CEOs look constantly for areas where they can improve performance. Yet, as a comprehensive, two-year research study shows, many overlook one of the richest and most readily available targets for improvement: their own top management teams (TMTs).

Why? Because a significant number of CEOs remain unaware of the high level of dysfunction on those teams. Our research not only uncovered the striking difference of perception between CEOs and their teams, but also contradicts some of the conventional wisdom about what really makes such teams effective. Based on the study’s findings, there are five levers that CEOs can pull to ensure a high-performing top management team.

As a neuropsychiatrist who studies the differences between male and female brains, I’m often asked whether such differences play a role in professional achievement—and particularly, in men’s dominance of the highest ranks of many fields. Male and female brains are more alike than not, and business’s famous glass ceiling has nothing to do with raw intellect. Yet the distinct demands that are put on men’s and women’s brains at key career phases may help explain the gender inequality in top management.

Can asking a question in an ad increase sales?

A question is a tool. And as with any tool, any copywriting strategy or tactic, if a question is not formulated and handled with proper caution it could indeed do immeasurably more harm than good.

How to decide if a deal makes sense? We've put together an assessment questionnaire to help you think through the various dimensions of an M&A decision. The questionnaire is no magic bullet, nor is it a substitute for the hard thinking that must go into a formal due-diligence process. But in just a few minutes, it could provide an early indication of whether you're on the right track - or heading for an M&A disaster.

True power requires modesty and empathy, not force and coercion, argues Dacher Keltner. But what people want from leaders—social intelligence—is what is damaged by the experience of power. [Hat Tip to Seth Levine, Brad Feld]

In these volatile times, achieving consistently outstanding performance in business has never been more important. IESE's Federico Marinelli looks for - and finds - a clear pattern behind sustained performance among diversified companies. His fresh approach to the diversification issue also distinguishes between successful companies that consistently outperform their industry and beat the market indices - and their less fortunate brethren.

Do you notice when someone changes the subject after you ask them a question? If you don't always notice or even mind such conversational transformations, you're not alone. New research by Todd Rogers and Harvard Business School professor Michael I. Norton explores the common occurrence of "conversational blindness." Q&A with Rogers.

If you're serious about building an effective configuration management service, you'll need to consider who will accomplish 10 key functions. Here's a brief rundown of the essential roles that should be covered by your configuration management team.

Scenarios serve two purposes, both of which are essential to connecting the strategy and knowledge challenges. First, scenarios foster preparedness. That is, they allow managers to anticipate a range of potential futures, and to get ready for them before they occur. Second, scenarios afford managers a forum in which to consider and determine what they would do were each future to materialize. [Hat Tip to themanager.org]

With respect to the imprecision in defining M&A best practices, we want to highlight the extent to which maxims about effective deal management can be misconstrued or twisted in ways that miss important points. Truisms espoused by academics and advisors, or shared among executives, can be less complete than they seem on the surface. When the margin for error is narrow, that can lead to trouble. The following examples are drawn from the M&A literature and from our experience both in conducting and researching M&A integration.

What are the sources of corporate growth? If you take a middle-of-the- road view of markets, as many executives do, the answers may surprise you: averaging out the different growth rates in an industry’s segments and sub-segments can produce a misleading view of its growth prospects.

Most so-called growth industries include sub-industries or segments that are not growing at all, while relatively mature industries often have segments that are growing rapidly. Broad terms such as “growth industry” and “mature industry,” while time-honored and convenient, can prove imprecise or even downright wrong upon closer analysis.

Our research on the revenue growth of large companies suggests that executives should “de-average” their view of markets and develop a granular perspective on trends, future growth rates and market structures. Insights into sub-industries, segments, categories and micro-markets are the building blocks of portfolio choice.

The Fall 2003 issue of Rotman magazine contains 68 pages of varying quality articles and other information. I personally recommend reading the following:
- Brand U: Why Branding Yourself makes Sense
- Knowing vs. Doing: Why Can’t We Get Anything Done? by Jeffrey Pfeffer
- The Race for Effectiveness: Is it Effective? by Hilary Austen
- Working With Emotional Intelligence by Stéphane Côté
- Making Your Mind Effective by Mihnea Moldoveanu
- Working with Emotional Intelligence by Prof. Stéphane Côté
- In Search of Power Equilibrium by Prof. Jennifer Berdahl

Formalizing a company’s ad hoc peer groups can spur collaboration and unlock value.

