation, says Procter & Gamble's former CEO. It's time to stand up for responsible compensation leadership and get rid of indefensible and inappropriate amounts and forms of compensation. The author's proposals include establishing simpler and clearer guidelines, eliminating post-employment provisions not based on performance, and creating a CEO-led coalition for responsible compensation. If CEOs don't take corrective action, he says, Congress surely will, and not necessarily in a form that will benefit anybody.
Founded in 1997, Subhiksha had grown from one store in 1997 to more than 1000 retail outlets in 2008. It sold FMCG, grocery, pharmacy, mobile products, and fruits and vegetables (F & V). It was the largest supermarket and mobile retail chain in India with presence in 90 cities. In 2008, organized retail accounted for about 4% industry share. Although organized retail was identified as high-growth area by the middle of 2008, players who had entered the Indian retail had realized that organized retail in India was going to be tough business. Various players (Reliance, Bharti, Birla, and the Future Group) were experimenting with different formats and models. Subhiksha decided to come up with its own model which in its view was suitable to the Indian context. Subhiksha targeted the middle and lower classes and not the high-end customers. To do so, it operated with an everyday low pricing model and located several smaller stores to move closer to the customer. At the operational level, it constantly planned to increase the supply chain process efficiency to deliver goods at low prices. The Subhiksha business model is explained through a detailed description of operations of a store (Indiranagar) located in Bangalore. It also describes operations of the distribution center which served the Indiranagar store apart from serving 58 other stores. The case discusses the challenges of organized retail in general and specific challenges of inventory and cost management for a discount retailer. It also provides detailed data which can be used for the diagnosis of the supply chain system at Subhiksha.
Peer-to-Peer networking technology and related innovations have had a major impact on the music and motion picture industries. While digital technology has improved the quality of audio and video recordings and decreased distribution costs, it has also made unauthorized duplication of copyrighted material and its transmission over the Internet easier. The media industry attributes an erosion of its sales after 1999 to the illegal copying and sharing of digital files and has taken steps to tighten copyright laws and prosecute violators. Others attribute the downturn to a lack of innovative products and futile efforts by the industry to retain a business model made obsolete by technological innovation. In the meantime, unauthorized file-sharing via Peer-to-Peer networks continues unabated and its real financial impact on the industry remains unclear. The market perceives illegal file-sharing to be a significant threat to the long-term profitability of the media industry and regards current legal initiatives to protect its intellectual capital as beneficial. This article discusses several strategies and business models that the media industry may consider to respond to the current threat and better cater to changing customer tastes.
This article examines the concept of ambient communication, its evolution, basic categories, and experiential marketing principles. It explores the variety of heterogeneous out-of-home communication tools, whose diversity and innovativeness have so far resulted in a lack of clear understanding and a failure to exploit their full marketing potential. By taking the urban landscape as the core feature of all conventional and unconventional outdoor communication tools, marketers can develop a comprehensive approach to improving ambient communication's effectiveness by focusing on its impact on consumer brand engagement.
In developing countries, firms encounter distinct challenges that place them in situations where they take on functions typically handled by the public sector. These functions range from the provision of health care and education for local communities to the development of political capacity and public policy. Drawing on 30 case studies of companies operating in developing regions of the world, this article presents a typology of four strategies that describe the different ways in which firms can engage in public responsibilities. For each strategy, it outlines the key challenges faced by firms along with suggestions for overcoming them. The burdens firms bear in providing services in response to public policy failures are substantial. Only by effectively developing an appropriate strategic orientation can programs be created that add value both to businesses and to the communities in which they operate.
Many startup companies go through the so-called "entrepreneurial crisis" when they reach a headcount somewhere between 50 and 100 employees. At this point, the CEO and her team have to transition from a personal to a professional management style. Management systems play a critical role in managing this transition effectively. Contrary to the popular belief that the development of such systems kills the entrepreneurial spirit, startups that implement these systems are associated with faster growth, larger size, and a lower turnover of their CEOs. Venture capital backed startups are more likely to implement these systems faster. This article also examines why these systems are adopted and the different roles they play in high-growth companies.
This article explores how firms can benefit from opening up the new product development process by integrating the principles of open innovation with the Stage-Gate process. It examines the potential opportunities of employing the principles of both inbound and outbound open innovation within new product development at a firm in the upstream oil & gas industry. A practitioner-oriented work model, named the open Stage-Gate model, can exploit the advantages of "openness." This model allows explicit consideration of import and export of know-how and technology through gate evaluations and also enables firms to continuously assess their core capabilities and business model. The application of this model can assist firms in capturing value from both internal and external technology exploitation in increasingly open innovation processes.
