bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Planting seeds for the future
Authors: Cornish Edward S.
Published: February 2008

In 1974 Champion International Corporation could be described as a company in search of an image. In spite of being the nation's fourth‐largest forest products company at the time, with net income just under $100 million, Champion was a relative stranger on Wall Street — the result of what the company concedes was a lack of corporate direction, coupled with a poorly managed publicity campaign accompanying Champion's switch from the U.S. Plywood‐Champion Paper title in 1972. As Champion spokesperson Sallie Vandervort explains, “A company that has no image has a negative image.” Owing in part to this perception and in part to the company's desire to project itself as a positive, forward‐looking company, Champion mounted a $6.8 million advertising program, beginning in 1979, that stressed the importance of the future. Says Ms. Vandervort, “Champion's goal was double‐edged. We wanted to conduct a viable and legitimate corporate campaign to improve our recognition in the business community. And, at the same time, we wanted to give the public a little food for thought.” Ms. Vandervort noted that, since Champion's resources take anywhere from 25 to 60 years to develop, the company wanted to demonstrate its concern for the future, while stimulating public thinking about some of the issues and trends that will command society's attention over the next 20 years. The following article is condensed from a booklet of the same title that is distributed nationwide as part of Champion's advertising program.
Planning for tomorrow's consumer
Authors: Casson John J.
Published: February 2008

The financial decisions of American consumers are swayed by a multitude of forces. Business cycle fluctuations and vagaries in fashion are short‐term influences. Long‐term determinants include changing demographics and structural economic shifts, such as double‐digit inflation, abnormally high borrowing costs and Federal economic policies. Because of their collective effect on consumer spending, saving and borrowing habits, these developments foretell profound strategic implications for American business in the 1980s.
Evaluating your foreign business: Finally, some facts
Authors: Cvar Margaret R.
Published: February 2008

There is little doubt that a set of common factors exists to help explain American business performance. But what about foreign business? Everyone knows that European consumers differ from Americans, and that the unions in the United Kingdom are different from those in South America. Does this mean that the importance of market share or quality in explaining profitability is different from one market to the next?
International management in the1980s
Authors: Mohan Krishna
Published: February 2008

The “shape of things to come” for international management in the 1980s will be strongly influenced by events and trends linked to the 1970s. Dwindling natural resources, threats of protectionism and political and social upheaval, familiar worries endemic of that decade, are certain to make their mark on the global marketplace of the 1980s.
The reign of the finance men
Authors: Thackray John
Published: February 2008

Within the historical development of the modern corporation there are slow and sweeping cycles of change in which some managerial specialties come to the fore, while others wane. The present epoch of the U.S. corporation unquestionably belongs to the experts in financial technique, deployment, and manipulation.
Political risk analysis for extractive industries
Authors: Coplin William D. , O'Leary Michael K.
Published: February 2008

Firms with extractive businesses abroad dread political instability and sudden government switches in business agreements in the countries in which they operate. The take‐over of copper firms in Chile during the Allende administration in 1971 and the recent decision by Venezuela to reduce Reynolds Metals' equity share in a smelting operation from 50 percent to 28 percent are two examples of hundreds of such events that have determined the profitability of extractive operations over the past decade. Both the risks and opportunities for international firms seeking to produce and market raw materials or firms dependent on raw materials are heavily affected by political conditions.
Harnessing LDC farmers to the money economy
Authors: Freeman Orville L. , Karen Ruth
Published: February 2008

By the year 2,000 the world's population will total six billion persons. They will have to coexist on a planet where resources are limited, however ingenious man's use of them may be. Facing these facts, some planners are considering seriously the concept of triage, under which some sections of the earth, and the people living in them, are written off because it seems impossible to save them and still maintain a sustainable society for the rest of the planet. The triage concept is touted as the hardheaded ability to set priorities. However, we find this attitude morally repugnant, socially indefensible, politically dangerous, and economically irrational.
Making corporate history a planning resource
Authors: Tauber Gilbert
Published: February 2008

Since the mid‐1970s, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of major corporations that have established archives or retained professional historians. Some of this may be attributable to simple nostalgia—a sort of corporate after‐ripple of the Roots phenomenon. But in most cases, the reason appears to have been awareness, usually on the part of a CEO, that the firm has lost track of strategic information it cannot prudently do without.
Strategic planning at la roche college: A case studyY
Authors: Schofield Douglas F.
Published: February 2008

Any truly effective planning process must consider a broad array of strategic choices. Planners must approach the process open‐mindedly with as few preconceptions as possible, and the planning cycle should be synchronized with marketplace changes rather than the calendar. The planning process should stimulate managers to make good strategic choices and to think creatively about their plans. It should provide feedback on how good their forecasts or assumptions have been. And it should provide an assessment of the quality and impact of past strategic choices. These basic planning characteristics are generic and should be equally applicable to any sort of business or institution.
TRW's balancing act
Authors: Thackray John
Published: February 2008

