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This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Many companies leave risk management and business continuity to security professionals, business continuity planners or insurance professionals. Argues that building a resilient enterprise should be a strategic initiative that changes the way a company operates and increases its competitiveness. Reducing vulnerability means both reducing the likelihood of a disruption and increasing resilience. Resilience, in turn, can be achieved by either creating redundancy or increasing flexibility. Redundancy is the familiar concept of keeping some resources in reserve to be used in case of a disruption. Although necessary to some degree, redundancy represents pure cost with no return except in the eventuality of disruption. Contends that significantly more leverage, not to mention operational advantages, can be achieved by making supply chains flexible. Flexibility requires building in organic capabilities that can sense threats and respond to them quickly. Drawing on ongoing research at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, the authors describe how resilient companies build flexibility into each of five essential supply chain elements: the supplier, conversion process, distribution channels, control systems, and underlying corporate culture.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. The practice of pushing product by building inventory in anticipation of demand has fallen out of favor in recent years. Many companies prefer to build product only in response to actual demand. This permits firms to avoid costly supply and demand mismatches. Given how successful product-based firms have been with this approach, it is only natural to wonder how it would apply to service firms. Some argue that services cannot be inventoried. Yet, this view relies on an extremely narrow definition of inventory as finished product waiting for customers. In practice, the authors say, inventory also serves as a way to store work that functions as "service inventory." As with physical inventories, service inventories allow firms to buffer their resources from the variability of demand and reap benefits from economies of scale while benefiting customers. By using the correct form of service inventory, companies have the opportunity to offer better quality, faster response times and more competitive pricing. Using examples from the travel, hospitality, and insurance industries, discusses how service firms can use inventory as a strategic lever in designing and managing service offerings.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. In a recent survey, 72% of board directors indicated that their performance ought to be evaluated. Yet only 21% of the boards of public companies actually conduct such assessments. Part of the problem is that organizations often don't know how best to implement a board self-evaluation procedure, so many simply avoid the practice. Others have implemented the process only to become frustrated because it took so much time and produced so few results. To investigate the different self-evaluation practices used, the authors studied eight boards that have engaged in the process for at least two annual cycles. They found two high-level variables in the protocol for self-evaluations: the structure of the data collection methodology (low vs. high) and the confidentiality of data (unimportant vs. important). These dimensions define quadrants of four different approaches to self-evaluation: informal, legalistic, trusting, and systematic. Each approach has important implications for a company's board rating, directors, and officers insurance and various other issues.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. The growing popularity of mobile hand-held devices is opening up intriguing new possibilities for what the authors refer to as "brand in the hand" marketing. Because individuals can be, and often are, connected anytime and anyplace, mobile marketing can be used to collect data through the wireless Internet to determine not only the exact location of a consumer at a given time, but also why that individual might be there. With that information, more meaningful or relevant advertising messages or promotions can be delivered to the consumer on a mobile device. Before companies rush into this new marketing arena, though, they need to understand some fundamental issues. How does mobile marketing differ from traditional approaches? When should a company pursue a brand in the hand initiative? Does mobile marketing have to be integrated within an overall marketing strategy and, if so, how? Moreover, how should companies address privacy issues? These are of particular concern, in part because of the personal nature of mobile devices.

Although catering to our biological interests, food companies have been recently accused of contributing to the growing problem of obesity. As a result, managers are torn between trying to satisfy consumers and trying to satisfy concerned public policy officials who bring threats of taxes, fines, restrictions, and legislation. Although the situation appears perplexing, there are profitable "win-win" solutions. Describes two hard-wired principles that influence food acquisition and consumption and identifies four reversible drivers of food consumption that marketers could use to help consumers better control what and how much they eat.

As many nonprofits have grown larger, they are adopting concepts and tools from the private sector to improve their own operations and effectiveness. For such growth and adaptation to continue, it is important to understand how knowledge is transferred across sectors. Describes a pioneering study of marketing knowledge transfer based on the experiences of executives in relatively large nonprofit organizations who migrated across sectors. Reveals that the use of marketing concepts and tools in the nonprofit sector is much lower and offers explanations rooted in cultural and organizational differences. Recommends more cross-sector transfer of marketing knowledge.

User design is a particular form of product customization that allows the customer to specify the properties of a product. User design has emerged as a mechanism to build brand loyalty, to fit products to the heterogeneous needs of a market, and to differentiate the offerings of a manufacturer. However, many consumers face daunting challenges in designing a product that fits their personal needs. This makes it essential for producers of customized goods and services to create user interfaces that are effective in supporting consumers in the user design process. Defines the fundamental information-processing problem associated with user design of customized products and articulates five principles of user design. Also outlines actions that can be taken to improve user design systems.

