Are all the companies that supposedly go from good to great really that great after all? Or, are they merely one of a pack of pretty average performers? As these authors state, those really great companies may only be putatively great, successful but only in a middling sort of way. The authors studied the popular literature on “great” performing companies and came to their own, original conclusions.

Some companies excel at generating ideas for new products. Other companies are good at rapidly bringing new products to market or staying within budget. However, only product development masters do all of these things well. Referring to new research, Accenture discusses product development mastery and the rewards that mastery often engenders.

Managers want to have their instincts validated before they act, such as waiting until all the data have been gathered before they launch a product. But relying on the tried and true doesn’t always serve managers well, especially when it comes to organic growth. The question of “Will it fly?” can be answered only by letting it fly – by launching the particular product and listening to the market respond. Growth leaders don’t do traditional research. As these authors explain, growth leaders win by placing small bets fast.

A recent McKinsey Global Survey shows that companies are satisfied, overall, with their use of metrics to assess innovation portfolios - though many findings suggest that they shouldn't be. The companies that get the highest returns from innovation do use metrics well; these organizations tend to assess innovation more comprehensively than the others.

Irrational thinking doesn’t just affect individual economic decisions; it affects corporate strategic planning as well. These results highlight the practices of companies that have made successful strategic decisions—and also reveal what the same companies have gotten wrong.

Plenty of lessons can be learned from the glut of businesses that have fallen under the swift sword of a merciless recession. Yet according to authors Paul B. Carroll and Chunka Mui, executives continue to make the same mistakes that defeated their predecessors. In Billion-Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years, Carroll and Mui draw on research into more than 750 business failures to reveal the misguided tactics that mire companies.

Executives say innovation is very important, but their companies’ approach to it is often informal, and leaders lack confidence in their innovation decisions. Top managers and other professionals agree that the biggest challenge is talent but disagree on why. Nonetheless, executives agree on some steps to improve innovation.

The 7 secrets of really, really lucky companies.

A recent McKinsey Global Survey shows that companies are satisfied, overall, with their use of metrics to assess innovation portfolios—though many findings suggest that they shouldn’t be. The companies that get the highest returns from innovation do use metrics well; these organizations tend to assess innovation more comprehensively than the others.

In the days of old: circa 2007, social-media marketing meant monitoring the blogosphere and managing forums, but today marketers are jumping in by actively creating and managing brand communities. Dave Balter is the founder and CEO of BzzAgent, a word-of-mouth media network headquartered in Boston. His company recently launched BzzScapes, a network of brand-centric communities, created by advocates and dedicated to the collection and ranking of the most relevant digital content for each brand.

Guy Kawaskai asked him what it takes to create a truly exceptional brand community, and these are his top ten tips.

A survey shows a strong correlation between financial performance and best practices for managing talent globally.

In today’s environment win/loss analysis is something any company can do to bolster revenue efforts; yet many companies fail to do this work. When done properly win/loss analysis provides clarity and insights into customers’ perceptions of your product, experience throughout the sales cycle, and expectations created by your company messaging. Institutionalizing win/loss analysis will create requirements to product development, feedback about messaging to marketing, and may help uncover new sales strategies and initiatives. For win/loss analysis to be beneficial it needs to be done in a timely fashion with accuracy and objectivity.

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.

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.

When it comes to appraising performance-appraisal systems, why do so many companies score so low?

Rather than guaranteeing employment security, many firms now claim to provide opportunities for employees to accumulate skills and experiences that both improve company performance and enhance employees' employability in the labor market. This “employability approach” encourages and often expects individuals to take greater personal responsibility for their careers.

Since many believe that the employability approach allows, and even invites, the loss of talent, organizations are often hesitant to invest to make their employees more marketable. According to this argument, any investments in employees’ general skills and marketable competencies will increase people’s value in the external labor market and presumably their likelihood of leaving.

In this report, the authors explain that their research prompts the opposite conclusion. In a global study of managers and executives, they found that organizations can strengthen their executives’ intentions to stay by equipping them to leave. Their counterintuitive conclusion: the best way to ensure that critical talent doesn’t leave is by providing experiences and opportunities that truly enhance their value and employability in the external labor market.

Most M&A experts and merger integration managers would agree that a successful outcome from any single merger or acquisition is far from certain. Studies repeatedly confirm that half of all business "marriages" fail. Yet when M&As work, they create significant value - as demonstrated by the 50 percent of corporate unions that succeed. The secret to their odds-beating success? Strong leadership combined with professional execution and the pursuit of growth, right from the start.

A decade after our first study on merger integration, A.T. Kearney has revisited the topic and discovered new insights into what makes for a successful merger integration. Among our conclusions: Some of the most commonly accepted wisdom surrounding M&A strategy needs to be revised.

"No company is created to fail. Yet the odds are stacked against corporations surviving more than a few decades. Many once-greats are dying a slow death, losing much of what made them superior. Others have expired quickly. And new research shows that many more are starting to atrophy as their leaders turn their focus to managing complexity--and away from leading for the future. A new, nine-element framework can help you diagnose your organization’s health--and address the factors that increase corporate life expectancy."

Executives understand that it's important to monitor and improve the long-term health of their companies, but rarely do. Here's how they can practice what they preach.

Inc. magazine offers a list of suggestions for selecting, attracting, and running a good board of advisers.

Lo and behold, contests actually work to spur innovation. So should we use them for everything?

Executives say their companies could be a lot more effective at developing a strategy and implementing strategic plans, and they suggest some areas for improvement.

Why you should learn to love checking boxes.

Call it a trial by fire, but a recession may in fact be good for your company.

Few large global companies outperform their competitors on both revenue growth and profitability over a decade. Do those that do have anything else in common?

Editor's Note: article available via BetterManagement.com, but requires free account...