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The empirical evidence is that only a tiny fraction of organizations live to age 40. Why this should be is a puzzle, since when firms are doing well they have all the resources (financial, physical, and intellectual) to continue to be successful. Yet the evidence is that most organizations fail. Drawing on recent advances in evolutionary theory, this article illustrates how multi-level selection processes help organizations adapt in the face of technological and market changes. This process, along with the concepts of organizational ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities, may help organizations survive over long time periods. One deliberate and repeatable version of this process enabled IBM to generate more than $15 billion in growth between 2000 and 2005.

A new branch of corporate sustainability, Bottom-of-the-Pyramid (BOP), seeks out new market opportunities with low-income consumers in the developing world that simultaneously contribute to the sustainable development of these regions. While many companies consider the addition of BOP strategies to their sustainability portfolio, many also hesitate because of the uncertainties that surround this new sustainability practice. This article investigates strategies adopted by the corporate sustainability function in Novozymes, a multinational company with a solid track record in corporate sustainability, to implement a BOP project within key areas of the company's operational core. There are four internal organizational barriers that interlock one another and that have so far prevented the implementation of this project in key areas of operations. The article examines the challenges for sustainability managers who seek to overcome interlocking cognitive, processual, and structural barriers to the implementation of this new branch of sustainability practices.

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) can contribute to the building of civil society in the developing world and have an enlightened self-interest in doing so. The development of civil society solidifies and levels the playing field, thereby protecting longer-term investment from unpredictable social backlash and arbitrary state intervention. At the same time, the reactions of host country governments to MNE-civil society collaboration may vary from benevolent to hostile, depending on the type of collaborative activities involved. This article provides a framework for MNE managers to anticipate when such activities are likely to be greeted with open arms as opposed to when MNE managers need to tread lightly.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article.

Herein, I discuss the pillars of competing with service excellence to create compelling customer value. My focus is on building the infrastructure of quality service. All companies are service companies, in whole or part, because all create value for customers through performance (i.e., services). Thus, the pillars of quality service really are pillars in any excellent company. The overarching message of this article is: great organizations compete with great service, in good times and bad.

While many aspects of services research assume that employees are largely compliant to management prescribed service standards, a number of recent studies have highlighted the deliberate sabotage by service workers as a key issue. We contend that service sabotage is important not simply because of the pervasiveness of such behaviors, but also because of the impact that such acts can have on firm growth and profitability. Consequently, we seek to achieve three inter-linked objectives in this article. First, we highlight how service saboteurs harm customers' service experiences and negatively affect the performance of the firm. Second, in order to assist managers in recognizing these behaviors, we identify the most common types of service saboteurs and forms of sabotage. Specifically, we classify and describe four main types of service saboteurs: Thrill Seekers, Apathetics, Customer Revengers, and Money Grabbers. Finally, and most importantly, we provide a series of suggestions regarding how managers might effectively address service sabotage in their firms. These include gathering information and exploiting existing data to establish the extent and nature of sabotage, recruiting the right quality of service staff, training and rewarding employees, enriching and empowering employees, developing a service culture, and initiating better monitoring systems and procedures.

Today's future business leaders are confronted early in their academic careers with history-making events which have a profound impact on the global economic system. These students of business are being exposed to behaviors as they unfold and, as such, are possibly living in an age of the "cheating culture" whereby everybody cheats because everyone else does it. Business students from around the world completed a cheating culture scale as part of a much larger investigation examining college students' attitudes toward capitalism and business ethics. Findings suggest that the cheating culture is not just a capitalistic phenomenon and that attitudinal differences are driven by gender, country corruption, and socioeconomic environment. Future business leaders worldwide, who are being shaped by news reports of scandal, are also being taught the fundamentals of operating in the business world. Unfortunately, they may be learning to inextricably combine the cheating culture with best business practices.

Outsourcing the purchase of components or "hard goods" is not a new phenomenon: it is known as the "buy" portion of a company's common make-or-buy decisions. In the current service-oriented economy, however, make-or-buy decisions are now often do-or-buy decisions that reflect the strategic question of whether outside entities should be hired to perform significant support service activities. Support functions such as information technology and customer service can be outsourced to provide many organizational benefits. Companies frequently point to the cost savings for labor and training, but also cite the benefits of releasing corporate resources for alternative uses and allowing the business to focus on its core competencies. Outsourcing support functions is not simple, though, and companies must manage the related strategic, quantitative, and qualitative risk factors. This article discusses some of the potential risks that must be faced when a company outsources internal support functions, and describes how the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission's Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) model can assist in managing and controlling these risks.

