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Many CEOs don't seem to care about organic growth. They either give up on it, in the belief that their companies will inevitably become low growth, or they cede responsibility for it to the operating units. Those are big mistakes. In an uncertain business environment, all corporate leaders need to be actively engaged in organic growth. Four rules can help them support the operating units in the quest for the best opportunities: 1) Keep an eye on the big picture by setting standards and assembling data that steer the company toward promising areas, nurturing an enterprisewide organic growth capability, and looking across markets and businesses for small opportunities that can be bundled. 2) Fight the short-term pressures of the business cycle by earmarking local cost savings for local investment and demonstrating, through a special corporate fund, that good ideas can always attract resources. 3) Resist typecasting some units as "growth engines" and others as "cash cows." Those labels shape beliefs about growth and affect the operating units' behavior. 4) Create a language for organic growth that helps the company clarify its priorities and develop a coherent, high-performing pipeline of opportunities.

Marketers see today's consumers as web-savvy, mobile-enabled data sifters who pounce on whichever brand or store offers the best deal. In response, they've ramped up their interactions with customers. But for many consumers, the rising volume of marketing messages isn't empowering--it's overwhelming. Rather than pulling customers into the fold, marketers are pushing them away with relentless and ill-conceived efforts to engage. What do consumers want from marketers? Simplicity. After surveying thousands of consumers and interviewing hundreds of marketers and other executives, the authors find that the single biggest driver of customer "stickiness" is the ease with which consumers can gather information about a product and confidently and efficiently sort through their available choices. They offer three tactics marketers can use to simplify consumers' decision making and help them navigate the purchase journey. Companies should minimize the number of information sources consumers must touch as they move confidently toward a purchase. They should provide trustworthy sources of product information and recommendations. And they should offer tools that will help consumers weigh their options by identifying the product features that are most relevant to them. Companies that avoid bombarding customers and instead focus on simplifying consumers' decision making will rise above the din, and their customers will stick by them as a result.

Like it or not, English is the global language of business. Today 1.75 billion people speak English at a useful level--that's one in four of us. Multinational companies such as Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, SAP, Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent, and Microsoft in Beijing have mandated English as the corporate language. And any company with a global presence or global aspirations would be wise to do the same, says HBS professor Tsedal Neeley, to ensure good communication and collaboration with customers, suppliers, business partners, and other stakeholders. But while moving toward a single language at work is necessary and inevitable, Neeley's research shows that implementing such a policy is fraught with complications. English-only policies can create job insecurity and dissatisfaction and generate strife between native and nonnative English speakers in cross-national teams. Companies can anticipate and plan for inevitable challenges and resistance when adopting an English-only policy. Using Japanese internet services firm Rakuten as a case example, this article outlines guidelines for proper implementation.

In the 20th century, Japanese multinationals established themselves as powerhouse exporters in developed markets. Names like Sony, Toyota, and Honda became commonplace. But in this century, growth in developed markets has slowed: Goldman Sachs forecasts that these markets will grow at an average annual rate of 2% until 2020, whereas the BRIC economies are expected to grow at an average annual rate of nearly 7%. To prosper now, Japanese companies must win in developing markets--which they're failing to do. They face four key challenges: distaste for the middle and low-end segments of the market; aversion to mergers and acquisitions; reluctance to commit--financially and organizationally--in emerging markets; and a failure to properly allocate talent. Two Japanese multinationals stand out for their success in overcoming the challenges: Unicharm, a manufacturer of personal-care products, and Daikin, one of the world's largest air-conditioning manufacturers. This article explains what they've done.

Rivalries in the workplace can be destructive to both personal career growth and group success. Many attempts to reverse rivalries fail because of the complex way emotion and reason operate in the building of trust. Using a method called the 3Rs, an effective leader can turn a rival into a collaborator, setting the stage for a healthy work life while driving fresh thinking within an organization. Step 1 of the method is redirection, shifting a rival's negative emotions away from the adversarial relationship. This creates an opening for Step 2, reciprocity, through which a relationship can be established. Here, the essential principle is to give before you ask--offering a rival something of clear benefit and "priming the pump" for a future return that requires little effort on the rival's part. Step 3, rationality, sets expectations of the new relationship so that efforts made using the previous steps don't come off as disingenuous. A rival is encouraged to see collaborative opportunities from a reasoned standpoint. A key advantage of the 3Rs is that the method can work to reverse all kinds of rivalries, including those with subordinates, peers, and superiors.

