Balancing relationship building and opportunism leads to a strategy for all seasons.

Knowing how to determine the credit-worthiness of your customers may help save your business.

Editor's Note: this article is basically a look at the Z-score Model of Edward Altman...

Corporations aren't alone in focusing on governance; rigorous oversight of management and performance is increasingly important for nonprofits too.

Yes, you understand your company needs to compete in emerging markets. But which country is the best fit for you? A Harvard Business Review excerpt.

Originally developed as a performance measurement tool, the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) has increasingly become associated with strategy implementation in both the private and public sectors. A recent report co-produced by INSEAD and the UK-based Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) details the most recent developments in BSC applications, particularly in the key role of strategy mapping.

The task of the strategist has gotten more difficult. Opportunities are more dynamic and shorter-lived. The palette of strategic options has grown more complex. And the traditional pillars of strategy, such as scale and market share, have lost their ability to reliably support long-term value growth.

In this world of shifting profit zones, Wall Street's expectation of sustained growth represents one of the few constants. Yet, surprisingly few firms have a clear, well-communicated, and broadly internalized agenda for how to meet these expectations. Managers need a short, coherent list of initiatives to mobilize the organization and tell outside stakeholders where the company is headed.

Value growth opportunities lie in many places. You can realign your cost structure, deepen customer relationships, launch a new business, rebalance your portfolio, or transform your organization. Identifying the best opportunities, setting a value growth agenda, and making it the driving force of the enterprise is the most pressing responsibility of business leaders today.

In his new book, According to Kotler, Phil Kotler gives a summary of the key principles of marketing and how they relate to current events such as corporate accounting scandals, outsourcing, globalization, warehouse shopping and online marketing.

Here is an excerpt of it, based on the thousands of questions Kotler has been asked over the years by clients, students, business audiences, and journalists.

Executives who understand their work in terms of a flow of information are still a very small minority. Most of us continue to use computers primarily to do things we have always done - that is, to crunch numbers. Information - which means the right knowledge to take effective action - is still something more talked about than used, partly because one cannot simply convert data into information. Data are just one source of information.

Editor's Note: I am a big fan of Drucker's writings and am always amazed at how many of his insights have long-lasting value. Witness this piece, written in 1990, still every bit as relevant...

An accurate understanding of an organization's value logic (which can also be thought of as its business model) is critical. Accenture's research into distinctive capabilities, one of the building blocks of high-performance business, shows that a company's ability to create a customer-centric "value algorithm" is central to the business's success. At the highest level, a company's value logic can provide important insights that enable a company to construct a unique value algorithm.

The value-chain business model was jointly developed in the 1980s by Harvard Business School's Michael Porter and Accenture. It aptly described the value-creating activities of most 1980s-era public companies. However, in the last 25 years the economy has been undergoing a metamorphosis-from an industrial economy to a more intangible-intensive one. Intangible-intensive companies differ significantly in their "value logic"-the way they create value-from most asset-heavy companies. Accenture Institute research has determined that 44 percent of the companies in the S&P 500 already obtain a significant component of their business value from one of two alternative business models:

* Value shops create solutions to external business problems by mobilizing the right mix of resources (human, monetary, information) with the right skill sets to properly diagnose and ultimately solve a particular problem creatively and quickly.

* Value networks bring buyers and sellers together for the exchange of goods via some network-based communication and mediation system. Value is created by identifying new customer sets for sellers and vice versa, with the types of products those customers are looking to spend money on.

This report explains the differences between the three value logics, explores the risks associated with shops and networks and discusses the management implications of each model.

In recent years, productivity-enhancing information technology has wrought significant changes in global labor markets. But the process may just be getting started.

The only practical, effective method of rectifying data problems is through the use of next-generation data quality tools and processes, which can do more than correct data errors and render disconnected information meaningful. Such data quality tools can also keep information clean and consistent on an ongoing basis. For this, an organization should consider a data management solution that includes a tightly integrated data quality tool set and processes that provide cleansing, parsing, standardization, matching and linking, and householding.

A particularly insightful way to look into the subject of management is to view it from the subordinate's perspective. What considerations are important in the M-A-N-A-G-E-M-E-N-T of employees?

