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Within the context of the large established organization, breakthrough ideas are frequently lost. This article describes how breakthrough innovations are captured through opportunity recognition. Based on evidence from a six-year-long study of twelve radical innovation projects in ten large U.S. firms. Highlights inefficiencies in current managerial processes and provides examples of organizational structures, mechanisms, and roles directed at reducing these inefficiencies. Presents a set of approaches for improving opportunity recognition capabilities and identifies several mechanisms for senior management to encourage "radical innovation" people and processes.

Management tools, such as strategic planning, benchmarking, pay-for-performance, outsourcing, customer segmentation, reengineering, balanced scorecard, and total quality management, garner considerable attention in the popular management literature. Companies throughout the world spend millions of dollars each year implementing a dozen or so of these tools. This survey examines the usage of these tools over a seven-year period, assesses user satisfaction with the tools, and attempts to correlate tool usage with company performance. Identifies tools that have been consistently used over time as well as those that seen to have been passing fads.

Chronicles International Paper from 1957 to 2001 in its transition from a company with a unique focus on forest products to one that embraced land management practices and fostered recreational and wildlife uses of forestlands. In 2001, International Paper (IP) was a billion-dollar global paper and forest products company with stewardship over 12 million acres of private forestlands in the United States. IP's foray into land management was spearheaded in 1983 by forester and biologist Tom Bourland. Describes Bourland's first business plan for leasing recreational opportunities (hunting and camping) on IP land, IP's forestry management practices, revenues from recreation and, in 2001, new challenges facing the company: providing support for environmental management programs in the face of declining demand for hunting areas and increased demand for forest products that meet various environmental criteria.

Focuses on the development and market launch of a new FMCG product (a chocolate bar). The product was innovative and positioned in the niche market of indulgent countlines. Pricing and market strategy for the product are highlighted. Focus groups were held with consumers after market launch, as the market acceptance of the product was lower than initially planned. Focuses on a strategy to increase market acceptance.

Supplements the case.

Most people think of Napster when they think of peer-to-peer systems. Nirav Tolia, CEO of Epinions, explains why the power of peer-to-peer goes far beyond the entertainment industry. He predicts it will shake up the entire retail industry.

Ever wondered how entrepreneurs convince VCs to fund their businesses? A leading venture capitalist delivers the inside scoop on what not to say.

Some CEOs inspire their people to outstanding performance; others prompt yawns from their employees. A new study suggests that part of the difference lies in the words they choose to convey their messages.

Proposed changes by the SEC will reduce the accounting profession's conflicts of interest arising from consulting. But auditors can never be truly independent when they are hired and fired by the companies they audit.

Companies are always looking for innovative ideas. But employees often keep good ideas to themselves, afraid to test them in the workplace. Here's how managers can help erase the fear factor and promote experimentation

This case chronicles the 30-year evolution of Bank One's business strategy of growth through acquisition and the resulting branding issues encountered by the need to rebrand the acquired existing entities. Begins in 1968--at the start of the newly formed First Banc Group of Ohio, Inc.--a holding company created by the McCoy family to acquire other small banks in the state of Ohio. The banks were to be renamed "Bank One." It continues through the next 30 years of growth, marketing innovations, and expansion to many states beyond its Ohio base. This period of growth and change produced numerous challenges to the company's identity. The principal focus of the case is on the major branding obstacles associated with Bank One's merger with First Chicago NBD, a very large commercial bank. First Chicago NBD represented the first major commercial bank to become a member of the Bank One family of dominantly retail banks. Issues encompass whether the First Chicago NBD name should be changed to Bank One, as had been done for all previous retail bank acquisitions over the years or retain its name using only the endorsement, "A Bank One Company." Further complicating the situation is a major Bank One brand development initiative intended to implement the Bank One brand identity in new ways for all Bank One entities.

MJINI--Urban Youth Experts was founded by two recent college graduates as a research consulting firm, focusing on the buying patterns and lifestyle preferences of the urban youth who were setting many fashion trends but whom marketers found difficult to reach. Not only could the founders leverage their backgrounds, they could help their communities by communicating, building respect, and giving back to youth groups. Although they met with some success, they faced a number of questions typical to start-up companies: How fast to grow, how and whom to hire, how to train new recruits, how to finance growth, determining the right marketing and consulting product, determining its real market worth and billing rates, and identifying the greatest opportunities.

Few recent events have shaken public confidence in product safety as much as the recall of 6.5 million Firestone tires in August 2000. The defective tires made by Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. were supplied primarily as original equipment on Ford Motor Co. sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and sold as replacement items for SUVs and light trucks. For some consumers, the combination of Firestone tires and Ford vehicles proved lethal. Accidents involving tread separation and rollovers were blamed for 148 deaths and over 500 injuries. Chronicles the actions and reactions of Ford and Firestone, various legislative and regulatory bodies, and the public as the truth emerged.