The emergence of Internet-based social media has made it possible for one person to communicate with hundreds or even thousands of other people about products and the companies that provide them. Thus, the impact of consumer-to-consumer communications has been greatly magnified in the marketplace. This article argues that social media is a hybrid element of the promotion mix because in a traditional sense it enables companies to talk to their customers, while in a nontraditional sense it enables customers to talk directly to one another. The content, timing, and frequency of the social media-based conversations occurring between consumers are outside managers' direct control. This stands in contrast to the traditional integrated marketing communications paradigm whereby a high degree of control is present. Therefore, managers must learn to shape consumer discussions in a manner that is consistent with the organization's mission and performance goals. Methods by which this can be accomplished are delineated herein. They include providing consumers with networking platforms, and using blogs, social media tools, and promotional tools to engage customers.

Increasingly, customers are expecting more and better service. As such, enterprises need guidelines and frameworks for addressing these expanding requirements. The concept of process completeness helps us to consider service from the customer's viewpoint; arguably, the only perspective to take. Process completeness is achieved when a firm's service delivery system matches the typical customer's breadth of expectations. While customers think in sets of services (e.g., I need a flight, a hotel, airport parking, wireless Internet), firms think in terms of single services (e.g., we can provide a flight). There are four basic service systems: (1) transaction-execute a basic request and nothing else, (2) process-handling all firm related service requests through one touch point, (3) alliance-handling service requests through a single touch point via stitching together a static firm-selected alliance of service partners, and (4) agility-handling service requests through a single touch point via stitching together a dynamic customer-selected alliance of service partners. In addition to exploring the four service systems, this article guides executives regarding the selection and implementation of the appropriate service strategy that meets their typical customer's process completeness expectations.

Over the years, numerous brands-such as Oldsmobile, Pan Am, and Woolworth-have met untimely deaths. Many more have steadily declined into oblivion, while others have been revived. When a brand dies, significant investments that were made to build the brand are also lost. Unfortunately, even the strongest brands with high net worth are not immune from brand decline and subsequent death. In today's market, where new product introductions are both expensive and risky, it may be worthwhile to evaluate brands that are declining and invest in revitalizing them. However, there is a dearth of studies that focus on declining brands. In this article, we use findings from academic literature, detailed case studies, and interviews with marketing executives to provide guidelines in dealing with declining brands. We analyze the conditions that lead to brand decline and brand death, highlight signs that may suggest an impending decline, offer insights into assessing the viability of reviving a brand, and suggest various approaches that can be used to strengthen the brand and give it a second life.

In today's often complicated and fast-paced world, individuals are pulled in many different directions. Balancing work and personal roles-including those of parent, spouse, caregiver, volunteer, and so forth-can be a daunting task. In the literature, identity theory speaks to the multi-faceted existence employees face, beyond that of just "worker." The differing roles individuals occupy have traditionally been viewed as competing, implicitly suggesting that attention to one area of a person's life necessarily detracts from the others, and that juggling and managing multiple roles causes stress and emotional strain. To explore the verity of this notion we conducted a study, which is described herein. Of significance, 55% of our sample indicated that they were dual-centric; that is, individuals who value both their work and non-work roles equally. In this article, we build on extant research and find support for the belief that dual-centrics experience more overall satisfaction, greater work-life balance, and less emotional exhaustion. Given the seeming increase in employees' dual-centric focus, it is rational to suggest that one way in which organizations can improve and enhance employee well-being is by embracing them as whole individuals. This article explores that notion, and provides innovative examples from Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list regarding how this objective can be accomplished.

Executives in the financial services industry, which faces intense scrutiny, should learn from the experiences of the oil, gas, and mining industry.

Replacing expensive data centers with outsourced computing or remote portable server farms allows businesses to rapidly change capacity and offers flexibility - an important edge.

The business model of utilities is essentially broken. The solution? Start charging customers for energy services, not energy output.

Manufacturers in emerging markets are getting fewer orders from multinationals - which are shocked by many suppliers' bankruptcy. Both groups must evaluate potential partners more rigorously.

As free trade agreements become more popular, they present global executives with thorny strategic and operational decisions.

The head of Georgia Tech's architecture program predicts that new kinds of retail developments will rise from the ashes of today's dying suburban malls.

For decades, U.S. companies have been outsourcing manufacturing in the belief that it held no competitive advantage. That's been a disaster, maintain Harvard professors Pisano and Shih, because today's low-value manufacturing operations hold the seeds of tomorrow's innovative new products. What those companies have been ceding is the country's industrial commons - that is, the collective operational capabilities that underpin new product and process development in the U.S. industrial sector. As a result, America has lost not only the ability to develop and manufacture high- tech products like televisions, memory chips, and laptops but also the expertise to produce emerging hot products like the Kindle e-reader, high-end servers, solar panels, and the batteries that will power the next generation of automobiles. To rebuild the commons and restore its wealth-generating machine will require government and industry in the United States to make two drastic changes: (1) The government must change the way it supports basic and applied scientific research to promote the broad collaboration with business and academia needed to tackle society's big problems, and (2) Corporate management practices and governance structures must be overhauled so they no longer exaggerate the payoffs and discount the dangers of outsourcing production and cutting investments in R&D. Restoring the ability of enterprises to develop and manufacture high-tech products in America is the only way the country can hope to pay down its enormous deficits and raise its citizens' standard of living.