September–October 1999

A creative new approach to org charts helps managers see critical relationships—and competitive opportunities, too.

In these days of talent wars, the best way to keep your stars is to know them better than they know themselves—and then use that information to customize the careers of their dreams.

A pioneer of cause-related marketing explains how to make it pay off—for the company and for the charity.

Now that providing services is more lucrative than making products, the old foundations for success in manufacturing are crumbling. Smart manufacturers are creating new business models to capture profits at the customer’s end of the value chain.

The Toyota story has been intensively researched and painstakingly documented, yet what really happens inside the company remains a mystery. Here’s new insight into the unspoken rules that give Toyota its competitive edge.

A new mapping technique reveals patterns and suggests strategies.

Companies say they want breakthrough products, but most are far more adept at making incremental improvements to existing lines. A pioneering division at 3M successfully navigated a process that leads to breakthrough thinking.

The artistic director of the Big Apple Circus knows a thing or two about managing diverse teams.

Many high-tech companies looking for hot new products have caught acquisition fever. Smart buyers keep their eye on building the right long-term capabilities, which often means keeping the right people.

With a keen eye and a flair for romantic copy, John Peterman created a successful catalog company. As an entrepreneur, he was in his element. As top manager of a fast-growing enterprise, he was ultimately much less successful. What happened?

In Silicon Valley, exciting new business ideas rapidly attract capital and talent away from less worthy ventures. But in big companies, ideas, capital, and talent are stagnant—prisoners of traditional bureaucratic ways of allocating resources. To capture the Valley’s entrepreneurial magic, your company needs to move from resource allocation to resource attraction.

A company’s software is becoming a critical source of competitive advantage and competitive risk. Yet few managers can agree on the key variables for judging its quality. Here’s a new framework for doing just that.

Many negotiations collapse over differences of opinion about how the future will unfold. Companies need to realize that it’s often better to bet on uncertain events than to argue about them.

The new economy has brought prosperity to many, but not to all. If the income gap continues to widen, politicians will take action—and business will bear the brunt.

Joe Ryan turned a small-town cosmetics company into a national powerhouse, making employees happy and shareholders rich in the process. Does it really matter that he cheats on his wife?

The World Bank’s African Virtual University is bringing knowledge to an undereducated continent—via satellite.

The products of an ambitious MIT study could help you reshape your business.