Business-to-business information technology systems are becoming increasingly important in firm supply chains. Uses the concept of modularity to clarify the strategic implications of B2B technology. There are two generic B2B strategies: modularization, which allows a firm to rent out its internal capabilities to others in its industry, and architectural entrepreneurship, which alters the supply chain by allowing a central coordinating firm to facilitate arrangements that trust issues and information asymmetries had previously made impossible. Which modular strategy is appropriate depends on the role the focal firm plays in the supply chain and its supply chain indispensability. Only firms with deep architectural knowledge can take full advantage of these modular strategies.

Although alliances often create valuable learning opportunities, the exploitation of the opportunities is a difficult, frustrating, and often misunderstood process. More often than not, firms learn little from their alliance partners. Examines General Motors (GM) and its exploitation of the learning opportunity created by NUMMI, its California-based alliance with Toyota. Over the past few decades, GM has steadily and significantly improved its quality and productivity relative to its main rivals. A key factor in this improvement has been knowledge transferred from Toyota to NUMMI and NUMMI to GM. Describes how GM transferred the "sticky" knowledge of NUMMI to the initially skeptical GM manufacturing community. The learning mechanisms employed included managerial assignments to NUMMI, visits and tours to NUMMI, a technical liaison office for managing learning activities, leadership commitment and involvement in the learning process, and a learning network to articulate and spread the knowledge.

Overseas outsourcing of jobs is far more complicated than is generally understood. Pressures to outsource range from serving overseas markets better to increasing the competitiveness of American business. Both domestic and international outsourcing responds to management's desire to focus the firm's in-house activities on its core competence. A negative side to outsourcing results from companies doing so simply because "everybody is doing it." They may be surprised by accompanying factors such as unexpected costs and complications, as well. Governmental policymakers must realize that foreign companies outsource more business services to the United States than American firms send overseas.

Recently, accountants were instructed by President Bush to get their acts together. Indeed, the Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and other recent corporate financial reporting failures have prompted a loss of faith in accountants and accounting. To a large extent, this loss of faith involves corporate balance sheets and it is warranted. Corporate managers and shareholders have a vested interest in addressing balance sheet shortcomings. Highlights the pervasive shortcomings of contemporary corporate balance sheets, identifies the underlying foundational tensions creating those shortcomings, offers proposals to address those tensions, and discusses the potential implications of the proposals.

How do experienced managers build and maintain life balance when confronted with day-to-day demands that complicate their lives and drive them further and further into the realm of life imbalance? Drawing from comprehensive interviews with members of managerial couples, this article provides a keen view of the personal and elusive nature of managerial balance. Digging deeper, it uncovers and describes the signals or cues of imbalance and explores the fundamental steps taken to regain lost balance.

Managers must reconsider their preconceptions about conglomerates, or multi-industry firms as they are now often called, because today's examples have much to teach us about successful corporate strategy. We examined the strategies of the largest conglomerates that have, for a sustained period, practiced the form. Four archetypes are available to managers for adding value to a broad portfolio of businesses. In top-performing firms, the bewildering diversity of end products can blind the casual observer to the intense focus of headquarters and the tight cohesion among the head office, the businesses, and the environment.