In many ways TRW is the prototypical modern U.S. multinational. The exceptional difference is that in recent years it has wrestled with the problems of managing scale and complexity more energetically and perhaps more imaginatively than most conglomerates. Building on the bedrock of classic decentralized management—the same stuff that General Electric pioneered in the Fifties, now the standard operating structure of most U.S. multinationals—TRW has tried desperately to modify some of the increasingly apparent shortcomings of decentralization. While acknowledging that most key decisions bearing on a particular business must be made by autonomous managers using their best judgment, TRW has sought not to be a holding company operation, where management is essentially passive, but rather to bestow broad direction and strategic vision from headquarters. The architect of this program is TRW chairman Ruben Mettler. One of his key lieutenants in this effort is Edward M. Foley, vice president of planning and development. When ex‐accountant Ted Foley arrived at TRW's Cleveland headquarters in the early Seventies, after a succession of operating roles within TRW, company planning was 100 percent decentralized. His mission: to improve the “balance” (perhaps Mettler's favorite word) between divisional independence and top management's perceptions of where future challenges and opportunities lay. TRW was seeking evolutionary change without tampering with their basically decentralized corporate culture. It was an ambitious program with many pitfalls and inherent contradictions. And the struggle for “balance” isn't over yet, as Ted Foley candidly reveals in the following interview with Planning Review.
Some observations on industrial policy
Authors: Chimerine Lawrence
Published: February 2008

Proposals to create a formal, comprehensive U.S. industrial policy are now receiving wide attention in Washington and in the press. Moreover, the continued relatively weak performance of many manufacturing industries, along with ongoing rising import penetration into U.S. markets, is likely to make it a topic for presidential electioneering.
Introducing planning in an entrepreneurial firm: A case study
Authors: Reinharth Leon
Published: February 2008

Ten years ago John Kenneth Galbraith popularized the notion of the dual nature of the U.S. economy. A small portion of one percent of all business units in the United States own more than half the assets and receive more than half the earnings on more than half the sales of the entire economy. The balance of asset ownership, profits, and sales is divided up among some twelve million smaller firms. According to Galbraith's theory, this divides U.S. business into the “planning system”—giant corporations that control prices and production, and the “market system”—the great mass of companies whose prices and production are controlled by the give and take described by classical economists since the days of Adam Smith.
Strategic management impotence: An advisory to chief executive officers
Authors: Riggs Monfort E.
Published: February 2008

One of the greatest frustrations you can experience as a CEO or manager is the feeling of being powerless to help your organization implement a strategy that you know is sound—even brilliant. Has it occurred to you that you or your advisors or consultants might be the cause of this strategic management impotence?
Planning at a lawn‐care products manufacturer
Authors: Donnelly Robert M.
Published: February 2008

WE'VE ALL READ about the classic approaches to corporate planning, but somehow, the special circumstances of our own organization seem to require unique methods. We always have to invent our own wheels. However, your faith will now be restored. This is a case where a classic approach worked.
Mexico's political risk: A case study
Authors: Coplin William D. , O'Leary Michael K.
Published: February 2008

Several times a year Planning Review publishes political risk analyses of major U.S. trading partners (see “Balancing Risk and Return in South Africa,” July 1983). Readers with businesses or clients in these countries will value the reports for the predictions they offer. However, the articles are even more useful as case studies of ongoing experimental analysis in which the working mechanism of a country—its key actors and decision structure—are dissected and evaluated. Planners can track current events on decision‐structure charts (see “Systematic Political Analysis for Planners,” November 1983) to update the predictions of the case study. Ultimately, history will tell us how successful this experimental method and analysis has been.
New themes in the changing policy‐planning environment
Authors: Hochstein Madelyn , Kaagan Lawrence
Published: February 2008

In the last quarter century, business planners have increasingly had to expand their grasp of economic and social issues and to deepen their knowledge of the various forces affecting their organizations. While economic, demographic, and political information have long been important ingredients in a successful organization's bag of tricks, the ability to read and interpret the social climate, and to understand the impact that change can have on that climate, are increasingly important skills as well.
American Express: Planning in a rapidly changing environment
Authors: Malmstrom Carl H.
Published: February 2008

Anyone who has followed the general developments in the financial services industry over the past few years, and at American Express in particular, knows that extensive changes have occurred—in the marketplace, in the development of new business opportunities, and in the structuring of the industry. If it isn't a bona fide revolution, it has certainly been a fast‐paced evolution.
Igniting creativity: A strategic process
Authors: Bandrowski James F.
Published: February 2008

