The good news: You've found a good job in a company that's built to last. The bad news: Lots of others are jockeying for the same position. Here are strategies to help you stand apart while everyone else is standing around.

The purpose of this article is to distinguish critical factors in product marketing, particularly as they apply to the marketing of professional services. The author develops the Buying Hierarchy developed by Windermere Associates of San Francisco into a fuller model he terms the Service/Product Positioning Model:
1. Functionality (Relevance, Applicability, Features, Fit)
2. Reliability (Integrity, Trust, Sustainability)
3. Convenience (Proximity, Ease of Use, Accessibility)
4. Cost (Cost of Manufacture, Economies of Scale, Supply and Demand)

20 years pass and one becomes two: that is, over time, the once-unified financial services industry split into two broad sectors. One is wholesale finance, where clients who have direct access to capital markets may receive financial services. The second is retail and regional finance, where clients do not have direct access but still receive services. Professors Ingo Walter and Roy Smith compare and contrast these two sectors, illustrating the impetus for each respective group members' actions.

As you weigh the options for your company's next step, how do you decide which way to turn? HBS professors David A. Garvin and Michael A. Roberto offer some tips in this excerpt from Harvard Business Review.

"In an environment where past results are no longer a reliable indicator of future performance, the annual report letter is viewed as a unique statement of vision and personal accountability.

In four years of surveying shareholder letters, we've seen the good, the bad and the quickly forgotten -- unfortunately, most of them in the latter two categories...Our yearly research of the letters of 100 top-rated companies has determined that only about one-third of companies are writing distinguished letters that educate and engage readers."

Global expansion is normally a business tool used to perpetuate growth. However, in some cases, it can also cause problems for the economy. INSEAD Professor Daniel Traça reveals how the expansion of global trade may increase job insecurity and diminish wages. And that's just one of his surprising findings.

Many companies are feeling the pressure to employ technology-based training solutions instead of continuing their reliance on traditional classroom training. Some have even taken the plunge with pilot projects, producing both favorable and unfavorable results. But before you go wading into the pricey waters of technology-based training, take the time to look at why many professionals feel it will vastly improve and enhance your training efforts. Instructional multimedia, the kind of training delivered over the computer, has some major differences and some powerful benefits over classroom training. The two current front-runners, CD-ROM and Web-based training (WBT) have many similarities, but some vastly different capabilities that may require some trade-offs on your part.

So you've made the decision to use multimedia as part of your overall training strategy. You can take the low cost route and purchase generic off-the-shelf products, or you can expend more of your training budget on your own development. But do you know how to tell the difference between high quality multimedia and multimedia that is substandard (it may do the job but not as well)?

"Corporations are built on the assumption of continuity; hence their focus is on operations. Capital markets are built on the assumption of discontinuity; their focus is on creation and destruction. This is the central contradiction of the life of a corporation: It cannot succeed without excellent operations, but it will fail if it focuses primarily on operations. Corporations are afflicted with the survivor's curse: Most are unable to earn above-average or even average shareholder returns over the long term. Their control processes - the very processes that help them survive for the long haul - deaden them to the need for change. Mr. Welch's mastery of creative destruction was rooted in his ability to decentralize operating responsibilities and make creative destruction the responsibility of senior management. This is a very difficult balancing act."

Article discusses "appreciative inquiry," a management tool developed by David Cooperrider, an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University. Highlighted is its application at Roadway Express.

How do you quickly establish yourself with those you lead? What do you do first? A Leadership Guide for new supervisors.

The author argues that to sustain a competitive advantage, Web retailers must align their strategies with the product characteristics and buying practices of customers in their market segment. He divides the dot-com retail market into four segments on the basis of the type of good sold and describes the strategies needed to succeed in each.

Here is a list of 14 rules to follow in order to successfully design and implement an incentive program in your organization.

Uncertainty poses a defining test for any leader. So some leaders take cues from Marines and fighter pilots who have a unique approach to disorienting situations.

What turns merely effective negotiators into all-out expert negotiators? The ability to overcome six common mistakes, according to HBS professor James K. Sebenius. In this excerpt from the Harvard Business Review, he describes one of the most glaring.

The letter "e" has emerged as the New Economy's prefix of choice. But while the Internet era certainly makes new demands on leaders, e-leadership is not the answer.

Questions include:
What is a "double trigger"?
What is a secondary offering?
What is a "limit order"?
What is "spinning" and how does it relate to IPOs?
How low can a company's stock price go before it runs the risk of being de-listed?
What is a "pre-syndicate bid"?
What is a "direct public offering"?
What is a private placement?
What is a syndicate?
When is an investment letter used?
What is stabilization?
What is an insider?
What is a collar?
What is a "comfort letter"?
What is a "firm commitment offering"?
What is a "market maker?"
Are there ways around a lock-up?
Do venture capital funds fall under the general category of hedge funds?
Do technology companies use special vesting schedules?
What is the bargain element?
Which are the most commonly filed SEC forms?

"In a relatively known and predictable world rational solutions can be planned, for training as for anything else. A programme can be organised and implemented so that a workforce acquires the skills it needs. These skills will be the possessions of individuals. But perhaps we are beginning to see the limitations of this way of understanding things. To conceive learning objectives as WISE and OPEN is to begin to transcend these limitations. They acknowledge the social nature of learning: that knowledge is created by people in combination with each other and also lives in social relationships (and so will not vanish with the employee). It is a function of persons in interaction and not a possession of individuals."

Article also lays out 7 Fundamental Principles of Personal/Personnel Development:
1. openness
2. uncertainty
3. complexity
4. relationships
5. reflection
6. reframing
7. restoration

The failure of most mergers and acquisitions to deliver their cost of capital has been well documented and quantified. What hasn't been discussed as openly is the cost of the deals that got away--often because potential suitors do not have the right valuation procedures in place.

Product liability prevention focus is more than just a hazards analysis and warning label effort, although they are part of the big picture. It is also more than just an "Engineering" concern, and instead involves the entire organization. The fact that it involves so many areas of management is why the focus needs to be incorporated into the existing Total Quality program. The Corporate Quality Program is typically the only fully documented system of comprehensive controls and procedures within most corporations.

The cost of goods and materials is usually the largest component of a company's cost structure. Why, then, isn't every financial manager examining the supply chain? Here are the keys that you can use to open the door to improvement — and play a pivotal role — in the supply chain management process.

To grow and consistently exceed profit expectations businesses need to understand and apply the eight business basics of profitable growth.

Many corporate change efforts are greeted with rolling eyes from employees. Harvard Business School professors David Garvin and Rosabeth Moss Kanter help identify the keys to a successful company transformation.

Senior executives at many of the largest corporations around the world have embraced knowledge or learning as part of their long-term vision. A focus on knowledge and learning makes sense: knowledge is increasingly an important source of competitive advantage. However, the business impact of most knowledge management or learning organization programs is modest at best. We estimate that about one-sixth of these programs achieve very significant impact within the first two years; half achieve small but important benefits; and the remaining third -- the failures -- have little business impact. Based on our five years of involvement in knowledge and learning organization programs we believe that effectively managed learning can have a significant strategic impact on most companies within the first two years. The purpose of this article is to provide C.E.O.'s with sufficient guidance to lead and manage learning and to insure that their organizations achieve significant strategic benefits quickly.

"Today gold is redundant; the bond market has replaced it as the ultimate restraint on central banks' temptation to use monetary expansion as a short cut to prosperity. And, increasingly, inflation targets and institutions such as independent central banks create lastingly stable money. There are few certainties in international finance. But here is one: gold as part of the international monetary system is dead."