Many organizations are drowning in a flood of corporate bullshit, and this is particularly true of organizations in trouble, whose managers tend to make up stuff on the fly and with little regard for future consequences. Bullshitting and lying are not synonymous. While the liar knows the truth and wittingly bends it to suit their purpose, the bullshitter simply does not care about the truth. Managers can actually do something about organizational bullshit, and this Executive Digest provides a sequential framework that enables them to do so. They can comprehend it, they can recognize it for what it is, they can act against it, and they can take steps to prevent it from happening in the future. While it is unlikely that any organization will ever be able to rid itself of bullshit entirely, this article argues that by taking these steps, astute managers can work toward stemming its flood.
While there are many organizations that seek to quickly grow into multi-unit operations, the academic literature is surprisingly limited in what advice it provides to those confronting the managerial capacity limitations scaling up to multiple units presents. In this Executive Digest, we detail one co-author's experience in rapidly developing the east coast market for Starbucks and outline the knowledge he brought to the process that came from prior rapid growth experiences with Burger King, Blockbuster, and Wendy's. We present seven key steps for rapidly scaling that can guide any manager seeking to build a multi-unit operation quickly.
Managers need to stay connected to current trends and gather new insights to maximize organizational performance, but many struggle to find the time to read enough to remain informed. Business podcasts-digital episodic series covering a variety of business topics in an easy-to-consume audio format-are a relatively new tool that can help solve this dilemma. Business podcasts that offer unique perspectives on salient topics can teach managers valuable techniques for dealing with common business issues and keep them up-to-date on the latest business news. In this article, we introduce 10 popular business podcasts and discuss the insights for improving organizational performance offered in exemplary episodes of each series. Episode content ranges from detailed profile interviews of top executives and their day-to-day activities to the impact of national and global events on specific industries or businesses.
Most attempts to measure corporate wrongdoing rely on data and indices sold by environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data providers. Developed for investors and market players, ESG data have been widely used in academic interests, but so far little research has been conducted to assess and overcome the limitations of ESG. In this article, we take the first step in this direction and propose using an M-quantile regression approach to develop an index of corporate wrongdoing, specifically firms' involvement in controversies over universal human rights. We apply our proposed methodology to a novel and unique hand-collected dataset of 380 large publicly-listed firms from both advanced and emerging economies, covering the period 2003-2012. We discuss the importance of these indices for managers and practitioners.
Unprecedented competition and emergent technologies have posed a challenge to many traditional retailers in recent years. Yet within this competitive environment, emerging innovative business models have thrived and successfully disrupted the industry. We analyze the nature of disruptive business-model innovations and the ways they disrupt the fashion retail industry. To that end, we examine three disruptors in the industry: born-digital brands, AI-enabled demand forecasting and product design, and collaborative consumption. After introducing the concept of disruptive business-model innovation, we discuss the three disruptors' effects on the fashion industry. We find that all of these models keenly answer fundamental needs unmet by current business models, such as offering quality products at a competitive price, curated services, and sustainable consumption. At the same time, all three disruptors suggest effective operation models for handling demand uncertainty, inventory management, and timely responses to the market, all of which are inherent issues for current push supply chains and forecast-based, inventory-driven systems. Based on this analysis, we discuss important implications for both academics and industry practitioners.
Despite the demonstrated opportunities for revenue enhancement through digitalization, companies often experience a digitalization paradox. This paradox suggests that although companies may invest in digitalization, they often fail to achieve the expected revenue enhancement. In reporting research on 52 companies, we make the following four contributions: First, we focus on industrial companies in the business-to-business context, which largely have been neglected in previous research on digitalization. Second, we introduce the digitali-zation paradox as an important phenomenon in the discussion of revenue enhancement through digitalization. Third, we describe three growth paths: (1) commercializing digital so-lutions, (2) utilizing product connectivity, and (3) establishing an IoT-platform-based applica-tion business. For each growth path, the article takes a dynamic perspective on business models, highlighting triggers and modifications in business-model components (including value proposition, value-creation activities, and profit equation). Fourth, while the described modifications require initial investments to let these growth paths develop, we highlight how growth traps can prevent investments in business-model modifications from leading to revenue enhancement and how they can ultimately lead to the digitalization paradox.
While awareness of data quality has increased in recent years, there have been very few studies on the actual level of data quality within organizations. This article outlines the analysis of 75 data quality assessments collected over the course of 2 years from a wide range of organizations, data sets, and business processes. The results reveal that data is in far worse shape than most managers realize. On average, 47% of recently created data records have at least one critical error. High-quality data is the exception, with only 3% of the DQ scores rated acceptable (≥97%). Indeed, the results suggest an unhealthy organizational tolerance of bad data and underscore the magnitude of improvement organizations need to make in order to be truly effective in the knowledge economy. By providing a unique insight into quality as the data is actually used and a benchmark for data quality practitioners, this article serves as a call-to-action for all organizations-regardless of size and type-to determine their level of data quality. Finally, we set out a typology that presents a categorical scheme to promote preemptive actions against the most frequent types of data error.