The stream of customers who visit Flanagan Theme Parks has started to dwindle. The fictional Australian company must decide, with the help of consultant Allie James, whether to try to attract a whole new crop of customers using DailyDilly, a fast-growing social-coupon venture. Allie and Ruth Davison, Flanagan's marking director, take a lunchtime tour of the marketing landscape to answer a key question for any company that is considering such an initiative: "Are daily deal seekers the right kind of customers for our business?" Expert commentary comes from Gideon Lask, the founder of BuyaPowa, a UK-based social media business; and Al Bhakta, CEO of Genghis Grill, a Dallas-based restaurant chain. HBR's online readers also weigh in.

Award-winning foreign correspondent Christiane Amanpour shares her insights on leadership, ambition, and the female advantage.

The stream of customers who visit Flanagan Theme Parks has started to dwindle. The fictional Australian company must decide, with the help of consultant Allie James, whether to try to attract a whole new crop of customers using DailyDilly, a fast-growing social-coupon venture. Allie and Ruth Davison, Flanagan's marking director, take a lunchtime tour of the marketing landscape to answer a key question for any company that is considering such an initiative: "Are daily deal seekers the right kind of customers for our business?" Expert commentary comes from Gideon Lask, the founder of BuyaPowa, a UK-based social media business; and Al Bhakta, CEO of Genghis Grill, a Dallas-based restaurant chain. HBR's online readers also weigh in.

The stream of customers who visit Flanagan Theme Parks has started to dwindle. The fictional Australian company must decide, with the help of consultant Allie James, whether to try to attract a whole new crop of customers using DailyDilly, a fast-growing social-coupon venture. Allie and Ruth Davison, Flanagan's marking director, take a lunchtime tour of the marketing landscape to answer a key question for any company that is considering such an initiative: "Are daily deal seekers the right kind of customers for our business?" Expert commentary comes from Gideon Lask, the founder of BuyaPowa, a UK-based social media business; and Al Bhakta, CEO of Genghis Grill, a Dallas-based restaurant chain. HBR's online readers also weigh in.

Start-Up Chile is a unique program to encourage entrepreneurs to bring their new ventures to Chile. Policymakers must evaluate its effectiveness in achieving economic and social goals.

In 2011, Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) region's efforts to reduce mortality in their 21 hospitals is showing promise. They developed and launched a region-wide initiative to improve the treatment of sepsis, a serious and often deadly medical condition. The case illustrates the challenges of spreading change in a complex, highly interdependent organization, and presents an alternative framework to traditional management models for addressing such situations. It also asks students to consider how change should be made under conditions of uncertainty, in which best performances remain unknown.

Managing for Ethical-Organizational Integrity is a three-chapter, 111-page book, written by Dr. Abe J. Zakhem, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Seton Hall University, and Dr. Daniel E. Palmer, Kent State University. Published by Business Expert Press in April, 2012, the text provides an overview of business ethics for managers and students. The authors argue that ethical-organizational integrity drives long-term company success and sustainable value production, serves to prevent illegal conduct, and contributes meaningfully to overall social welfare. The book aims to be a practical guide and discusses theory only as a secondary matter. The authors open the book by contrasting two possible conceptual frameworks for managing ethical-organizational integrity. The first is the neoclassical framework, which states that managers do best for themselves, their company, and best promote overall welfare by trying to maximize profits for shareholders. The authors believe this framework is myopic and advocate instead for a more expansive framework: the stakeholder management approach, which views the goals of long-term company success, sustainable value production, and satisfied stakeholder expectations as mutually dependent. This approach, the authors argue, provides a superior framework for understanding and fulfilling the ethical obligations of business and systematically promoting ethical-organizational integrity and company success. The authors go on to provide a step-by-step procedure for evaluating ethical decisions in business.

Managing for Ethical-Organizational Integrity is a three-chapter, 111-page book, written by Dr. Abe J. Zakhem, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Seton Hall University, and Dr. Daniel E. Palmer, Kent State University. Published by Business Expert Press in April, 2012, the text provides an overview of business ethics for managers and students. The authors argue that ethical-organizational integrity drives long-term company success and sustainable value production, serves to prevent illegal conduct, and contributes meaningfully to overall social welfare. The book aims to be a practical guide and discusses theory only as a secondary matter. In the second chapter, the authors explore the philosophical nature of stakeholder rights and corresponding managerial duties, and suggest methods to help resolve moral conflict when rights and duties conflict. More exacting and technical terminology is introduced to help clarify and define a hierarchy of moral rights, and is then used to identify and prioritize the rights of and corresponding obligations due to various stakeholders. The authors conclude with a series for questions for further research and discussion.

