American Hospital Supply, the largest firm in the U.S. hospital supply industry, has achieved success in part through the use of information systems. Changes in the hospital marketplace suggest a shift in strategy would be appropriate. What role should information systems play in future strategies?
The nonpunitive approach to discipline is gaining acceptance at U.S. companies. Since Tampa Electric adopted a nonpunitive system of discipline companywide in January 1981, it has reported only favorable results. Organizations that have adopted a nonpunitive system have found measurable reductions in absenteeism, dismissals, disciplinary actions, grievances, and arbitration. They have also found a reduction in wrongful termination suits.
People decisions are long lasting in their consequences and difficult to unmake. At most one third of such decisions come out right. Executives who take their people decisions seriously will find the following principles helpful: 1) take responsibility for the decision--if the person the executive places in a position does not perform, the executive has made a mistake; 2) it is the duty of managers to make sure that the responsible persons in their organizations perform; 3) make the decision well; 4) don't give new people major new assignments. There are also some basic steps managers can follow in making effective promotion and staffing decisions.
Corporate response to the threat of foreign competition is often misdirected and ill timed--in part because many executives don't fully understand what global competition is. Executives must anticipate competitive moves by starting from new strategic intentions rather than from old strategies. They must think and act in complex ways. They may slice the company in one way for distribution investments, in another for technology, and in still another for manufacturing. In addition, global competitors must develop varied criteria and analytical tools to justify these investments. Even when its manufacturing is not on a global scale, a company must be sensitive to the potential of global competitive interaction.
Many American companies have begun to plan for their professional, managerial, and technical personnel. The most critical element is management's appreciation for the ways in which its human resource decisions affect the company's ability to achieve its business plans--and vice versa. Designing and strengthening work programs, assessing the corporate culture, and modifying or reinforcing it from the top are among the ways human resource planners target performance objectives.
Information technology is more than just computers. It must be conceived of broadly to encompass information as well as a spectrum of technologies that process the information. An important concept that highlights the role of information technology is the "value chain." This concept divides a company's activities into the technologically and economically distinct activities it performs to do business (marketing and delivery to buyers, support and servicing after sale, installation, repair, and parts inventory management, for example).
This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Shows how the value-added chain can be used to analyze sources of international strategic advantages. The author argues that it is essential to draw a distinction between competitive and comparative advantage. He looks at structural shifts in the world economy and argues that they reflect changes in comparative advantage. The impact of these changes leads to only a few choices for the firm facing import competition and possessing no competitive advantage. If the global advantages acquired by international participation are not sustained, competition reverts to domestic competition among firms with different national names.
Henkel's adhesive group is considering a major change in the international selling of its two major adhesives products for households. The proposed strategy is based on two concepts: umbrella branding and global standardization.
Describes the use of common financial ratios to analyze a firm's performance and financial condition. Discusses fundamentals of equity valuation. Based on an earlier note by the same author.
The managing director of Benetton is faced with several issues concerning the adequacy of the company's organization to capitalize on the early success it has achieved in an important foreign market, the United States. Specifically, the case raises questions about whether Benetton should alter its strategy and form a U.S. subsidiary, the responsibilities that managers in such a subsidiary should hold, and other organizational changes that should be made at the company's Italian headquarters to accommodate such actions. In addition, it focuses on the management of the transition from an entrepreneurial to a professionally-managed stage of a company's development.
Camelback Communications, Inc. has a poorly designed cost accounting system and is in the process of redesigning it. This case demonstrates how the old cost accounting system operated.
Describes the problems faced by a company that has experienced remarkable growth, but growth which is below projections. The management must evaluate the company's position in the turbulent software industry. The two partners must then decide whether to cut back to obtain more quick profitability or else to continue on a growth plan which can either lead to dominance or bankruptcy. The cash requirements will require outside funding.
Describes the first four years of Jack Welch's tenure as CEO of the General Electric Co. Deals with the ways Welch has tried to change GE's strategy and planning activities and his attempts to make the company more entrepreneurial.
Successful research is designed to lead to actionable conclusions. By working backward and ascertaining results before the research actually hits the field, managers are more likely to get results they can work with. Managers must tell researchers the answers they need to accomplish company goals. By determining where they want to go, and then figuring out how to get there, both managers and researchers can expect successful research.
A study of 12 mature industrial companies shows that managing a financial goals system is a complex process in which competing and conflicting goals must be balanced. Once a company recognizes that its goals are interdependent and that trade-offs among them are necessary, it tends to emphasize market priorities in order to preserve its standing in the industry. In selecting its company's financial objectives, management should specify realistic time horizons for achievement, ensure that all primary goals are consistent with one another, and account for changing economic and competitive conditions.
New managers need from 24 to 36 months before they can be said to have mastered their jobs. Research on 14 U.S. and European new managers, which included turnaround and normal situations, reveals that the taking-charge process involves five predictable stages of learning and action: taking hold, immersion, reshaping, consolidation, and refinement. Success depends on critical factors such as experience and special competence, management style, relationships with key people, and critical front-end work.
Integrated manufacturing, the simultaneous collaboration of specialized functions, brings manufacturing engineering, quality engineering, and test engineering in during the early stages of the design process. The work cell integrates the design, development, and procurement functions in the new type of manufacturing. To redesign manufacturing around the work cell, companies must train engineers and managers in statistical quality techniques, put engineers and managers through apprenticeships in all phases of their businesses, encourage employees to adopt attitudes that foster integration of functions, and organize integrated task forces.