As consumers increasingly choose to make their purchases from the comfort of their own homes rather than to visit brick-and-mortar stores, the need for fast-moving fulfillment and distribution centers (DCs) is proliferating. The Amazon effect that is so significantly changing the way people shop is also associated with an acute shortage of blue-collar workers in the retail-distribution industry. Firms' traditional responses to the scarcity of warehouse labor are to increase hourly wages and to integrate automation and robotic product-fulfillment technologies. We identify an innovative human-capital-management approach that provides a timely, alternative solution to this important business problem. We present anecdotal, descriptive overviews of firms that are implementing blue-ocean strategy (BOS) to proactively hire and assimilate workers with disabilities into their DCs. We also identify effective practices for partnering with local disability-service agencies to ensure that proactively hiring warehouse workers with disabilities creates mutual value and improves productivity. Finally, we discuss corporate social responsibility and the social impact of successfully hiring and assimilating workers with disabilities, with the intent of encouraging firms in the retail-fulfillment industry to view the traditional business problem of hiring warehouse workers from a new and alternative perspective.
Online shopping is growing significantly among rural consumers interested in overcoming product assortment limitations in their local markets. Retailers are taking notice, and some are looking for first-mover-advantage opportunities in rural areas where they see greater potential for growth when compared to saturated urban markets. However, expanding to these areas presents significant and unresolved challenges related to last mile fulfillment caused by low levels of population density as well as other socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. In this article, we present an integrated set of recommendations for online retailers to differentiate strategies to serve rural markets efficiently. To that end, we partnered with an online grocery retailer to examine differences between rural and urban consumers across online shopping preferences that significantly impact fulfillment costs. We draw on those differences and existing knowledge on last mile fulfillment operations to propose a tailored consumer value proposition and operational model for last mile fulfillment in rural markets.
Though counterfeit products pose a large and growing problem, brand owners may not always respond to it effectively. Efforts to address it may be scattered or reactive, with some brand owners not even recognizing the problem. Previous research has indicated a total-business solution, involving virtually all functions of the enterprise, can help address the problem in a more systematic and effective way. To better identify what a total-business solution might look like, we asked a sample of 42 respondents-33 brand-protection practitioners and nine other respondents with academic, service, or other perspectives-to identify all functions and tactics that might be associated with brand-protection efforts. Altogether, respondents identified 38 functions associated with 757 unique tactics among more than 1,300 total tactics. Using these data, we assessed the depth and breadth of each function. We also identified multiple functions that can together support a total-business solution, and our results can help managers engage these functions to protect their brands. Future work may gauge the extent to which firms actually incorporate these functions as well as how managers consider the value, breadth, and depth of each function in relation to their organizations.
While entrepreneurship in developing economies at the base of the pyramid is receiving growing attention, scholars have devoted less effort to exploring entrepreneurship as a solution to poverty in advanced economies. Yet, poverty rates have not meaningfully changed in most developed economies in 50 years, and the income gap between rich and poor continues to widen. In this article, we examine entrepreneurship as a source of empowerment for the economically disadvantaged. We explore the nature of poverty and its implications for various aspects of entrepreneurship, identify problematic aspects of the typical low-income startup, and present the SPODER conceptual framework for fostering entrepreneurial development among the poor: (S) supportive infrastructure, (P) preparation of the entrepreneur; (O) expanded opportunity horizons; (D) finding sources of differentiation; (E) a well-designed economic model; and (R) leveraging community resources. We conclude by drawing from the framework implications for those involved in breaking the cycle of poverty.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether certain types of identities are more likely than others to be present before and during business growth. We collect data from six entrepreneurs and adopt an interpretivist approach, using Van Gennep's theory of transitions, to explore the challenges faced by entrepreneurs after startup and during business growth. We find that business growth challenges entrepreneurs' identities as they aspire to achieve their personal goals and reach self-fulfillment. These identities consist of entrepreneurial, manager, personal, and social identities, and each has distinct roles within the business. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for entrepreneurs and policy makers. We recommend that entrepreneurs receive a combination of personal and business support, especially during more uncertain, high-pressure, and complex times.
The B2B sales process is undergoing substantial transformations fueled by advances in information and communications technology, specifically in artificial intelligence (AI). The premise of AI is to turn vast amounts of data into information for superior knowledge creation and knowledge management in B2B sales. In doing so, AI can significantly alter the traditional human-centric sales process. In this article, we describe how AI affects the B2B sales funnel. For each stage of the funnel, we describe key sales tasks, explain the specific contributions AI can bring, and clarify the role humans play. We also outline managerial considerations to maximize the contributions from AI and people in the context of B2B sales.