As the new millennium dawned, many old economy companies faced the challenge of transitioning into the Internet era, making "Go Web or go dead" the common mandate. For John Kilcullen, CEO and publisher of IDG Books, the Internet offered an opportunity to fashion a new business model based on recurring revenues rather than one-time transactions. Instead of just selling books, Kilcullen envisioned the IDG Web site as the locus of continuing education and information. Chronicles the evolution of the "Dummies" series of books within the structure of the huge IDG organization, offering insights and discussion on what it takes to foster a successful corporate entrepreneurial climate.

Two-party negotiation between agents for a basketball player and a shoe manufacturer over a possible sneaker endorsement deal. Theotis Wiley is a promising young basketball player with a checkered past. Erive is a small shoe manufacturing company about to launch a new line of basketball shoes. Erive's Vice-President of Business Development has asked to meet with Theotis' agent regarding the possibility of an endorsement deal. Neither party knows much about the other party's interests or alternatives.

Two-party negotiation between agents for a basketball player and a shoe manufacturer over a possible sneaker endorsement deal. Theotis Wiley is a promising young basketball player with a checkered past. Erive is a small shoe manufacturing company about to launch a new line of basketball shoes. Erive's Vice-President of Business Development has asked to meet with Theotis' agent regarding the possibility of an endorsement deal. Neither party knows much about the other party's interests or alternatives.

Two-party negotiation between agents for a basketball player and a shoe manufacturer over a possible sneaker endorsement deal. Theotis Wiley is a promising young basketball player with a checkered past. Erive is a small shoe manufacturing company about to launch a new line of basketball shoes. Erive's Vice-President of Business Development has asked to meet with Theotis' agent regarding the possibility of an endorsement deal. Neither party knows much about the other party's interests or alternatives.

The merger announcement between DeWaal Pharmaceuticals and BioHealth Labs was front-page news. Two months later, the press had moved on to a new story, and the hard labor of integration loomed. CEO Steve Lindell had worked tirelessly to clear regulatory hurdles, and all signs pointed toward approval in the near future. Now Steve was feeling pressure to attack the real challenge of the merger: bringing together two very different cultures as quickly and efficiently as possible. DeWaal was an established drugmaker based in the Netherlands, and BioHealth, headquartered just north of New York City, had in recent years become competitive at the highest tier of the market. The first step in integrating the two companies was to select the top layers of management for the new company. At the moment, there were some 120 people on two continents for about 65 senior-level jobs. Steve's urgency was not without cause: talented people from both sides were jumping ship, and BioHealth's stock price had dipped 20% after the initial euphoria over the deal had worn off. As the two men attempt to work through the important personnel issues during a lunch meeting, they quickly hit a roadblock. How can they come to agreement about who goes and who stays? In R0101A and R0101Z, commentators David Kidd, Lawrence J. DeMonaco, Grand Freeland, and Patrick O'Sullivan offer advice on this fictional case.

Many companies face the challenge of balancing art with commerce. The conflict between corporate pragmatism and artistic passion and quality is persistent: designers chafe under corporate requirements, budgets, and deadlines, and nondesigners struggle to understand the business value of artistic choices. At German carmaker BMW, the fanaticism about design excellence is matched only by the company's driving desire to remain profitable. Global design director Chris Bangle presides over the intersection of art and commerce at BMW, managing the often-strained relationships among the designers, engineers, and business managers. Bangle goes to great lengths to protect his designers from the unproductive commentary of others in the company, literally posting "Stop: No Entry" signs on the design studio doors. He also protects the design process, making sure that time-to-market pressures do not harm the designs by shifting the focus to engineering too soon. As a mediator, Bangle appeals to the core values of the company and a deeply held sense about BMW-ness--a pride of product shared by everyone in the company that expresses itself in the classic quality of the cars. Every employee, designer and nondesigner alike, understands that if a car doesn't meet this standard of excellence, it's simply not a BMW--and customers won't buy it.

Why is business so admired in the United States and so often denigrated in Europe? How has America created 30 million new jobs in the last 20 years while the European Union, with a bigger population, only managed 5 million? What is feeding America's apparently inexhaustible appetite for growth and its recent dramatic improvements in productivity? In 1831, French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville came to America to examine its prison system and returned with a vision of democracy so profound it has become part of our cultural heritage. More than a century and a half later, renowned British business philosopher Charles Handy retraces Tocqueville's intellectual journey, this time focusing not on democracy but on capitalism. The result is an eye-opening look at some of the fundamental assumptions underpinning business in America today. It is America's optimism that Handy finds most striking, the unquestioned belief that tomorrow can--and should--be made better than today. The energy engendered by American optimism, coupled with the Puritan belief in work and in the nobility of earned wealth lies, in Handy's view, at the heart of America's success. Will American capitalism, born as it was from a property-owning democracy, now adapt to a dematerialized world, where property is intellectual rather than physical? Handy lays out the challenges that must be overcome for tomorrow to indeed continue to be better than today in this still-young country.