Alan B. Graf, Jr., is executive vice-president and chief financial officer at FedEx Corp. FedEx Corp. is comprised of multiple operating companies, with the core companies being FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, and FedEx Kinko's. Collectively, FedEx provides transportation, e-commerce, and business services globally. The Memphis, Tennessee-based corporation moves more than 5.5 million packages daily, serving more than 215 countries and territories. The corporation is comprised of more than 250,000 employees and contractors worldwide and maintains approximately 663 aircraft and over 71,000 ground vehicles. Graf joined FedEx Express, the predecessor to FedEx Corp., in 1980 as a senior financial analyst and has held a variety of management positions in the Finance division during his tenure with FedEx. His current responsibilities involve oversight of corporate global financial functions, including financial planning, treasury, tax, accounting and controls, internal audit, and corporate development. Graf is responsible for the financial activities of the corporation's core operating companies and also serves on FedEx Corp.'s Executive Committee, which is charged with the planning and implementation of FedEx Corp.'s strategic business activities. A native of Indiana, Graf graduated from the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, with both a bachelor's and Master of Business Administration degree. He remains active with the Kelley School of Business, where he serves on the Dean's Advisory Council and was honored with membership in the Academy of Alumni Fellows in 2004. Graf holds three board memberships that include NIKE, Inc., Kimball International, Inc., and Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. He also serves on the Advisory Board for the University of Memphis Tiger Cubs.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. For several decades, research about large companies' internal corporate venturing (ICV) has shown that such activities frequently exhibit substantial cyclicality. Companies may enthusiastically launch ICV initiatives, later shut them down, and still later launch new ICV programs again. Describes four common situations that occur in cycles of corporate venturing. Argues that, unless properly managed, corporate commitment to ICV is apt to fluctuate according to the availability of uncommitted financial resources and the growth prospects of the organization's primary businesses. For example, if the corporation has uncommitted financial resources but the growth prospects of the main business are perceived to be insufficient, then the company may launch a top-down "all-out ICV drive" that is vulnerable to costly mistakes. If, however, the growth prospects of the primary business are perceived to be adequate and there are few uncommitted financial resources, top management is likely to perceive ICV as largely irrelevant. Examines factors contributing to ICV cyclicality and suggests that companies can achieve better outcomes if executives recognize the strategic importance of internal corporate venturing activities and view them as a way of gaining insights into emerging opportunities.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. In many companies, there has been a marked drop in the influence, stature, and significance of the corporate marketing department. Today, marketing is often less of a corporate function and more a diaspora of skills and capabilities spread across the organization. Argues that by itself, the disintegration of the marketing center is not a cause for concern, but the decline of core marketing competence certainly is. Examines a series of in-depth interviews with leading marketing executives and CEOs to clarify the root causes of the decline. The research identifies eight distinct factors that contribute to marketing's waning influence--among them a worrying "short-termism," significant shifts in channel power, and marketing's inability to document its contribution to business results. The consequences are not immediate, but they are far-reaching: Absent a core of marketing competence, the corporate brand will suffer, product innovation will weaken, and prices will be less robust. However, the fact that marketing does continue to influence corporate strategy in some companies suggests there are opportunities and viable approaches for building marketing competence as a source of competitive advantage. Suggests four key issues facing marketing management, placing the focus not on restoration of the corporate marketing function but on the rebuilding of marketing competence across the organization.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Corporate executives typically have strategic explanations for their acquisitions: buying the company in question makes sense geographically or the products are synergistic. However, if you inquire two years later how the company has benefited, managers tend to focus on the "softer" factors with comments like, "They made us rethink our decision-making processes," or "They introduced us to a new approach to product development," or simply "They shook up our culture." Analyzes the acquisitions and performance of a number of large, successful companies. Several of the companies included in the research suffered from rigidity. However, the companies were found to use acquisitions to restore a sense of vitality to their businesses and unleash a subsequent surge in performance. The acquired companies often stimulated the acquiring companies to develop new perspectives and different ways of doing things at critical times, keeping their organizations fresh and vital. Even if the enterprises did not pursue acquisitions for this reason, the process of buying businesses and deciding how to integrate them into their corporate structures enabled acquirers to renew themselves before their products and operating methods became outdated.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Too many managers are burned out on strategic change. They have lived through the scenario in which the CEO announces a bold initiative designed to lift performance dramatically. The initiative calls for sweeping changes in the company's processes, systems, and culture--and large resource investments. Despite some short-term gains, it's common for the organization to slip back into old ways of doing things. Argues for a system that enables change initiatives to stick. Uses a detailed case study (a disguised large clothing retailer) to demonstrate what it takes to produce sustainable changes in processes, behavior, or performance. Uncovers four critical processes--chartering, learning, mobilizing, and realigning--that pave the way for successful institutionalization of a strategic change initiative. The elements rely much more on an understanding of the mix of task-related, emotional, and behavioral factors than is fashionable in today's metrics-driven environment. Also highlights the study's divergence from conventional wisdom about programmatic change, arguing that managers need to set in motion a series of processes right at the start if widespread changes are to stick.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. There are three reasons why companies have trouble finding and hiring top-notch executives. First, even organizations that are adept at selecting winners will have considerable difficulty because of the way in which managerial talent is distributed across a population. Second, assessing people for senior positions is inherently tricky for a number of reasons. For one thing, the differentiating competencies for top leaders are usually in "soft" areas--such as the ability to develop people or manage change efforts--each of which is very difficult to measure in any reliable way. Finally, powerful psychological biases impair the quality of the hiring decision. Nevertheless, organizations can overcome those obstacles by deploying a set of basic practices: Define before looking, cast a wide net, compare apples with apples, evaluate thoroughly, filter biases, limit the number of people involved, close the deal, and facilitate the integration. Although some of these practices might seem obvious, many companies fail to follow them. All too often, for instance, organizations make the mistake of commencing an executive search before they know what they're really looking for. Or they unnecessarily restrict the search to certain markets, industries, or geographic regions.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Increasingly, the government agencies that enforce antitrust laws are scrutinizing organizations' marketing, and shifts in practices in the early 2000s have reinvigorated enforcement activity. Understanding what behavior raises antitrust flags is critical for companies with dominant market share in one or more product categories. There has been increasing scrutiny of shelf-slotting practices and category management in the retail sector, for example. Takes managers through the process of determining antitrust violation and lays out five important cases in which practices that seemed to fit with competitive norms or good citizenship, in fact, were ruled to be breaches of antitrust law--in some cases, with momentous penalties. Describes a sampling of the tactics that can help to temper competitiveness with caution. Concludes that it is fundamental for managers to look at their competitive tactics--and at the business strategies and processes that support those tactics--through the eyes of antitrust regulators.