During the long downturn in R&D productivity, a handful of biopharmaceutical companies have consistently bucked the trend. How did they manage it? After all, they have experienced the same industry pressures as their peers - pressures such as lengthier R&D cycle times, higher costs of failure, and sharper regulatory scrutiny.
A sales manager recently spoke about an embarrassing scene that unfolded before an important client meeting. "Two teams from our firm were waiting in the lobby when the client walked in, and the groups didn't recognize each other. What a contradiction of our promise to provide integrated solutions! We looked like the Keystone Kops."
Operating ethically and operating profitably are no longer mutually exclusive concepts. Leading companies are "walking the walk," balancing the goal of achieving profitability with gaining social and environmental advantages.
Shining today, gone tomorrow? For every Apple, there is an Atari, for every Fuji a Polaroid, and for every Netflix a Blockbuster. It's harder to stay on top than to get there. How can you avoid the seemingly inevitable and become an "evergreen" corporation?
Factories don't just make things. Viewed properly, they are where the rubber of corporate strategy meets the road of the marketplace. Ideally, then, a factory should operate in alignment with competitive business priorities: in short, it should be focused. When a business tries to group too many different products, markets, and technologies into the same manufacturing facility, performance and productivity suffer.
Firms that employ low-risk innovative initiatives produce valuable returns, while the most adept companies with a more aggressive innovation profile grow more quickly, says a survey by the National Center for the Middle Market (NCMM) and CPA firm Cherry Bekaert LLP.
Change management as it is traditionally applied is outdated. We know, for example, that 70 percent of change programs fail to achieve their goals, largely due to employee resistance and lack of management support. We also know that when people are truly invested in change it is 30 percent more likely to stick.
To build advantage, organizations must do more than just change. They must transform. As technology's role in business becomes ever more important, transformations will increasingly be underpinned by significant technology programs. In such technology-enabled transformations, IT leaders need two different strategies to ensure success.
As the pace of business accelerates and competition intensifies, companies in virtually all industries are confronting greater uncertainty and complexity. In the face of such challenges, HR has the potential to be a significant strategic asset by ensuring that companies have the human capital they need to compete and the ability to react fast to changing environments.
Despite a concerted push to expand their overseas presence in recent decades, few companies are ready to build and run truly global organizations and operations, according to a survey of executives conducted jointly by The Boston Consulting Group and IMD business school.
