Companies can struggle to stay competitive when they have too many similar-minded employees. Yet a new BCG/EAPM survey shows that many companies still frame workforce diversity in terms of legal compliance. Tailored diversity measures should be employed for business reasons—to deliver better products, improve innovation, or make the organization more agile. Authors: Jean-Michel Caye, Caroline Teichmann, Rainer Strack, Pieter Haen, Stephanie Bird, Gerold Frick

Since the advent of the Internet, firms have enjoyed unprecedented flexibility to reveal information to competitors, customers, and suppliers. In this new technological environment, firms can implement transparency strategies by using information strategically to compete. In the online travel sector, for example, the business strategy of meta-search travel agents like Kayak is to provide a comprehensive view of products and prices to travelers. Other companies, like Priceline, use opaque mechanisms to conceal product features until after purchase. This article offers foundations and guidelines for sound transparency strategies that are the result of over six years of field observations and empirical research.

To improve manufacturing operations, don’t forget to fix the organizational issues that can hinder performance. These guidelines can help your company choose the optimal manufacturing setup, based on such factors as your industry, markets, customers, products, internal capabilities, competitive position, and overall strategy. Also included: tactics for managing the inevitable tradeoffs.

Every corporate downsizing event has certain predictable outcomes such as feelings of betrayal, loss of trust, turf battles, and cynicism about the corporation’s future. This typically leads to a widespread lack of commitment throughout the organization. But downsizing can also bring significant opportunities for creating new energy and enthusiasm which often go unrecognized.

In today’s interconnected economy, some companies are so central that their failure would cause significant disruptions to the economy and to society as a whole. In order to avoid the imposition of regulatory constraints on their business, such systemically important companies need to take a broader approach to value creation.

The methods used by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to promote health in a West Virginia city can also be used to raise organizational performance.

How conjoint analysis, a tried-and-true market research tool, can be used to support organic growth.

Ever since Bruce Henderson introduced the growth-share matrix, corporate portfolio management has been a big part of the CEO agenda. But a recent BCG survey, conducted with Freiberg University in Germany, reveals a major gap between the effort companies put into portfolio management and its impact on corporate decision-making.

Editor's Note: includes and excellent overview of CPM including history and common criticisms.

Day-traders might say the Dow’s direction depends on the morning’s news. Pundits may cite the next winner of the Super Bowl or the political party of the next elected president. Fundamental analysts might say it depends on earnings growth. The DJIA is swayed both by economic and non-economic factors. This article estimates what portion of the Dow is economically driven and what portion is not explained by economic forces.

Editor's Note: this article is less topical than it sounds

Despite years of cutbacks, many companies’ pay structures are still unbalanced. Here’s a dispassionate, logical way to realign them.

The decisions made by powerful people in business and other fields have far-reaching effects on their organizations and employees. But this paper from Kelly E. See, Elizabeth Wolfe Morrison, Naomi B. Rothman, and Jack B. Soll finds a link between having a sense of power and having a propensity to give short shrift to a crucial part of the decision-making process: listening to advice. Power increases confidence, the paper’s authors say, which can lead to an excessive belief in one’s own judgment and ultimately to flawed decisions.

As organizations become increasingly global in scope and complex in structure, decisions that need to be made are often left unresolved. People who should be collaborating instead circle around one another warily. A tool known as a role charter can help ensure both effective decision-making and collaboration.

Whether we are dealing with business, global diplomacy, or family matters, we are all perplexed by the complexity of ethics in negotiation. This article introduces a simple, straightforward exercise that can lead to very meaningful discussions regarding ethics, negotiation tactics, and the ramifications and effectiveness of the implementation of those tactics and ethical decisions.

The average company spends 23 cents out of every dollar of revenue on overhead, yet most firms lack a plan or system for managing the spending for greater value. Managerial attention to overhead tends to be sporadic and is often driven by the need to cut costs in the near-term. Even if short-term cost reductions are achieved, companies then find themselves tied to a roller-coaster cycle of cost-cutting, costs creeping back over several years, and then cost-cutting again. Companies that get off the roller coaster will discover not only that financial markets rewards better overhead management, but also that changing the very way they view and manage overhead can significantly increase the return they get for every dollar invested in it

Louis Carter introduces a lesson on the best practices mind-set from The Responsible Business: Reimagining Sustainability and Success, by Carol Sanford.

Contrary to popular belief, serial acquirers create less value on average than companies that rarely do M&A, according to a BCG analysis of more than 26,000 deals. But the top serial acquirers generate superior value by focusing on the right targets at the right time. Contributors: Jens Kengelbach, Dominic C. Klemmer, Dr. Bernhard Schwetzler, Dr. Marco O. Sperling, Alexander Roos.

Here are the 4 key cultural elements all high-performing organizations must have - and how leadership can support them.

Managers have made numerous attempts to increase the understanding of how IT operates, and more importantly, how IT can be used to leverage the business and provide a competitive advantage for the firm. IT managers need to assess their capabilities by asking the following questions:
1) Are IT managers able to support the firm in obtaining its objectives?
2) Are they capable of keeping up with the constantly changing market environment?
3) Are they up to date on the latest and greatest technology trends and offerings to the marketplace?
4) Are they flexible enough to understand and lead business process changes as needed?
5) Are they capable of judiciously helping to manage the firm’s risk?

Combining agile up-front processes with a lean approach to the back end can help companies outperform the competition.

Excellent customer service is a critical success factor for businesses across all industries. But how many organizations can really claim to be giving fantastic, WOW factor customer service across all customer touch points?

Given the instability and unpredictability of the new global reality, companies must learn to be as agile and adaptable as possible. In this new era of heightened economic volatility, planning becomes more, rather than less, critical. BCG highlights ten guiding principles for improving effectiveness and efficiency in the planning process.

Guy Kawasaki and Bill Reichert offer a downloadable excel spreadsheet model for financial forecasts that can be used when pitching a new venture. Also included is useful discussion about the goals for such financial projections.

Business leaders manage goals by setting and systematically striving to achieve them. While management and organizational researchers have laid the groundwork for goal management, the emerging field of Positive Psychology appears to offer many additional findings and insights that will help managerial leaders be more effective as they define and pursue goals. Factors such as character strengths, optimism, and resilience can play significant roles in how well goals are managed. In the end, a managerial leader’s ability to make wise choices and to implement pathways that lead to attaining desired goals is critical to success. Drawing from the field of Positive Psychology, this article provides guidance to help you more effectively manage goals by focusing on such factors as personal values, persistence, and confidence.

How Eric Ries developed a scientific method for launching profitable companies

Entrepreneurship is widely recognized as one of the most important drivers of economic growth. But it’s also risky: The majority of new ventures fail, and many end in bankruptcy. Given that track record, when entrepreneurs consider a new international market, they regularly weigh such factors as logistics and differences in cultural attitudes and financial regulations.

But according to this paper, business owners would do well to also consider another crucial but potentially uncomfortable issue: Are the country’s bankruptcy laws friendly or onerous to entrepreneurs?