Are women in business still expected to exceed expectations? What should women ask before accepting a job offer? What does Tupperware have to do with women's lib? Can the number of women on corporate boards really quadruple in the next decade? What does it take to smash through a real, honest-to-god glass ceiling? And what does a businesswoman resemble more: a windmill or a fax machine [and why would we even ask such a question]? All is revealed in our special report.

After many years in which companies invested millions into management information systems that produce massive amounts of data each day some companies are now narrowing their management attention to one chosen performance measurement called a Super-Measure (SM). In these companies all eyes are fixed on this SM that monitors a critical performance statistic and is used to align behaviors and actions with the company's value proposition and customer needs . This approach to management is now used at some well-recognized firms, such as EMC, Nordstrom and Marriott's Fairfield Inns. How do these companies manage their business and what has been the result? What are the advantages and disadvantages of such an approach and can this work in your business?

It is no secret that advances in technology can greatly impact the value of workers' skills. Older workers often find the updating of complex technology uneconomic, while younger workers acquire and readily employ skills tailored to the newest technology. The result: the latter group's productivity rises, diminishing the value of output produced by their older counterparts. A recently published study is the first to model and explain the nature and severity of this effect.

Process manufacturing has unique requirements differentiating it from other types of manufacturing. When selecting software for the process industry, special attention and emphasis should be placed on these requirements to ensure that a company can operate at optimal levels, consistent with how it does business and not on how the software lets the company do business. This article defines process manufacturing; discusses its formulation, packaging, and pricing issues; talks about interfaces; provides cautions and caveats.

Companies today can no longer give a full picture of their value using traditional methods. There is now no excuse for failing to give the market what it wants.

Editor's Note: see more details of the PwC ValueReporting framework at
http://www.valuereporting.com

In our view, too many companies are still designing organization structures on the basis of principles that are no longer appropriate. Companies today must operate in complex and fast-changing environments - particularly if they want to compete on a global scale. In this article, we outline a new way of organizing people for effective performance in just such environments.

Yes, and you don't need a lie detector to do it.

This article offers a difficult message because it asks us to reverse many of the recent motivations in business. It asks us to seek selflessness rather than selfishness. It uses old-fashioned words like "duty" and re-interprets Maslow's concept of self-actualization in a most enlightening fashion. It asks us to take responsibility for what we do. At one point, the author says:

"Mere work ethic is not enough. The hardened criminal demonstrates a very good work ethic. What is needed is a work ethic conditioned by ethics in work."

Editor's Note: this article was originally available on TheWorkingManager.com - with the author's permission I have now posted a copy in the Member Contributions section. Just follow the link to read it.

Acquisitions are all the rage, but when it comes to creating value, big is not always better. What matters is how a company's pieces work together.

Editor's Note: this article offers one of the most controversial and counter-intuitive prescriptions I have ever read (up there with the "IT adds no value" argument). Specifically, it says that corporate centers typically subtract value in multi-business entities rather than adding value. Read this article...

Ask five companies how to forecast cash, and you'll get five different answers. Many companies don't forecast cash at all. But better technology, changes in commerce and tightening credit are spurring more corporations to produce reliable forecasts.

PaeTec Communications is fiercely dedicated to two things: worker contentment and inexorable growth. The company's relentlessly focused CEO takes personal responsibility for both.

An alternative to the Black-Scholes valuation model (the binomial method) could dampen the controversy over expensing employee stock options.

Bain has been an early adopter of knowledge management (KM) and demonstrated strong KM leadership. It is clear that the deployment of Bain's corporate portals (CP) significantly improved the speed and accuracy of knowledge flow in the firm. Most importantly, three of Bain's core explicit values are clearly revealed in the design and practices related to the deployment of BVU and GXC: a continuous learning environment, one firm, and focus on client services and results.

Editor's Note: this article is generally useful for those with an interest in KM but is even more so for those who have a general interest in management consulting and/or a specific interest in Bain.

High-performance businesses know that mastery in sales management is critical to success-to increasing share of the customer. Yet Accenture research has shown that many executives do not have the confidence that their sales organization is fully prepared for the challenge. Executives know that effective selling involves more than good processes and information systems; it involves developing the right people with the right skills and incenting the right behaviors. It is possible to change sales behaviors and align them with your strategic objectives. Here's how.