Most top executives involved in strategic planning agree that developing successful business strategy requires penetrating analysis at the beginning, creative ideas in the middle, and management commitment at the end. Each of these steps is vital to a company that's trying to find a sustainable advantage over its competition. Unfortunately, only the first and third steps are widely understood.
Investment and strategy evaluation: A personal computer model
Authors: Lawless Mark J.
Published: February 2008

A standard chore for most planning departments in strategically managed companies is evaluating capital spending strategies and alternatives. To make these evaluations, planners need to consider both financial and nonfinancial criteria since there are minimum financial requirements that have to be met before a potential investment can be taken seriously. No matter how attractive an opportunity may seem, it will fall by the wayside unless specific financial conditions—such as investment hurdle rates—can be satisfied.
The technology factor in corporate planning
Authors: Brose Michael E.
Published: February 2008

Why have U.S. managers failed to incorporate technology into their strategic planning? A major reason is that too many of them are looking at technology through the wrong end of the telescope. By equating technology with research and development, most companies have become preoccupied with such issues as how to manage the R&D function or how to assess the payoff from new product programs. This myopic view has prevented top management from recognizing the integral role that technology plays in their business.
The UN as a regulator of private enterprise
Authors: Weidenbaum Murray L.
Published: February 2008

Most businesses still think of the UN as an organization devoted primarily to peacekeeping. There is little awareness of the extent to which the UN has become an economic body involved in radically changing the performance and character of private economies throughout the world.
3M's strategy system—planning in an innovative corporation
Authors: Tita Michael A. , Allio Robert J.
Published: February 2008

3M is one of america's best‐run, most innovative, and diverse companies. And this diversity has been increasing exponentially for the past sixty years. Two decades after its founding, 3M's business was relatively simple. In the early 1920s, the corporation manufactured a line of sandpapers, which it sold to several key industries, among them furniture and automotive. Its competitors offered similar products and sold to the same customers. In that era, 3M's strategy was straightforward: “We will make a quality product at a fair price—and sell it aggressively.”
Scenarios for turnaround in smokestack, U.S.A.
Authors: Eckstein Otto , Caton Christopher , Brinner Roger , Duprey Peter
Published: February 2008

It has been obvious for some time that the U.S. manufacturing industry has been on a downward slide. However, the recent recession has accelerated the speed of the decline to the point of public outcry. Production, and thus employment in some industries is down by a third. This, in turn, is creating profound economic hardships for many communities and a crisis of regional economic disparity not seen since the Great Depression.
Field analysis: A 3‐D look at opportunities
Authors: Silverman Dean
Published: February 2008

The development of strategic analysis began with the experience curve. Then consultants came up with the four‐cell version of the portfolio matrix. This was followed by the nine‐cell approach. And now comes … field analysis.
Planning capital investments: Easy as 1–2–3
Authors: Holt Charles P.
Published: February 2008

Every day businesses face investment decisions—and managers can now buy software packages that let the computer do the work. Or they can squeeze the extra work out of a standard package such as Lotus 1–2–3, which currently has more than a million users. Let's review what's involved in screening investment decisions and investigate how managers could use software with which they're already familiar to analyse investment alternatives.
Strategy seen through the lens of history
Authors: Alpert A.M.
Published: February 2008

What do we learn from history? Not simply that the past provides cautionary examples for the present and future. History also reveals something about how society changes, the nature of this process, and how far we can expect to understand and control it. Business is an active participant in the developments of society; the policies and behavior of a corporation are part of the numerous causes and effects of history. Strategic planners and decision makers can profit from recognizing how the nature of the historical process forms the context of plans and decisions.
Planning an Avon turnaround
Authors: Thackray John
Published: February 2008

SCENE: A bright September morning in the Terrace Room of the Plaza Hotel in New York. There's a giant screen center stage and scattered TV monitors emitting a cold blue light. A short burly man steps up to the podium before about a hundred members of the Wall Street community and the press. The man is Hicks Waldron, CEO of Avon Products, and he's staged this two‐hour presentation to unveil a freshly minted corporate plan for the Avon Division, which accounts for about three‐quarters of the entire Avon company's sales.
The outlook for productivity growth
Authors: Taub Leon
Published: February 2008

Productivity growth in the United States slowed dramatically during the Seventies. One measure of total factor productivity growth averaged 2.6 percent from 1948 to 1966, and 1.7 percent from 1966 to 1973, but only 0.2 percent during the 1973–81 period. Other measures of productivity growth show a similar picture. Even after adjusting for the weakness in the economy in 1981—which adds only 0.2 to 0.3 percentage points to the 1973–81 growth rate—the average annual rate of productivity growth during the mid‐ and late Seventies declined over 2 percentage points from the early postwar period, and well over 1 percentage point from the 1966–73 period.
Acquisition risk assessment and valuation
Authors: Statius Muller Robert C.
Published: February 2008

