個案總覽

Services technologies are changing the way companies compete. Vertical integration, physical facilities, even a seemingly superior product no longer assure a competitive edge. Sustainable advantage is more likely to come from developing superior capabilities in a few core service skills. Technology is increasing the leverage of service activities. These changes have far-reaching implications for the way managers structure their organizations and define strategic focus.

Affirmative action is based on a set of premises that badly need revising. White males are no longer dominant at every level of the corporation, while decades of attack have noticeably weakened racial and gender prejudices. Our traditional image of assimilating differences--the melting pot--is no longer valid. It's a seller's market for skills, and potential employees are refusing to be melted down. Companies must manage unassimilated diversity and get from it the same commitment, quality, and profit they once got from a homogeneous work force. We need to work not merely toward culture- and color-blindness but also toward an openly multicultural workplace that taps the full potential of every employee.

All forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) are designed to save time and money and to soften the sharp edges of the adversarial system. Variations and hybrids of ADR are limitless. In picking the method best suited to your circumstances, consider: the extent to which both disputants are committed to ADR, the closeness of the business relationship between the two parties, the need for privacy, the urgency of reaching a settlement, the absolute and relative financial health of both parties, the importance of the principles involved, the complexity of the case, the size of the stakes, and the ability and willingness of company executives to get involved.

Four truths apply to every business situation: 1) it is essential to be a lower-cost supplier; 2) to stay competitive, the inflation-adjusted cost of producing and supplying products and services must trend downward; 3) the true cost and profit pictures for each product/market segment must always be known; and 4) a business must concentrate as much on cash flow and balance sheet strengths as it does on profits. Various costs must be carefully isolated and assigned; expense categories such as R&D, sales, general, and administrative costs must not be ignored. Also gross margins should usually not be less than 40% and assets should not be over 60% of annual sales.

From the head of market research at GM comes a guide, in the form of a series of foldout tables, to help managers determine the dimensions of the task, resources needed, data required, and other key elements. The research effort comprises five major stages: assess the market information needs; measure the market place; store, retrieve, and display the data; describe and analyze market information; and evaluate the research and assess its usefulness. Augmenting the tables are a glossary of technical terms and a list of references.

Managerial hierarchy is the most natural and effective organization form that a big company can employ. As organizational tasks range from simple to complex, there are jumps in the level of responsibility. As the time span of the longest task assigned to each managerial role increases, so does the level of experience, knowledge, and mental stamina required.

Accuracy in manufacturers' advertising budgeting is hampered by reliance on the case rate system. A better measure is a brand's market share compared with its share of voice (its share of the total value of the main media exposure in that product category). The interrelationship between market share and share of voice is not usually considered when determining ad budgets.

The publicly held corporation has not outlived its usefulness. Though LBOs release much of the untapped value and correct many of the inefficiencies of large public companies, they also have a limited demand and a limited life. The public corporation is inherently flexible and self-renewing. A four-point plan to maximize shareholder value will help public companies to: 1) find the highest valued use for all assets; 2) limit investment to opportunities with credible potential to create value; 3) return cash to shareholders when such investments are not available; and 4) establish incentives for managers and employees to focus on the critical drives that create value.

Because of globalization, the U.S.-owned corporation headquartered in the United States is no longer the vehicle for achieving U.S. competitiveness. Foreign-owned corporations that invest heavily in U.S.-based production facilities and their workers may actually contribute more. U.S. government policy should open the borders to foreign investment and promote human capital rather than assuming that corporations will lead the way. This is true for a number of reasons: corporate ownership is less important today; control is less important; work force skills are critical; and foreign-owned corporations help U.S. workers add value.

Describes the relative share of voice effect in advertising. In most markets, consumer goods markets are in a state of equilibrium--advertising expenditures are relatively stable and changes in market share are small. To gain ground in market share, a competitor has to launch a huge ad campaign for a sustained period that outspends the biggest rival by at least 100%.