After 150 years, the department store concept is still going strong thanks to a husband and wife team who pioneered the 'retail experience' - a philosophy of customer service, quality and fair pricing for all.

Even if you're still working with a No. 2 pencil and scrap paper, there's no reason you can't produce outstanding quality forecasts with more predictability and reliability than you've ever experienced before.

There is an old African proverb: When the sun comes up, the gazelle wakes up knowing that it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be eaten. The lion knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. So it doesn't matter if you are a gazelle or a lion, when the sun comes up, you had better be running.
Today, this proverb might be used to describe the corporate jungle. From office cubicles to factory floors, companies must be quicker than their competitors. Those that deliver results faster than others in the marketplace will not only survive another day, they will thrive well into the future.

Companies habitually charge less than they could for new offerings. It's a terrible habit.

What can top management teams do to ensure successful large-scale transformations efforts? Early analysis of data from a major research study - the Developing Global Organizational Capability project - along with interviews with CEOs who have led successful transformation
efforts suggest that top teams should implement two linked approaches simultaneously:
• Take the 10 steps that will bring about successful transformation.
• Align the 5-M's™: meaning, mindset, mobilization, measurement, and mechanisms for renewal.

It's commonly believed that the more time we devote to a project, the better the results. Not so. Wharton professor Maurice Schweitzer tells Senior Writer Stephanie Overby how CIOs can correct "input bias" and stop confusing quantity with quality.

Are you ready for the adaptive organization? The transition is happening now. But be careful: Moving to adaptive business processes requires a new application of technology - not new technology - to produce better business models and expose business opportunities. Specifically, by leveraging three key components - technology, people, and processes - to drive business, companies can build in flexibility, a variable-cost environment, and a competitive advantage

Does it pay to be first with a product or service? Is being an innovator worth the risk? Is it better to wait and learn from the experiences of the first entrant to the market? What is the proper balance between the risks and rewards? If you are a pioneer, what can you do to prevent share erosion when a new player enters the market? If you are a late entrant, what strategies should you adopt to make your entry successful?

Studies show that in most cases, being first to the market provides a significant and sustained market-share advantage over later entrants. Still, later entrants can succeed by adopting distinctive positioning and marketing strategies. Pioneers in most industries, once they have reached the status of incumbent, are powerful. Sometimes, however, they get complacent or are not in a position to cater to the growing or shifting demands of the marketplace. New entrants can take advantage of gaps in the offerings of these aging pioneers, or find innovative ways to market their product or service.

Whether a late entrant or a pioneer seeking to foil newcomers, it helps to have a thorough understanding of the entry and defensive strategies available, a good sense of timing and a game plan for decision-making.

Information technology has helped reduce boundaries between cultures and nationalities, adding fillip globally to organizational change. The impact on women as a representative group however, has not been as distinctive. On the one hand, transformations in social structure and relations have driven changes in roles and behaviour patterns. On the other hand, there are (gendercentric) resistances to change, perversely also on the part of women themselves.

"The large, publicly owned corporation is, nominally, a representative democracy. But power in most corporations lies everywhere but in the hands of the people. For decades, the shareholders of big U.S. companies have resembled the pre-Revolutionary American colonists, who labored under an indifferent ruling class that looted the people's wealth and that left them few lawful means of redress. Today, citizen shareholders vote for referenda that company leaders ignore; they are represented by people whom they have no say in choosing.

Unhappy shareholders, like the colonists, have two choices. One is to simply invest their money somewhere else - the shareholder equivalent of going into exile. The other is to rebel in the hope of taking control. Few shareholders in the past have had the stomach for such a fight. But open a window on Wall Street today, and you can smell gunpowder in the air."

Editor's Note: see related interview Lynn Stout, proponent of the "team production" model of corporate governance, which stands in contrast to the shareholder-primacy model.
http://www.conference-board.org/articles/atb_article.cfm?id=250

Workplace violence is seldom the freak episode that the media portrays it to be. Read what Dr. Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist, says you should be on the lookout for.