The annual reports of many corporations proclaim that creating shareholder wealth is their fundamental economic objective. But when it comes to making acquisitions, these companies often find it difficult to assess just how much shareholder value a new addition might create. Conventional accounting‐oriented methods have proved inadequate, and more and more, corporate planning and development groups are adopting the Shareholder Value approach to acquisition analysis.
Bankruptcy as a business strategy: The Manville Experience
Authors: Bishop Marcia
Published: February 2008

In 1982, three solvent companies filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the United States Code Bankruptcy to halt an onslaught of asbestos‐related lawsuits. These companies were Ametex, UNR Industries, and the Manville Corporation.
The outrigger principle: A new communications model for top management
Authors: Tasso André J.
Published: February 2008

What could the productivity of Japanese industry, the political stability of the kingdom of Jordan, and the rapid financial recovery of a French Canadian daily newspaper possibly have in common?
Shooting stars in the land of the rising sun
Authors: Ohmae Kenichi
Published: February 2008

Six clear, definable revolutions are now taking place simultaneously in Japan. •
Kodak's “Global factory”
Authors: Murphy Cornelius J.
Published: February 2008

One of Kodak's primary objectives is the effective management of our resources in today's global marketplace. Developing worldwide strategies and markets is vitally important to Kodak both in terms of current sales and the potential for future growth. About 40 percent of Kodak sales are made to customers outside the United States.
T. Boone Pickens Wildcats on Wall Street
Authors: Allio Robert J. , Randall Robert M.
Published: February 2008

Planning Review interviewed T. Boone Pickens in Westchester shortly before he spoke at Business Week's “Conference on the Future” in April. Mr. Pickens is a charming propagandist, a great talker generous with his time, and an entrepreneur clearly excited about catching a ride on the flood tide of opportunity. The misadventures of the oil business and the malapropisms of its cast of characters provide him with a generous supply of raw material for his saga of the populist gamesman, armed with the best strategy, pitted against the entrenched and self‐righteous establishment. He obviously loves the contest.
IC Industries likes to keep planning simple
Authors: Copper J. Robert
Published: February 2008

IC Industries is a Chicago holding company made up of seven wholly owned subsidiaries:
Market segmentation: A classic solution for an industrial products company
Authors: Kharabe Prakash S. , Sardessai V.M.
Published: February 2008

ECOM, Inc., is our fictitious name for the industrial products division of a real Fortune 500 corporation. Over the past ten years the company, and indeed the whole industry, has witnessed little technological innovation and no significant developments in operations or strategic planning. ECOM operates in a highly competitive environment with no dominant market leader, and it has suffered operating losses for the past three years. While ECOM has recently divested itself of a medium‐sized plant, senior management continues to be concerned about the under‐utilization of the remaining four production facilities. The situation could seriously affect both profitability and employee morale.
The evolution of strategic planning at Signode
Authors: Noyes Thomas E.
Published: February 2008

Signode Industries, Inc., is the world's leading manufacturer and distributor of strapping systems for use in packaging and materials handling. The company also manufactures and sells bar code equipment and other products for both industrial and commercial markets in more than 100 countries. The company has 6,000 employees and 35 manufacturing locations worldwide.
Dart & Kraft: From merger to strategic management
Authors: Batts Warren L.
Published: February 2008

On September 25, 1980, Kraft, Inc., and Dart Industries Inc. merged to form Dart and Kraft. At the time, it was one of the largest mergers in U.S. history.
Product‐market decisions: Dancing on the razor's edge
Authors: Carpenter Roy E. , Kinard Jerry , Van Mullen Frank , Wright Peter
Published: February 2008

Competitiveproduct‐market decisions differ according to the challenges a firm faces, and these variables need to be considered in the planning process. Four actual cases in point:
Porter's competitive advantage, revisited
Authors: Heany Donald E
Published: February 2008

Nearly forty years ago, Professor Edward Mason, then the guru of industrial organization in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard began an experiment. He encouraged his doctoral students to investigate topics that opened up new territory between economics and business, and between economics and law. Mason believed that these topics called for an interdisciplinary approach. He also wanted to accumulate reliable data on the workings of the modern business concern. To do this he asked some of his friends on the business school and law faculties at Harvard to help his students gain access to particular firms and to data on their industries, and also to help them master techniques of analysis and perspectives that had few exponents on his side of the Charles River.
How a mature firm fosters intrapreneurs
Authors: Schaffhauser Robert J.
Published: February 2008

It's a deeply held belief that the small entrepreneur develops new businesses better than big companies. A more recent notion suggests that if big companies set up “intrapreneurial” ventures, both the big company and the new venture can have the best of both worlds. However, it's been my experience, after 20 years of working with companies to help them diversify through new ventures, that it isn't all that easy.
The best strategies for corporate venturing
Authors: DeSouza Glenn
Published: February 2008