Product "robustness" is a function of good design. Still, most traditional quality programs concentrate on the factory. Zero Defects says that when parts come in within tolerances, the product will be fine. But parts just within tolerances have no advantage over those that just miss; it is better to miss a target consistently than to hit it haphazardly. Robust products maximize "signal-to-noise" ratios of component parts. Product designers can maximize these ratios by running experiments according to orthogonal arrays, which reckon the average effect of each variation on all other variations.

In this interview, Gary Wilson, executive vice president and CFO of the Walt Disney Co., discusses combining financial sophistication with an imaginative, strategic approach to business. Interviewer: Geraldine E. Willigan.

In ever more turbulent environments, executive leadership matters as never before. Organization speed, flexibility, and the need to execute discontinuous change require sharpened leadership skills. Charismatic leaders are important. These relatively rare leaders provide vision, direction, and energy for their firms. However, charisma is never enough to build competitive, agile organizations. Charismatic leadership must be bolstered by institutional leadership through attention to details on roles, structures, and rewards. Further, as most organizations are too large and complex for any one executive or senior team to manage directly, responsibility for managing in turbulent environments must be institutionalized throughout the management system.

Distills memos written by the author each time he took over as head of a different company, memos intended to make sure his managers understood how he intended to run the company. Included are: a call for a stable earning pattern over time to be duplicated by each business unit; a requirement that the company live by operating plans underlaid by corporate and division strategy; an expectation of productivity improvement; and fairness in dealings with employees. The ground rules for managers' "core responsibilities" are organization and staffing, planning and execution, and people development.

Five trends shape the new competition: worldwide dissemination of scientific knowledge, growth in the number of global competitors, fragmented markets and shifting customer preferences, diverse and transforming process technologies, and proliferation of the number of technologies relevant to any product. Never has technology been so important, never has it been harder to gain a competitive edge by means of technology alone. Managers must link technical capabilities to customer requirements. Important principles of action are: know the technological core and link it to strategic intent, take a global view of technical competence, time is of the essence, discipline functions around the science of production, and integrate operations around the information system.

Innovative technologies become commercial products in two ways: reduction to practice of scientific knowledge and incremental improvement governed by the product cycle. In the latter, engineers, not scientists, improve the materials and design of a model. For high-tech companies, this cyclic, incremental innovation is critical. Manufacturing engineers must participate in design from the start. Technological solutions should be pulled in at the start of the product cycle.

Two businesses that deal in the same goods and services, in the same territory and with the same clientele, cannot coexist equally. Therefore, market share is a meaningless number unless a competitor defines the market in terms of the differences that separate it from its rivals. The essence of the contest lies in extending the boundary of one's advantage and preventing customers from doing the same. Because market equilibrium can be upset at any time, strategy comes into play. Strategy involves the search for a plan of action that will create and compound competitive advantage--in desperately short time periods.

As corporations restructure for greater flexibility and innovation, radical changes are taking place in managerial work. Collaborative work is increasing, hierarchy fading. Signs of change include more channels for instigating action, fewer differences between managers and those they manage, and the increasing importance of external relationships as sources of power and influence. Managers must master change in power and motivation; they accomplish things by building relationships and brokering deals. And because loss of hierarchy has deprived them of some capacity to guarantee promotion or direct work, they need new motivational tools.

Big retailers like supermarket chains often demand extra service from their suppliers, who are all too eager to forgive a late payment or meet "emergency" shipment demands with no compensation. Most suppliers don't know how much these add-ons are costing them. Suppliers can take charge by tracking individual customer performance and by putting together multidisciplinary teams to manage strategic groups of customers. With internal changes in place, suppliers can then formulate a flexible, service-based pricing system that establishes appropriate incentives without alienating customers.

Business and family are at odds in the United States. Whereas women once stayed home to care for the sick, the young, and the elderly, most now work outside the home. Yet people seem to manage and everybody gets taken care of. Nevertheless there are four reasons why business should worry about the family: 1) companies will have to compete for workers on the basis of family programs and flexible schedules, 2) both men and women want more time with their families and are blaming companies when they don't get it, 3) company inflexibility on family issues decreases productivity, 4) children are the future work force and they're not getting the personal and educational attention they need.