Procurement mastery—significantly outpacing competitors in areas such as sourcing, category management and supplier relationship management—can be immensely profitable and yet a surprising number of companies never implement a procurement-optimization effort. Accenture can help companies understand the nature of procurement mastery—how and why to achieve it, and how it contributes to high performance.

The Performance Prism is offered as being the next generation of business performance measurement and management framework. Its advantages over other frameworks are that it addresses all of an organization’s stakeholders – principally investors, customers, end-users, employees, suppliers, alliance partners, regulators and communities. It does this in two ways: by considering what the wants and needs of those stakeholders are and, uniquely, what the organization wants and needs from its stakeholders. In essence then, it examines the reciprocal relationship with each stakeholder. The Performance Prism then addresses the strategies, processes and capabilities that are needed in order to satisfy these two critical sets of wants and needs.

Alliances, whether in business or politics, require a foundation of trust. The great military historian Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War, said, “We cannot enter into alliances until we are acquainted with the designs of our neighbors.” Today, companies are being forced to consider alliances as a key component of their business strategy. As trade barriers disappear and new playing fields open up, there are opportunities to capture and competitive pressures to confront. Alliances have changed the very nature of business.

Bad hires can cost plenty. A new book proposes four deliberate steps to hiring the right person for your company's needs and culture.

In the Management feature of this edition, "Winning in emerging markets," Bain's Nicholas Bloch and Robert Schaus elaborate on six common practices that give consumer companies the edge over domestic competitors. Also in this issue: An editorial by Partner Jean-Charles van den Branden titled "Learning from the lucky 13" a guest interview with Robert Franssen, CEO, Allianz Belgium; and a look at a Bain toolkit on Revenue hunt.

Whenever I can, I include telemarketing as part of a comprehensive lead-generation program. When it comes to setting sales appointments, populating a database with decision-maker names, or filling seats at an event, there's no contact method that's more direct or more effective. The results of telemarketing are usually measurable, too, which is also a rare benefit for any campaign tactic.

But, actually, you can expect more from your telemarketing programs than appointment-setting and seat-filling. In fact, telemarketing can lend tremendous support to helping you achieve other aspects sales and marketing initiatives.

Sixty to 70 percent of U.S. acquisitions—even more in Europe and Asia—are private, yet there has been little research on M&A activity involving private firms. Most appraisers agree that a minority interest in a privately held company typically sells for less than a minority interest in a similar publicly traded company (a difference known as the discount for lack of marketability or “illiquidity discount”), and ample evidence exists to support the illiquidity discount for minority transactions. At the same time, appraisers disagree on whether such a discount should be applied to controlling interests of private companies.

Limited research on the subject has not yet suitably explained why private companies would sell under these disadvantageous terms.

Companies compete in a multi-polar world—an environment characterized by a new and more complex phase of increased economic interdependence across multiple centers of economic power and activities. Accenture research into global operations reveals that succeeding in this environment demands a new way of thinking about global operations. In particular, it points to five guiding principles that can position companies for high performance on this new global stage.

A carefully constructed change agent program is essential to any successful operational transformation.

A billion consumers around the world—neither affluent nor poor—spend just over $1 trillion a year. As much as a third goes for trading up to better products and premium brands. Yet most consumer businesses don’t know how to reach them or serve them profitably. Drawing from their survey of 15,000 next-billion consumers, the authors discuss how companies can achieve sustained competitive advantage by understanding the ways in which the next billion differ from consumers in other segments.

Myth: The Internet makes customers so well informed that they no longer need sales professionals to help them make business decisions.

Truth: The Internet frequently creates confusion and ignorance, thus producing a demand for highly-skilled sales professionals.

The Winter 2005 issue of Rotman magazine contains 100 pages of varying quality articles and other information. I personally recommend reading the following:
- Validity vs. Reliability: Implications for Management by Roger Martin
- The Evolution of the Design-Inspired Enterprise by Gabriella Lojacono and Gianfranco Zaccai
- Promoting Experimentation for Organizational Learning: The Mixed Effects of Inconsistency by Amy Edmondson
- Beyond Products: Designing the Brand Experience by David Dunne
- Questions for Malcolm Gladwell: Life after The Tipping Point