One of the key elements of Fiat's recent resurgence is the superiority of its clean, fuel-efficient engine technologies that were mostly developed during the 1990s by Centro Ricerche Fiat (CRF), the Fiat Group company in charge of R&D and technology development. In the early 1990s, when the Italian carmaker was going through troubling times (along with many other players in the automotive industry), CEO Gian Carlo Michellone radically turned around CRF's organization and innovation strategy, adopting and mastering a strategic approach to innovation that resembles what would become known as the open innovation paradigm. This revolution allowed the Fiat Group to keep its "innovation engine" running, despite the heavy downturn of the industry. The CRF case demonstrates how open innovation can protect the firm's innovation capability from the risk of severe resource rationalizations during periods of crisis while proffering a starting point to replicate innovation capability once the downturn is over. The efforts to streamline the adoption of open innovation need to be targeted at several aspects of a firm's organization, i.e., the structures, organizational roles, the planning and control and performance management systems, corporate values, and individual competencies and attitudes. The role played by the senior executive leadership in promoting the successful implementation of open innovation is critical, especially during tough economic times.
The cases are used to introduce the concept of collective responsibility and leadership in team situations by applying the concept of Crew Resource Management for teams in a management setting. By drawing from the metaphor of aircrews to corporate scenarios challenges in leadership teams could be discussed in a wider context. Both cases describe the interaction of airline crews who are confronted with a non-routine problem that they have to solve. In the case of United Airlines 173 the crew ceases to function as team and the fully functional plane eventually crashes. As a result of this accident the concept of Crew Resource Management has been developed to optimize teamwork within the hierarchical structure of a cockpit crew. The case of United Airlines 232 complements the first case as it describes an airline crew that was confronted with a severe engine failure making their plane almost uncontrollable (similar prior accidents always resulted in the loss of the aircraft in non-survivable crashes). Using core elements of Crew Resource Management the crew was nevertheless able to achieve a survivable landing of the plane. Both cases cover essentially the last 30 minutes of both flights and focus on the communication of the flight crews.
The cases are used to introduce the concept of collective responsibility and leadership in team situations by applying the concept of Crew Resource Management for teams in a management setting. By drawing from the metaphor of aircrews to corporate scenarios challenges in leadership teams could be discussed in a wider context. Both cases describe the interaction of airline crews who are confronted with a non-routine problem that they have to solve. In the case of United Airlines 173 the crew ceases to function as team and the fully functional plane eventually crashes. As a result of this accident the concept of Crew Resource Management has been developed to optimize teamwork within the hierarchical structure of a cockpit crew. The case of United Airlines 232 complements the first case as it describes an airline crew that was confronted with a severe engine failure making their plane almost uncontrollable (similar prior accidents always resulted in the loss of the aircraft in non-survivable crashes). Using core elements of Crew Resource Management the crew was nevertheless able to achieve a survivable landing of the plane. Both cases cover essentially the last 30 minutes of both flights and focus on the communication of the flight crews.
The book An Overview of the Public Relations Function was written by Shannon A. Bowen (Syracuse University), Brad Rawlins (Brigham Young University), and Thomas Martin (College of Charleston) and published by Business Expert Press. It provides an executive overview of the field with a focus on what managers need to know to master the function quickly and effectively. Chapter 1, The Importance of Public Relations, sets the stage for subsequent chapters by presenting a brief case study, "UPS Faces Losses in Teamster's Union Strike." The authors then consider lessons to be learned from the case, especially regarding the need for public relations professionals to prepare in advance for any contingency.
The book An Overview of the Public Relations Function was written by Shannon A. Bowen (Syracuse University), Brad Rawlins (Brigham Young University), and Thomas Martin (College of Charleston) and published by Business Expert Press. It provides an executive overview of the field with a focus on what managers need to know to master the function quickly and effectively. In Chapter 2, What Is Public Relations?, the authors introduce the taxonomy of the profession and the concepts prevalent in the strategic management of relationships with publics.
The book An Overview of the Public Relations Function was written by Shannon A. Bowen (Syracuse University), Brad Rawlins (Brigham Young University), and Thomas Martin (College of Charleston) and published by Business Expert Press. It provides an executive overview of the field with a focus on what managers need to know to master the function quickly and effectively. In Chapter 3, Models and Approaches to Public Relations, the authors present a brief history of the field, examine the subfunctions and specialties within the profession, and introduce and define a number of key terms.
The book An Overview of the Public Relations Function was written by Shannon A. Bowen (Syracuse University), Brad Rawlins (Brigham Young University), and Thomas Martin (College of Charleston) and published by Business Expert Press. It provides an executive overview of the field with a focus on what managers need to know to master the function quickly and effectively. In Chapter 4, Public Relations as a Management Function, the authors discuss the roles that public relations specialists play when dealing with senior executives; decision making in public relations; and the core competencies for working in business, including knowledge of strategy and profit motivations. Of special note is their discussion of how chief communications officers (CCOs) earn their seat at the executive table.