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In the Second Edition of Portfolio Management for New Products, published by Perseus Books, Professors Cooper, Edgett, and Kleinschmidt (all of McMaster University) present a rigorous and practical approach to managing a company's product portfolio as you would a financial portfolio - by investing for maximum long-term growth. Numerous mini-cases illuminate key themes. This is a useful book for practitioners and educators alike. Chapter 9, "Making Strategic Allocations of Resources: Deployment," is the first of two chapters that present in detail the authors' model Portfolio Management Process. Among the topics: resource allocation across units; estimating resource requirements; and tools for dealing with uncertainty, including sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo simulation.

In the Second Edition of Portfolio Management for New Products, published by Perseus Books, Professors Cooper, Edgett, and Kleinschmidt (all of McMaster University) present a rigorous and practical approach to managing a company's product portfolio as you would a financial portfolio - by investing for maximum long-term growth. Numerous mini-cases illuminate key themes. This is a useful book for practitioners and educators alike. Chapter 10, "Making Strategic Allocations of Resources: Deployment," is the second of two chapters that present in detail the authors' model Portfolio Management Process. The authors consider three drivers: strategy, gating, and portfolio reviews. They also present two alternative approaches to the process, and conclude by explaining an integrated decision system.

In the Second Edition of Portfolio Management for New Products, published by Perseus Books, Professors Cooper, Edgett, and Kleinschmidt (all of McMaster University) present a rigorous and practical approach to managing a company's product portfolio as you would a financial portfolio - by investing for maximum long-term growth. Numerous mini-cases illuminate key themes. This is a useful book for practitioners and educators alike. The last chapter of the book, Chapter 11, "Designing and Implementing the Portfolio Management Process," presents practical ideas for designing and implementing an effective Portfolio Management Process.

This case analyzes a complex ERP implementation that takes place in one of the leading companies in China. The issues are indistinguishable from those facing a U.S. organization.

Knowledge sharing allows teams and individuals to more quickly develop solutions to difficult problems, reduce costly duplication of effort, and create new, innovative solutions through collaboration. But, as this former George Washington University professor turned academic points out, most knowledge sharing practices neglect the group or individual who will receive and hopes to leverage the knowledge. Written to help the reader empathize with and understand the particular needs of the knowledge sharer, this article suggests what organizations and managers can do to support the particular needs of the other, important component of the knowledge equation, the knowledge receiver. (NOTE: Ms. Dixon's book, Common Knowledge, was chosen as The Globe and Mail's Report on Business's Best Business Book of 2000.)

In turbulent times, some leaders make tough choices with courage and conviction. Others, however, remain indecisive. But most executives find ways to cope with uncertainty, ways that enable them to make sense of a confusing situation. In this article, the author describes seven strategies that leaders can use to cope with ambiguity and complexity when making decisions. He also points out their drawbacks, underlining the need to take great care when deploying these strategies.

The CEO of a rapid-growth firm has a particular set of challenges, and as these authors point out, how a CEO manages each challenge will have an impact on a critical component of their firm's growth, information technology. The authors identify 12 challenges, from managing cash flow and choosing partners for alliances to fostering an open work environment and obtaining employee buy in. They also recommend tactics that will help managers meet each of the challenges.

The Beetle made Volkswagen (VW) a household name all over the world for more than 50 years. But in the early 1990s, the VW Group, with its Audi, Seat, and Skoda brands, was in bad shape: a high cost base, costly duplications between the different car brands, and a weak model line-up had led profits to decline by 85% in 1992. At this point, Ferdinand Piech, CEO of Audi, was asked to take over as CEO of the VW group. The company ended 1993 with a loss of almost 1 billion eurodollars. In 2001, the group's net income increased to a record-breaking 2.9 billion eurodollars. Between 1993 and 2001, sales were up from 39.1 billion to 88.5 billion eurodollars, with international sales increasing from 55% to 72%. VW Group's turnaround included making Audi a premium brand, saving Seat from near bankruptcy, and transforming Skoda Auto from a cheap eastern European car maker into a respected player. According to Business Week, VW was "one of the world's best car companies." Describes the transition from 1993 to 2001. Takes readers through VW's successful implementation of a platform manufacturing system, its globalization strategy, the move upmarket, and many innovations along the business system.

When Renault and Nissan entered into a strategic alliance in March 1999, Nissan was in trouble. The Japanese automaker had struggled for 8 years to turn a profit. Its margins were notoriously low, and purchasing costs were 15% to 25% higher at Nissan than at Renault. Adding to the cost burden was a plant capacity far in excess of the company's needs. And the company's debts, even after the Renault investment, amounted to more than $11 billion. Either Nissan would turn the business around, or it would cease to exist. A veteran of turnarounds at Renault and Michelin, Carlos Ghosn was asked by Renault's CEO to go to Tokyo to save Nissan. He faced an uphill battle as a non-Japanese, non-Nissan outsider--and he knew it. In this first-person account, Ghosn tells the story of Nissan's turnaround. He explains how he relied on cross-functional teams. Ghosn also contends that success is not simply a matter of making fundamental changes to a company's organization and operations; the company's identity and the self-esteem of its people must also be protected. But making changes and safeguarding identity is sometimes a precarious balancing act. The key, he says, is to nurture a strong corporate culture that taps into the productive aspects of a country's culture.