Managing for Ethical-Organizational Integrity is a three-chapter, 111-page book, written by Dr. Abe J. Zakhem, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Seton Hall University, and Dr. Daniel E. Palmer, Interim Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs at Kent State University. Published by Business Expert Press in April, 2012, the text provides an overview of business ethics for managers and students. The authors argue that ethical-organizational integrity drives long-term company success and sustainable value production, serves to prevent illegal conduct, and contributes meaningfully to overall social welfare. The book aims to be a practical guide and discusses theory only as a secondary matter. The authors begin Chapter 3 by delving into what constitutes ethical character, defining and describing the character traits befitting a manager's relationship with various stakeholders. Next, the authors identify the core features of ethics programs that promote intellectual and moral development, and provide concrete recommendations for creating and sustaining an ethical-organizational culture. The authors conclude with a series for questions for further research and discussion.

Managing for Ethical-Organizational Integrity is a 111-page book, written by Dr. Abe J. Zakhem, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Seton Hall University, and Dr. Daniel E. Palmer, Interim Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs at Kent State University. Published by Business Expert Press in April, 2012, the text provides an overview of business ethics for managers and students. The authors argue that ethical-organizational integrity drives long-term company success and sustainable value production, serves to prevent illegal conduct, and contributes meaningfully to overall social welfare. The book aims to be a practical guide and discusses theory only as a secondary matter. The appendices gathered in this final section of the book (here presented as a single chapter) range from the ethical statements and missions of major organizations to governmental decrees concerning individual rights. Specifically included are: Ford Motor Company's Code of Basic Working Conditions, ASPC Capability Checklist, International Code of Ethics for Sales and Marketing, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Shareholder Key Rights as Identified by the OECD, U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines-Chapter 8, and the Johnson & Johnson Credo.

In March 2010, the management of A.B. Corp. announced its plan to select a definite location for its central warehouse. The company, a major producer of agriculture and farm equipment, had gone through three consecutive years of financial loss as a result of increasing production costs. Management had to select a central warehouse between four candidates, based on the location of five distribution centres, the loads to be transferred, and other factors such as land costs and tax.

Unhaggle is a business model that uses a website to link up consumers with automobile dealers. The consumer describes the sort of vehicle they are looking for and the dealers compete to serve the consumer at the lowest possible price. The case illustrates how power in a negotiation comes from supply and demand. By bringing dealers to the consumer, Unhaggle helps drive down the cost of the vehicle to the consumer while reducing the dealer's marketing costs. The case thus illustrates how technology changes a business, and specifically what players hold the power in a market. This case can also be used to illustrate a multi-player prisoner's dilemma (game theory). Doing so involves arguing that dealers collectively would be better off if they refused to join Unhaggle's dealer network (all would gain higher margins), but any individual dealer has an incentive to defect and join, in order to gain access to Unhaggle's consumers.

This case and its companion case, "Dayton Foundry" (UVA-QA-0788), are a supply-chain negotiation for which there is a narrow zone of potential agreement. Locating outcomes in that zone is challenging due to differences in raw material costs (real and perceived), potentially extreme opening offers, lack of commitment to do a deal, and different interpretations of history. The difference in raw material costs can provide an opportunity for mutually beneficial agreements to be reached. The cases are updated versions of "RMC: Hydra Division" (UVA-QA-0399) and "Akron Foundry" (UVA-QA-0398); the contract is for December 2011 and the aluminum price data are for 2010 and 2011.

This case and its companion case, "TMC: Hydra Division" (UVA-QA-0787), are a supply-chain negotiation for which there is a narrow zone of potential agreement. Locating outcomes in that zone is challenging due to differences in raw material costs (real and perceived), potentially extreme opening offers, lack of commitment to do a deal, and different interpretations of history. The difference in raw material costs can provide an opportunity for mutually beneficial agreements to be reached. The cases are updated versions of "Akron Foundry" (UVA-QA-0398) and "RMC: Hydra Division" (UVA-QA-0399); the contract is for December 2011 and the aluminum price data are for 2010 and 2011.

This exercise provides a structure for creating a personal charter for personal use. Based on the "Personal and Organizational Charters" chapter from Level Three Leadership