There is a game of chance played in corporate boardrooms that would intimidate even the most seasoned Las Vegas high roller. The players know the odds of success are low, but they keep at it because the game is the most exciting and honorable one around. The game is corporate venturing.
Tricks of the information trade
Authors: Brown Harlan J.
Published: February 2008

“We planned to enter a new market with process equipment licensed from our European parent,” said Parks Souther, President of Parkson Corporation, a subsidiary of A. Johnson & Company. We thought, given our top‐down, macroeconomic look and careful strategic planning, that our high quality would immediately garner a large market share. But to check our plan tactically, we also took a bottom‐up microeconomic look. Much to our surprise we found that all the market leaders had high quality. Position depended on having the best distributors—nearly impossible for a new entry. We also found, to our dismay that the market wasn't growing as fast as we thought it was. We saved $5 million with that bottom‐up look!”
Struggle for life most severe between individuals and varieties of the same species
Authors: Darwin Charles
Published: February 2008

As the species of the same genus usually have, though by no means invariably, much similarity in habits and constitution, and always in structure, the struggle will generally be more severe between them, if they come into competition with each other, than between the species of distinct genera. We see this in the recent extension over parts of the United States of one species of swallow having caused the decrease of another species. The recent increase of the missel‐thrush in parts of Scotland has caused the decrease of the song‐thrush. How frequently we hear of one species of rat taking the place of another species under the most different climates. In Russia the small Asiatic cockroach has everywhere driven before it its great congener. In Australia the imported hive‐bee is rapidly exterminating the small, stingless native bee. One species of charlock has been known to supplant another species; and so in other cases. We can dimly see why the competition should be most severe between allied forms, which fill nearly the same place in the economy of nature; but probably in no one case could we precisely say why one species has been victorious over another in the great battle of life….
Fortune 500 dropouts
Authors: Shanklin William L.
Published: February 2008

Hercules Powder. Liebmann Breweries. These companies, and over 250 others that appeared on the very first Fortune 500 list in 1955, have vanished from the front ranks of American industry. Why did so many fail to thrive? Is there an inevitable cycle of corporate growth, senescence, and morbidity? This is a salient question to pose three decades later. Why does the American corporate elite have such a lackluster record in perpetuating their preeminence? What accounts for the fact that companies with the wherewithal to hire the very best executive and technical talent available, and with the most money to invest in marketing, manufacturing, and R&D, have had so much trouble sustaining themselves at a lofty level?
Competitive strategies for high‐wage industries
Authors: Wilson Glenn T.
Published: February 2008

Over the past decade, union power has pushed the steel, automobile, meat‐packing, machinery, and transportation industries into paying unusually high wages. As a result, many firms in these industries are finding it very difficult to compete. While there are a number of possible strategies these firms could employ, none are ideal. Some can only be implemented if favorable action is taken by others, and some are downright dangerous.
Stakeholder analysis for effective issues management
Authors: Weiner Edith , Brown Arnold
Published: February 2008

For years the pharmaceutical industry has been aware of public sentiment against the use of animals for testing and experimentation. Most companies assumed that they were dealing with ineffectual fringe groups who were unlikely to force them to change their experimental practices.
Managing to make business unit strategies work
Authors: Bart Christopher K. , White Roderick E.
Published: February 2008

How should diversified, multibusiness companies organize to implement the many different business strategies their organizations require? Twenty years ago the answer to this question was relatively straightforward—divisionalize. Once the scope of individual operating units making up a diversified firm became too large and too complex to administer within a single system, most of these firms switched to a more decentralized decision‐making divisional structure.
Implementing value‐based strategic management
Authors: Reimann Bernard C.
Published: February 2008

Most top executives of major public corporations insist that they manage their firms in the best interests of their share‐holders. In fact, during the carefree Fifties and the go‐go Sixties most of them did indeed concentrate on earnings growth, and the stock market rewarded them accordingly. Executive compensation and bonus plans were designed to be driven by growth in earnings per share (EPS). Not surprisingly, corporate executives became more and more convinced that growth in earnings was the name of the game.
J oint ventures: Linking for a leap forward
Authors: Rudie Harrigan Kathryn
Published: February 2008

In today's global business environment of scarce resources, rapid rates of technological change, and rising capital requirements, the important question is no longer, “Shall we form a joint venture?” Now the questions are, “Which coopera‐tive arrangements are most appropriate for our needs and expectations?” and “How do we manage these ventures most effectively?”
Chaparral Steel Company: A winner in a market decimated by imports
Authors: Jaffre Richard T.
Published: February 2008

