This article examines problems many managers run into as they progress throughout their careers. The authors argue most of the problems are related to four fundamental dimensions of leadership (directional, Interpersonal, Personal and Implementational) and two primary skills (content and process). Read on for more...

If you are selling products or services that are critical to your prospect's success or for that matter, their very survival, your proposal will likely be elevated to the board of directors level for final approval. How do you sell at the board level?

"The business of customer analytics is to get answers quickly so marketers can leverage newly gleaned information for competitive advantage. Why, then, is it so difficult to get answers to simple questions, let alone the complex ones? Often, marketers are faced with a management report that, instead of answering questions, spawns a thousand different questions. These in turn create requests for new reports or data. And a new cycle of system development begins. However, therein lies the rub: Traditional analytic system development must have requirements, but to define requirements, marketing must have a system to understand their customers. This catch-22 phenomenon is known as the Analytic Paradox: 'I can't tell you what I want until after I know it.' For years marketing has been the 'hard to pin down' discipline with respect to requirements. Unlike other business units, marketing's objectives are to change the status quo by being creative. This strategic focus creates demands on analysis applications unlike any other business applications. Another way of thinking about this: Strategic insight comes from finding something new and different in the way the market works or customers interact with your company. By definition, it is impossible to define what this is before it is found. Developing creative strategies is about finding and leveraging things that 'I didn't know I needed to know.' These are the insights that have the biggest impact on marketing to customers, whether for acquisition, retention, cross-selling, or weaning."

No, you shouldn't be broadcasting your employees' salaries. But a new survey suggests that companies need to articulate how pay systems work and how individual compensation packages are determined. The payoff for you? More employees satisfied with their compensation.

You've finally selected a vendor for your next big software implementation. Now how do you go about negotiating the deal? Here are 10 tips to help you get the best contract.

"Ken Kesey, the celebrated author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, once remarked: 'You can count the number of seeds in an apple, but you can't count the number of apples in a seed.' Kesey's words resonate strongly in the context of customer data analytics. In particular, they can be interpreted to mean that a company can determine the current value of its customer base but not the future value of an individual customer. This was true enough in the past. Today, however, the ability to 'count the number of apples in a seed' is fast becoming a reality. So, too, for that matter, is the ability to target those 'seeds,' or customers, who hold the greatest potential, or option value, with customized messages and offerings through precision marketing campaigns. Determining customer option value means first resolving the problem of isolated data silos. While the problem has received widespread attention in recent years, it continues to plague most large companies. Put simply, it relates to the fact that the blueprint for customer data management in these companies tends to resemble that of a penitentiary. One divider wall is the channel through which a customer makes a purchase. Another divider wall is the business unit, or product division, from which a customer makes a purchase. Yet another divider wall is the channel through which a customer obtains information or resolves a problem. Too often, the data that gets generated behind any one of these walls remains stuck there, confined to data warehouses that never 'talk' to one another. The result is a fractured view of the customer relationship."

EBITDA, or Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization, has been used by analysts and investors to measure the fiscal health of the many high-tech, media and other asset-heavy firms that do not generate earnings, but instead incur plenty of depreciation, amortization and other charges. Recently, however, EBITDA has come under fire for contributing to accounting irregularities at such companies as WorldCom and AOL Time Warner.

By engaging others in the innovation process, you'll emerge with superior results and stronger bonds between people.

Growth is essential for a business' success, and many previous studies have shown that research and development is the key source of internal growth in the long run. But the question is which projects to fund and which ones to stop - which ones are promising and which ones too risky?

It's not sex. It's not drinking. It's stress--and it's soaring.

Are you a B2B company, putting (or considering putting) significant effort and significant resources into developing a coherent brand for your product? Researching the marketplace and analyzing competing brands? Establishing strategy sessions to review and select the best brand identity?

If you are, you're probably wasting a lot of time and a lot of money. For the majority of B2B companies, branding is very likely of little or no value.

If you're serious about building a collaborative company and want to reap the economic rewards from doing so, you have to screen out "lone stars." Harvard Business School professor Morten T. Hansen explains.

Editor's Note: I found the sidebar to be of much more interest and value...

Corporate environmental liabilities in the United States now stand at more than $250 billion. Many remain hidden on balance sheets, only to emerge as surprising and painful charges against earnings. Despite the scale of the problem, most corporations do not manage the environment as an integral part of their everyday activities. This need not be the case. The solutions to risk management issues are multiplying, permitting unprecedented discretion, flexibility, and effectiveness in the management of risk.

We believe there are three basic rules for developing integrated environmental risk management:
• Rule 1: Focus on risk, not liability (invest in the right risk)
• Rule 2: Choose your weapons carefully (invest in the right remedy)
• Rule 3: Don't keep it all to yourself (find the right owner).

This article takes a look at how users interact with websites and draws some useful lessons for design and marketing purposes.

The Office of the Chief Executive, a small group of senior executives who help the CEO run the business, has been used as a management tool for at least a century. During that time, its popularity has waxed and waned, it has served a variety of purposes, and it has even been known by a number of names. Here are some pluses and minuses to this management device.

This article outlines some important concepts you need to know if you use [hiring] tests. If you don't know these concepts, you will have no idea whether your tests work or not.

Boards are supposed to monitor top executives, but too often give them carte blanche. That's why regulators are writing stricter rules for the corporate-governance game. Plus: Finance executives sound off about audit committees in a new CFO survey.

Six Sigma is being used in lots of new ways. Critics call the trend dangerous.

A six-step guide to the promotion of corporate entrepreneurship and the exploitation of innovation.

Companies are using call-center apps to learn more about customers.

If you want your product to be more than a one-hit wonder, customers need to know that it has staying power. Here are six ways to help you convince them, according to Rob Ricci and John Volkmann in this excerpt from their book, Momentum: How Companies Become Unstoppable Market Forces.

See related articles:
Differentiation--From the Digital Perspective
http://www.darwinmag.com/read/110102/momentum.html
Brand Magnetism
http://www.mbadepot.com/redir.php?ID=2573&file=links

Marketers are naturally interested in how much consumers are willing to pay for their goods, and a number of techniques exist to help them do this. Professors Klaus Wertenbroch and Bernd Skiera examine some ways in which market researchers can establish the level of consumers' Willingness To Pay (WTP) in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) markets.

mbacenteronline.com is an online magazine where you can find expert advice on MBA admissions, articles from the top MBA programs (Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, INSEAD) and interviews with MBA recruiters.

What constitutes a successful identity-oriented marketing strategy? According to Wharton marketing professor Americus Reed II, it consists of three critical links - the consumer, the identity and the brand. If these links are forged, says Reed, who recently completed a research paper on this topic, "then they create connections that can lead to advantageous marketing outcomes for companies that are savvy enough to incorporate identity into their marketing strategy." Think Harley-Davidson.

The vital importance of meaning, the attributes of valuable meaning and how can we apply the understanding of meaning to make your company more successful?