E-mail viruses and worms get more press, but Web application security can be a bigger problem for many firms. Most sites have flaws that hackers can use to cause trouble. Take a fresh look at your site after reading about these application security holes.

There is a tendency in marketing to think mostly about what customers care about. That is, what benefits customers really want. But there is another important part that should be deeply appreciated by anyone who markets products, and that is customer perceptions, or how customers view (or perceive) the different products on the market. One technique that clearly depicts these customer perceptions is "snake-plot". It is a technique that falls under the umbrella term of "perceptual mapping."

The Securities and Exchange Commission is concerned with the growing practice of issuing "pro forma" earnings reports that tend to paint a rosy picture of company results.

Pro forma, which means "as if", has in recent years evolved into "a sophisticated term for lying about your results," says Wharton accounting professor emeritus Peter H. Knutson. He compares companies that abuse pro forma statements to the husband who stumbles home in the middle of the night and tells his wife, "Don't look at the lipstick on my collar. That doesn't count. The fact that I'm home is what counts."

"Do this and you'll get that." These six words sum up the popular way in which American business strives to improve performance in the workplace. And it is very popular. At least three of four American corporations rely on some sort of incentive program. After all, such incentives are basically rewards, and rewards work, don't they?

The answer, surprisingly, is mostly no. While rewards are effective at producing temporary compliance, they are strikingly ineffective at producing lasting changes in attitudes and behavior...

Value-based management (VBM) has been defined as a means of making explicit the link between a company's strategic and operating decisions and their effect on shareholder returns. As such it should be the natural framework for aligning executive incentives with the interests of stock market investors (Ittner and Larcker, 2000).

While many firms have embraced the VBM phenomenon in recent years, at least in their communication with shareholders, it is far from clear that value-based management has really had any significant impact on internal management systems. Large survey articles on executive compensation in the US, such as that by Murphy (1998), strongly suggest that the new metrics are not being widely applied internally. This begs the question of whether diffusion is still at an early stage, or whether there is a gap between hype and reality. Could value-based management simply be another management fad?

Article looks at 6 keys to leading mergers:
1. Crystallise and communicate the strategic vision for the merger
2. Close the deal
3. Focus on the key sources of value of the deal
4. Drive the integration of the two entities
5. Make the tough calls
6. Cheer on the troops

Editor's Note: You may also want to check out the .pdf report 'Achieving the Promise: Five ways to lead mergers to results'. I can't explain the discrepancies (5 vs. 6 traits) but both have their value. Find it at:
http://www.bain.com/bainweb/PDFs/cms/Marketing/3959.pdf

How would your firm look to the premier investor? What does great investment potential look like to Mr. Buffett? Here's his checklist.

It is common for projects to miss budgets, schedules and opportunities, in spite of the heroic efforts of the project manager to keep things on track. There is a need for the project management tool-kit to expand beyond task management. Professors Arnoud De Meyer, Christoph Loch and Michael Pich classify the associated and often-neglected uncertainty, and they suggest alternative techniques for project management, depending on the situation.

This article provides an overview of the landmark study by Elton Mayo, an Australian anthropologist from Harvard, and its implications for management history.

On the 20th anniversary of In "Search of Excellence," Peters admits, "I had no idea what I was doing when I wrote 'Search.'"

The author's white paper is a call to action for an enterprise-wide top-down approach to digital risk management and corporate governance.

Editor's Note: I had to supply contact info to get to the .pdf file. The link I have provided is the post-submission .pdf link so it may not work for you. If not, visit:
http://www.digital-risk.com/marketingcommunications.html

Also note that there is a 7-page summary as well as this 21-page full report. Trust me, the summary isn't that useful by itself - stick with the full report instead.

Comparable, consistent, credible, and relevant metrics are the Rosetta stone of sustainable development.

New merger-accouting rules may sharpen investor views of intangibles, but CFOs should also consider the impact of write-offs.

"Many books and management experts have predicted a world into the next millennium of rapidly increasing change and the need for managers to be able to respond in ways that have not been previously imagined. In this article we set out a way in which both managers and trainers can act differently in order to create a creative climate within their organization."

Editor's Note: I found the authors' prescribed technique silly and difficult to envision but the introductory material on Ekvall was interesting. To read more about Ekvall's work see:
http://www.thinking.net/Creativity/creativity.html

Why do most M & A's fail? The most common three reasons are: incompatible cultures, inability to manage the target company, and being unable to implement the change. In other words, the integration factor. How can M&A's work? Here are four common success factors.

These days, the "innovation thing" is something of a no-brainer. Indeed, it seems that any company worth its low-salt lunch has identified innovation as a core competency worth developing. Who in their right mind (or is it right brain?) can deny the value of improving things? Isn't this what human beings -- those grand inventors of the microchip and the chocolate chip -- are supposed to do?

Unfortunately, innovation, unlike audits or reengineering, is not given to formulas. It is given to people -- restless, inspired, fascinated individuals with an almost cellular need for change. And while it can be supported by systems, it can never be reduced to systems. "Innovation," as Tom Peters so aptly put it, "is a messy business."

So ... if you are one of the self-chosen few willing to stop blaming your organization and start taking personal responsibility for innovating, here's a list of qualities that describe innovators.

Businesses may not define loyalty in the same way that their customers do. Highlights of the Core Services and Trust Builders from a recent Consumer Eyes 2000 survey.

Many new software applications combine budgeting, forecasting, analytics, business intelligence, and collaboration. About the only thing this software can't do is make employees use it.

See a couple of related articles at:
http://www.mbadepot.com/redir.php?ID=1954&file=links

The behavior of consumers is complex, but there is a systematic set of steps you can take to help turn browsers into buyers.

Editor's Note: Be sure to take the BS (Behavioral Style) test at:
http://www.marketingprofs.com/2/BStest/bsg1.asp

Two years ago, Crosspoint Venture Partners made headlines when it canceled a $1 billion fund in the making. The cause was cloudy, but the high-profile VC firm sent the first signal that not everything was peachy among the elite billion-dollar VC club that emerged at the height of the Internet bubble.

Application form, reference and interview. These are some of the traditional techniques still used by employers, but what other tools are available and what national differences can be discerned?

This article takes a look at key areas to focus on in an attempt to build a more customer-focused organization. The key areas are broken into "soft" and "hard" aspects.

Bill Howes, CEO of Inland Paperboard and Packaging, believes that, given the right environment, ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things - even in a stubbornly cyclical industry. He's on his way to achieving this vision - and it all began with a story.

In many industries, firms eager to capture gains from their innovations are filing patent applications at an unprecedented rate. At the same time they are struggling to keep up with accelerating development cycles, shrinking lead times and changing legal interpretations. A recent Wharton conference on "Managing Knowledge Assets: Changing Rules and Emerging Strategies," addressed some of these issues and asked the key question: What are firms doing to protect their knowledge assets?

Despite the plethora of failed intranets, some shining exceptions prove that devoting the appropriate resources and attention to internal websites can really pay off in the form of greater efficiency, knowledge sharing, employee productivity and cost savings. Now that corporate penny-pinching is back in vogue, such benefits are more appealing than ever. Here's a look at many of the common pitfalls of intranet development. Knowing what they are can help you avoid them—and get your money's worth—the second (or third or fourth) time.