The Chaparral Steel Company produces construction steels. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Texas Industries, a Dallas‐based, NYSE‐traded enterprise, whose other major businesses include cement and concrete products, and real estate.
A simplified guide to capital investment risk analysis
Authors: Everett Michael D.
Published: February 2008

What's the best way to evaluate and select projects with uncertain returns? Do you simply rely on the best estimate of profits or expected values to guide you to the projects with the highest returns? If so, what do you do when you're faced with a choice between project A, which has an expected value of $100,000 but which also has a 25 percent risk of bankrupting the firm, and project B, which has a negligible .003 percent risk but only offers a return of $50,000?
Pacific/Asian markets
Authors: Parsons Christopher
Published: February 2008

U.S. companies are increasingly recognizing the potential of doing business in the Pacific/Asian Rim. But as they begin to explore the opportunies in the area, they're meeting pitfalls they never imagined existed.
Planning at Bechtel: End of the Megaproject Era
Authors: Slavich Denis M.
Published: February 2008

While the mid seventies to the early Eighties were a boom time for engineering and construction firms engaged in mega‐project construction, the past few years have seen a worldwide decline in contracts awarded for giant generating units for the power industry, petroleum refineries, and nickel, copper, and other mineral extraction and refining projects. However, in their place, new sources of work are emerging in hazardous waste disposal or storage, robotics, and other advanced technologies.
GTE's strategic tracking system
Authors: Jones Charles M.
Published: February 2008

In 1984, the management of GTE Diversified Products established a formal system to track the implementation of our strategic plans. Since this new program was quite demanding and required considerable time and attention from line managers and staff at all levels, the most important questions we had to ask ourselves were: Why do we need a strategic tracking system? How does it work? Is it worth the effort?
Shareholder value: How reliable a guide?
Authors: Leontiades Milton
Published: February 2008

Running a business used to be a matter of fundamentals. Managers were expected to raise the operating efficiency of a firm. That meant new plants, or new technology, or better people. Creating value was largely a question of making better products or making products a better way. If management was successful, earnings improved and investors' stockholdings appreciated.
Barricades to strategic marketing thinking
Authors: Daltas Arthur , McDonald Philip
Published: February 2008

“Barricades must be removed before the formulation of new plans begins.”
Colorful chemicals cuts its losses
Authors: Seiler George R.
Published: February 2008

This case is based on the author's experience with a real corporate problem. All names are fictional and the company's business has been disguised. Although all numbers have been changed to preclude identification of the real company, financial ratios have been retained and the case recounts actual events and relationships.
Books
Authors: Leontiades Milton
Published: February 2008

As Gerard Adams points out, “Even if managers feel relatively secure in their control of internal business variables, the outcomes of their decisions are affected by the changing external economic environment.” This is especially true today as a multitude of forces, many of which are unpredictable, are reshaping the structure and adding to the volatility of an already rapidly changing economy. Fortunately, a revolution in business forecasting is underway that is improving the ability of planners and other managers to deal with the economy's uncertain future.
World political/business risk analysis for 1987
Authors: Coplin William D. , O'Leary Michael K.
Published: February 2008

Led by authors Coplin and O'Leary, 85 teams of analysts chart the ebb and flow of political risk on the basis of these critical judgments about the year to come.
Staff intrapreneurs?
Authors: Rothschild William E.
Published: February 2008

A lot of major corporations are slashing staff positions and dispensing with platoons of experienced staff specialists, most of whom had developed methodologies proving their own indispensability. Planning has been one of the professions suffering from this trend. But I believe we are really witnessing a revolution in management's attitude toward staff.
South Korea: Who will ride the dragon?
Authors: Coplin William D. , O'Leary Michael K.
Published: February 2008

Constitutional uncertainty clouds the horizon in South Korea. Despite a strongly rebounding economy, uncertainty continues over the timing and format of the elections that will replace President Chun Doo Hwan. Student and labor protest could increase significantly if the ruling Democratic Justice Party (D]P) and the opposition New Korea Democratic Party (NKDP) fail to achieve a compromise on revising the constitution and holding elections. A substantial increase in political turmoil could lead to Chun's refusal to leave office or a military coup. It could also threaten the staging of the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, which in turn would reverse the country's current economic trend. If open elections were held, the DJP and the NKDP would have about the same chance of winning. An NKDP regime, however, would be more restrictive toward international business and trade than the current government.
Using management system balance sheets
Authors: Henry Migliore R. , Bratschun Neal
Published: February 2008

The Management System Balance Sheet (MSBS) is a nonfinancial balance sheet that presents employees' evaluation of a firm's management system in terms of assets and liabilities. The validity of the system has been tested in six organizations over a five‐year period. The results show that it can be of considerable use to strategic planners.
The logic of restructuring
Authors: Main John G. , Thackray John
Published: February 2008

