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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.

Concerns U.S. Government Debt Market and various conventions used to depict the structure of interest rates.

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.

Presents the salesforce performance data of the Milford (A) case in a format suitable for spreadsheet analysis using a personal computer.

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.

A study of U.S., Japanese, and European companies shows that, contrary to the claims of some corporate critics, large companies can be as technologically innovative as small companies. The effective management of innovation is surprisingly similar in both. Founders of small companies pursue their technological goals over many years, keeping costs low, tolerating uncertainty and setbacks, and readily adapting their products to meet market needs. By contrast, many managers of large organizations emphasize orderly and predictable operations. Innovative large companies accept the tumultuous realities of the innovative process and behave much like their smaller counterparts. McKinsey Award Winner.

A well-conceived business plan is essential to the success of an enterprise. Whether you are starting up a venture, seeking additional capital for an existing product line, or proposing a new activity for a corporate division, you will have to write a plan detailing your project's resource requirements, marketing decisions, financial projections, production demands, and personnel needs. The plan must reflect the viewpoint of three constituencies: the customer, the investor, and the producer. Too many business plans focus excessively on the producer.

A cost center can take pride in the service it gives to the company, but it's difficult for managers to tell if the center is working at an efficient level. Xerox's answer is to use the yardstick applied in the profit center in the cost center. The Logistics and Distribution (L&D) cost center of the Business System Group has taken steps to emulate the behavior of the profit center.

Focuses on the industry's development and evolution in three principal watch producing countries: Switzerland, the United States, and Japan. Based in part on two earlier cases by F.T. Knickerbocker and H.E.R. Uyterhoeven.

Describes Lou Gerstner and his approach to managing entrepreneurship and organizational change at American Express Travel Related Services Company. Mr. Gerstner is chairman and CEO of the firm.

Involves the design and creation of a company with no formally-defined hierarchy. Describes the steps the founder takes to avoid the organizational politics he perceives as crushing the human contributions they were designed to harness.

Fifteen years later, the company has achieved widespread recognition in the industry for its innovative designs, its quality products, and its highly ethical standards for business dealings. This case describes the organization, the plant, and current concerns.