For any enterprise to succeed, the organization, its strategy and its human resources must be aligned together. Here is a framework that would help managers to understand the need for an organizational structure change. The paper also provides a roadmap for selecting the best structure option and building a plan to implement it. A sample diagram is given only for the managers to ensure that all possible causes of organization ailments are explored before deciding that organization structure change is the only solution. The paper also gives a few tips for the managers before opting for an organizational structure change. Pros and Cons, critical success factors are also elucidated for the benefits of the managers. [BNET annotation]

Companies have spent a lot of money to comply with ISO's popular management standards. Now, many wonder why they bothered.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) give management a tool to judge the health of the business. While the concept has proven itself, a key question should be "what do we measure?" The Perfect Order measurement has proven to be a powerful measurement of the business. Should The Perfect Order be defined from an internal point of view or from a customer point of view ...inside-out or outside-in?

How will you find the new generation of US millionaires? By getting to know today's millionaires. With their distinct attitudes and motivations, they foreshadow the millionaires of the future.

Crisis planning for a recession can do more than help your company weather the storm. It can also present key strategic opportunities for those with cash flow and the vision to recognize them. BCG's Daniel Stelter outlines the important steps and equally important mindset that can help a company emerge from an economic slow-down better positioned both to build its market share and to boost its bottom line.

The demand to make marketing more accountable becomes more insistent every year. Progress is slow. But marketers expect that market mix models will demystify marketing's impact. The statistical techniques behind these models have begun to untangle the effects of multiple media and marketing elements in driving sales, but they haven't totally untied the marketing measurement Gordian knot.

Editor's Note: contains the results of a survey of members of The Association of National Advertisers

Do you know how to find strength in numbers? The secret, according to this article, is to agree on the substance of the negotiation, then identify, leverage, and smoothly coordinate each team member's unique abilities.

Decision making can often result in managerial missteps, even those decisions that involve ethical considerations. Many common themes emerge as we look at these problematic decisions. Most significantly, various cognitive processes that leaders often unwittingly employ and which may be called "mental gymnastics" or mind games may serve to support and sustain unethical behavior.

If you have 40 minutes and want to learn a great deal about finance, listen (and/or watch) Rene Stulz's presidential address. He gave this at the 2005 AFA meetings in Philadelphia.

The basic theme of his speech is globalization. He points out that the world is not yet flat and the "impact of financial globabilization has been limited." Why? "...because of the 'twin agency problems' that arise because rulers of sovereign states and corporate insiders pursue their own interests at the expense of outside investors. When these twin agency problems are significant, diffuse ownership is inefficient and corporate insiders must co-invest with other investors, retaining substantial equity. The resulting ownership concentration limits economic growth, financial development, and the ability of a country to take advantage of financial globalization."

VERY interesting! [FinanceProfessor Annotation]

The specter of China and it's massive fleet of low-cost laborers haunts developing economies worldwide. However, for middle-income countries, focusing on cheap labor is not the answer for sustained economic growth, according to The McKinsey Quarterly. Using Mexico as a basis for discussion, this report offers alternative strategies for successful competition. More effective routes to economic development involve transitioning to higher-value-added industries, exploiting comparative advantage, and pursuing reforms that increase entrepreneurship and encourage competition. In short, middle-income countries would do best to avoid panicked responses to offshoring; as the authors warn, "Don't overestimate the value of low-wage employment.

Google may lead in Web searches, but investment in emerging technologies will open up new ways of searching digital information.

In the literary world, "good writing" may be notoriously difficult to define. But on the Web, good copy has two clear, easily understood objectives: It elevates your search engine rankings, and it attracts qualified traffic and holds the attention of your prospects and customers.

On the Web, your words carry a lot of weight. Fortunately, you can build verbal muscle, fast.

Following are five tips you can apply right now (with a minimum of time or technical hassle) to dramatically improve the effectiveness of your Web site writing.

CEOs and board of directors are often unprepared for the difficulties of succession. With so much at stake for different stakeholders, politics and emotions come into play and can derail the effort.

Conducted effectively, the succession process creates a smooth transition from one CEO to the next with positive outcomes for the company and all stakeholders concerned. While every succession situation is unique, an effective process generally proceeds through four phases:

Situation assessment--deciding the timing of succession, determining the criteria for selection, and developing the candidates

Engagement--when the CEO and board determine their respective roles, whether an external search is needed, and what the impact will be on the senior team

Search and selection--Decisions need to be made about how public or private the search is, its scope, intensity, duration, and whether or not to use search firms. It's critical to avoid either searching for a corporate savior or ignoring evidence that a significant change in leadership direction is required.

Transition--creating a connection between the new leader and employees, key customers, analysts, and other stakeholders.

To manage the process for more productive results and a higher return to investors, CEOs need to plan carefully; be objective in their assessment of the company's leadership needs; pay attention to the rational, political, and emotional elements of the process; and thoughtfully craft a plan for their transition.