Ten years ago, restructuring generally meant recapitalizations and workouts of companies on the ropes. Today, it is a new phenomenon—omnipresent, unstable, and in continual evolution.
The CEO's change agenda
Authors: Bennigson Lawrence A. , Swartz Howard
Published: February 2008

CEOs increasingly face the need to foster radical change in their organizations. The makeover may require them to invent a culture that is pervasive, comprehensive, and sharply divergent from the behavior and values of the past. Lacking experience as transformational leaders, most CEOs resort to traditional techniques. They alter structure, modify some systems, and move a few key people. However, simply manipulating these “hard” systems is not enough. In order to bring about the changes necessary for success, the CEO must also alter “soft” systems—including beliefs about the firm and its future, and the style of its key managers.
A faulty speedometer is no excuse
Authors: Martin Howard
Published: February 2008

The Mobay Corporation is the largest subsidiary of Bayer, AG, of West Germany. Mobay manufactures polyurethane raw materials, plastics, agricultural chemicals, colorants, and assorted industrial chemicals.
A line manager's handy guide to profit‐oriented financial planning and accounting techniques
Authors: Everett Michael D.
Published: February 2008

As a line manager immersed in the details of a specific product line or process, you may find yourself thrust into a planning role and asked to make strategic decisions. Unfortunately, years have slipped by since your college accounting and finance courses, and you find the jargon and data difficult to interpret. You're not alone. Studies show that most business students never mastered net present value analysis or managerial cost accounting. In addition, other studies find that graduates generally do not learn these concepts on the job since most line managers generally do not use them.
Combining strategies pays off fast, even in turbulent markets
Authors: Bird Schoonhoven Claudia
Published: February 2008

Is strategic decision making practiced by fast‐changing U.S. high‐technology corporations? If it is, what impact is it having on financial performance? These research‐intensive companies operate in turbulent environments characterized by rapid innovation among competing firms. Can it be proven that strategic decision making helps in their struggle for survival, and can it be measured by the bottom line?
Who should control american business?
Authors: Leontiades Milton
Published: February 2008

Back in 1932 Berle and Means first drew the public's attention to the growing separation between business ownership and control. In large public companies, they pointed out, owners no longer managed and managers weren't owners.
Strategy implementation: Competition among supermarkets
Authors: Leslie Livingstone John , Tigert Douglas J.
Published: February 2008

The retail food market has been wracked by traumatic changes for more than a decade. In the 1970s A & P, the largest chain at that time, was well on the way to oblivion until rescued in a foreign takeover by the West German firm of Tengleman. Safeway, the 1986 market share leader nationally, chose a leveraged buyout rather than a takeover and currently has many divisions in the U.S. up for sale. Within a year or two, Safeway will be a pale shadow of its former self, because it failed to adapt to intense competition. Kroger, the current industry leader, has already begun closing stores in many major markets. In the meantime, the strong regionals such as Food Lion, Shaw's, Hannaford Bros., Randall's, Smith's, Bruno's, Weiss, Albertsons, Publix, Giant Food, Pueblo International, H. E. Butt, and Hughes, are challenging the largest national chains for market share in carefully chosen fields of battle. Overall, the supermarket industry experienced an after tax return on net worth of 14 percent in 1986.
Business strategies that create wealth
Authors: Gale Bradley T. , Swire Donald J.
Published: February 2008

Over the past 20 years it has become increasingly clear that sound business strategy is the key to good financial performance. Senior managers in diversified companies have long known from experience that top‐notch business resources — modern equipment, state‐of‐the‐art technology, a motivated workforce — can be wasted in the service of competitively unrealistic business goals. But it is only in recent years that the principles of effective competitive strategy have begun to be soundly studied and codified.
Managing today's stock price
Authors: Callard Charles G.
Published: February 2008

Today's CEOs are appropriately skeptical of estimates provided by the firm's staff and outside consultants about the results alternative policy recommendations will have on the price of their firm's stock. One reason for such skepticism is first‐hand experience with those short‐term price swings that seem unrelated to the fundamental, longer term factors affecting the proper value of the firm. If the market is efficient, and if price is set by forecasts of a longer term stream of cash receipts, how can the firm's stock (relative to the S&P 500) be so volatile? And if the stock is volatile in the short run, how can the various claims for shareholder value policies be reliable for the longer run?
Using shareholder value to design business‐unit manager incentive plans
Authors: Zent Charles H.
Published: February 2008

As more and more companies adopt a shareholder value analysis system to evaluate their business‐unit plans, there is a growing interest in using this approach to measure business‐unit performance and to calculate incentive bonuses for managers.
The real drivers of strategy
Authors: Loomis Worth
Published: February 2008