An employee is diagnosed with cancer or loses a family member unexpectedly. An earthquake destroys an entire section of a city, leaving hundreds dead, injured, or homeless. At times like these, managerial handbooks fail us. After all, leaders can't eliminate personal suffering, nor can they ask employees who are dealing with these crises to check their emotions at the door. But compassionate leadership can facilitate personal as well as organizational healing. Based on research the authors conducted at the University of Michigan and the University of British Columbia's CompassionLab, this article describes what leaders can do to foster organizational compassion in times of trauma. They recount real-world examples, including a story of personal tragedy at Newsweek, natural disasters that affected Macy's and Malden Mills, and the events of September 11, 2001. The authors say compassionate leaders uniformly provide two things: a "context for meaning"--creating an environment in which people can freely express and discuss how they feel--and a "context for action"--creating an environment in which those who experience or witness pain can find ways to alleviate their own and others' suffering.

When Robert Herbold came to Microsoft from Procter & Gamble in 1994, he saw firsthand why Bill Gates had hired him as chief operating officer: Although certain practices promoted the company's innovative culture and ability to turn on a dime, others created chaos rather than creativity and actually impeded quick course corrections. The operational mess resulted from divergent practices and incompatible systems. Herbold's mission was to bring discipline to the organization without undermining the very characteristics that had made Microsoft successful. Herbold created central systems that gave managers instant access to standardized data on each business and geographical unit. Imposing this operational discipline not only slashed operating costs as a percentage of revenue but, somewhat counterintuitively, also made the company more flexible and more responsive to business changes. The article contains useful lessons for any large company attempting to improve profitability by balancing centralized discipline and individual innovation.

It's difficult to find a company these days that doesn't strive to be customer driven. Too bad, then, that most companies go about the process of listening to customers all wrong. What usually happens is this: Companies ask their customers what they want. Customers offer solutions in the form of products or services. Companies then deliver these tangibles, and customers just don't buy. The reason is simple--customers aren't expert or informed enough to come up with solutions. That's what your R&D team is for. Rather, customers should be asked only for outcomes--what they want a new product or service to do for them. The form the solutions take should be up to you. Using Cordis Corp. as an example, this article describes a series of effective steps for capturing, analyzing, and utilizing customer input. First come in-depth interviews, in which a moderator works with customers to deconstruct a process or activity to unearth "desired outcomes." Researchers then compile a comprehensive list of outcomes that participants rank in order of importance and degree to which they are satisfied by existing products. Finally, using a simple mathematical formula called the "opportunity calculation," researchers can learn the relative attractiveness of key opportunity areas. These data can be used to uncover opportunities for product development, to segment markets properly, and to conduct competitive analysis.

Although CEOs are cast as the bad guys when they lay off staff or move operations overseas, they are simply serving their masters--the shareholders. This article contends that giving primary concern to the interests of shareholders has become a form of entitlement.

In the 2000-2001 season, the men's basketball team at Boston College rebounded from last place to first--with essentially the same five starters. Coach Al Skinner discusses the two principles he used to turn his team around.

This note is an introduction to the first-year course Management Communication: Module Four. See also "A Note on Management Communication: Module One" (UV0925), "A Note on Management Communication: Module Two" (UV0926), and "A Note on Management Communication: Module Three" (UV0927).

Designed to show how Cisco has taken its U.S.-based infrastructure and applied it to China. It is stunning in its impact as one notes how so much of what is being done in the United States in terms of the intranet has been transferred to China.

The challenges the largest Chinese electronic commerce company faces many challenges at the end of 2001. This case describes how it has completely reoriented its strategy in the past 12 months to become a B-to-B company. The key question is: Will it work and what should be done now?

Presents a follow-up one year later. Shows how this online steel distributor has now reached breakeven. Focuses on the new challenges for the future.

The Narrative Presentation Assignment offers students an opportunity to gain firsthand experience with an essential managerial communication skill: storytelling. The assignment gives guidelines for developing a "company story" presentation as an icebreaker assignment, with the performance goal of establishing an initial comfort level with delivery. The assignment suggests storytelling's broad range of business applications. Paired with Peer Feedback Assignment (UV0877), which is supplemented by Triad Conference with Instructor (UV0894).

The Peer Feedback Assignment is based on the fact that giving feedback is an essential managerial communication skill. The assignment suggests guidelines for matching feedback to its timing and communication channel. Guidelines for coaching and using formative feedback are included. Paired with the Narrative Presentation assignment (UV0854), supplemented by Triad Conference with Instructor (UV0894).