UrbanClap is a marketplace for on-demand services available through a smartphone app. It was established in October 2014 to bring the unorganised sector workforce into the mainstream using the power of technology. Initially, UrbanClap-developed as a horizontal marketplace-faced intense competition from existing and new players operating in the hyperlocal service space. It competed in the on-demand service marketplace by categorising its services into a lead-generation business (connecting the customer with the service provider and charging a fee for matchmaking) and a fulfilment business (taking end-to-end responsibility for service delivery quality). After three and a half years of operations, UrbanClap's co-founders wondered whether they should close the lead-generation business and focus on the fulfilment business.
On November 14, 2017, Aurora Cannabis Inc. (Aurora) made a proposal to CanniMed Therapeutics Inc. (CanniMed) to acquire all of CanniMed's issued and outstanding common shares in a share exchange that valued CanniMed's common shares at a premium of almost 30 per cent over the previous day's share price. In its proposal, Aurora requested a response from CanniMed's board of directors by November 17, 2018, in the absence of which it intended to launch a formal, hostile takeover bid. Instead of responding to Aurora's offer, CanniMed's board of directors issued a news release advising shareholders to take no action regarding Aurora's bid and announcing that CanniMed had entered into an agreement to wholly acquire Newstrike Resources Inc. (Newstrike). As a result, Aurora took its bid directly to CanniMed shareholders, with a condition that CanniMed terminate the proposed Newstrike acquisition. Now CanniMed investors had to carefully consider their alternatives: should they tender their shares to Aurora's bid, or should they hold on to their shares according to the CanniMed board's recommendation and then decide whether to vote in favour of the Newstrike transaction?
Diana Uribe was a successful cultural personality in her native Colombia, best known for her national radio show about world history. Since 2000, the show had aired every Sunday on Caracol Radio, Colombia's most popular news radio station. On October 9, 2018, Caracol Radio announced to Uribe the unilateral termination of her contract, effective in one week. Uribe felt pressured to act. She knew that her future work opportunities would depend on her ability to remain visible and popular with a diverse audience. The unexpected termination prompted Uribe to think of alternative options to continue to communicate with her audience and ensure continuity for her team. Was the time ripe to move to podcasts?
Diana Uribe was a successful cultural personality in her native Colombia, best known for her national radio show about world history. Since 2000, the show had aired every Sunday on Caracol Radio, Colombia’s most popular news radio station. On October 9, 2018, Caracol Radio announced to Uribe the unilateral termination of her contract, effective in one week. Uribe felt pressured to act. She knew that her future work opportunities would depend on her ability to remain visible and popular with a diverse audience. The unexpected termination prompted Uribe to think of alternative options to continue to communicate with her audience and ensure continuity for her team. Was the time ripe to move to podcasts?
On November 14, 2017, Aurora Cannabis Inc. (Aurora) made a proposal to CanniMed Therapeutics Inc. (CanniMed) to acquire all of CanniMed’s issued and outstanding common shares in a share exchange that valued CanniMed’s common shares at a premium of almost 30 per cent over the previous day’s share price. In its proposal, Aurora requested a response from CanniMed’s board of directors by November 17, 2018, in the absence of which it intended to launch a formal, hostile takeover bid. Instead of responding to Aurora’s offer, CanniMed’s board of directors issued a news release advising shareholders to take no action regarding Aurora’s bid and announcing that CanniMed had entered into an agreement to wholly acquire Newstrike Resources Inc. (Newstrike). As a result, Aurora took its bid directly to CanniMed shareholders, with a condition that CanniMed terminate the proposed Newstrike acquisition. Now CanniMed investors had to carefully consider their alternatives: should they tender their shares to Aurora’s bid, or should they hold on to their shares according to the CanniMed board’s recommendation and then decide whether to vote in favour of the Newstrike transaction?
In late 2018, a female entrepreneur, the founder and chief executive officer of Candi&Co, South Africa’s first ethnic hair salon franchise faced a dilemma. After launching in 2014, Candi&Co had quickly expanded to five locations. The founder’s priority was to continue to grow the business; however, she had been approached about selling her business to South Africa’s Long4Life investment group, which was acquiring the Sorbet Group’s companies, including Candi&Co. The entrepreneur had set out to change the way consumers felt about their hair, to offer a service they did not believe they deserved, to professionalize an industry, to empower stylists, and to grow the industry in a sustainable manner. Would selling to Long4Life allow her vision to materialize faster than she could do it on her own? Or would she need to break away from the Sorbet Group and continue building her vision alone?