To get the full power of the corporation driving your strategy, it has to be integrated into the company culture. This sounds like an abstract idea, but it isn't. To successfully implement strategy, your management team must first:
The strategic review
Authors: Schmidt Jeffrey A.
Published: February 2008

A strategic review is an ad hoc examination of a company's strategies and related capital investments, and it is usually performed during a period of transition or hard times. For companies with formal corporate planning systems, the strategic review represents a flexible and effective way to validate business strategies. It is also well suited to joint action by central and business unit planners in multidivisional companies with highly decentralized planning processes.
The search for SIS
Authors: Venkatraman N. , Fahey Liam
Published: February 2008

Information technology and information systems already rate acronyms that are quite portentous— IT and IS. Both are creating remarkable opportunities for some companies, and awesome risks for others. Strategic planners are struggling to anticipate how these new technologies can be linked to their firm's business activities in innovative ways that create sustainable competitive advantage.
Attack & counterattack: The new game in information technology
Authors: Wiseman Charles
Published: February 2008

A new era of metacompetition is arriving as firms develop the capability to use sophisticated information technology for strategic purposes. This means that the corporate strategist's role is evolving from raising managerial awareness for the need for such systems, to mastering their competitive dynamics. Just a few years ago, the bulk of the strategic information systems (SIS) stories focused on the pathbreaking cases of American Airlines's computerized reservations system, SABRE; American Hospital Supply's electronic order‐entry application, ASAP; and Merrill Lynch's Cash Management Account. In those days, corporate innovators still had to sell their organizations on the potential strategic uses of information technology.
Michael Porter in Disneyland: Information and competitive advantage
Authors: Reimann Bernard C.
Published: February 2008

The Academy of Management held its 1988 annual convention at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California, August 5–11. The setting was highly appropriate, since some of the topics presented and discussed clearly bordered on fantasy.
Hardware distributor's strategic information system
Authors: Huff Sid L.
Published: February 2008

“There are all sorts of helpful services we can provide to our customers, if only they'll take them,” said Kingsley Allaster, Vice President, Finance for D. H. Howden & Co. Ltd., a London, Ontario‐based hardware distributor, thinking out loud about ways that his firm could bind themselves more tightly to their existing customers — retail hardware store dealers. Allaster had long championed the use of information technology as a tool for gaining a competitive advantage over other distributors. The philosophy of Howden was to constantly strive for ways to help the dealers become more successful. “Their success will eventually become our success,” thought Allaster, working through the problem of how best to use information technology to develop systems that the dealers themselves could use to improve their own success. He knew that, no matter how sophisticated a support system might be, if the dealers refused to adopt it and use it, the whole effort would fail.
How to avoid the technical traps in product development
Authors: Frumerman Robert
Published: February 2008

Every company engaged in the development of new products can expect some failures. Since each successive stage of development increases in cost by roughly ten times, the cost of failure can be greatly reduced if fatal flaws are recognized early, and doomed projects are aborted before they waste a firm's resources. By subjecting a developing product to a periodic review of its status, management can assess whether or not it is worth continued funding. The technological aspects of the potential product must be scrutinized carefully for, while products fail to be commercial for many reasons, technical flaws invariably lead to dead ends.
Competitive assessment in service industries
Authors: Leigh Thomas W.
Published: February 2008

Grinstead Inns, a low‐priced motel chain, is a recent addition to the lodging product line of the Columbia Corporation (a fictional firm). Grinstead Inns is targeted toward the $30 to $40 per night economy segment of the lodging market. This case study describes the process of competitor assessment Columbia used to position Grinstead Inns in the economy lodging segment and why Columbia considered it worth the investment. This case is designed to show how a service business performs the competitor analysis process, and how strategy guides data collection. The Grinstead Inns “product” was based on market opportunities uncovered during the competitive assessment.
Selected highlights of the 1988 strategic management society conference
Authors: Reimann Bernard C.
Published: February 2008

Will strategic planning be the next crusade for the pan‐European market that is scheduled to debut in 1992? The stunning turnout for the October 17–20, 1988, Strategic Management Society Conference—900 participants from 25 countries—indicates that both European firms and exporters from around the world view the new border‐smashing European Economic Community legislation as the opening shot in a land race for new markets.
1989 World political and economic risk forecast
Authors: Coplin William D. , O'Leary Michael K.
Published: February 2008

Our Political and Economic Forecast Chart (an annual feature in Planning Review), highlights the risks and opportunities to international business as we see them from our perspective as editors of Political Risk Services (PRS) publications, and as the organizers of PRS semiannual conferences on political risk.
International competitor analysis
Authors: Garsombke Diane J.
Published: February 2008

It's not prudent to venture into international markets without learning how to gather local competitive intelligence. But you can start your analysis project without leaving your desk.