Articles

CIOs seeking advice on new software process technologies can learn from other domains.

Many business analysts have attributed the loss of U.S. market share in the semiconductor industry to unfair Japanese practices, including trade barriers and "dumping" of goods in export markets. Egelhoff draws from a study of sample semiconductor firms to argue that the market share losses have also been influenced by the distinctly different competitive modes that U.S. and Japanese firms use. U.S. firms tend to compete by developing a unique business strategy; Japanese firms tend to compete by implementing not-so-unique strategies better than anyone else. He shows how these two competitive styles have implications for a range of business activities and for other global industries as well.

One of the most enduring ideas of organization theory is that an organization's structure and management process must "fit" its environment, in the same way that a particular horse might be more suited to one course than another. Ghoshal and Nohria show the continued relevance of this classic insight for the organization of multinational corporations. They offer a simple scheme to classify the environment and structure of MNCs. Then, based on data on forty-one large MNCs, they show how some combinations of environment and structure fir better than others. What drives fit is the principle of requisite complexity -- the complexity of a firm's structure must match the complexity of its environment. Though developed for MNCs, their argument can also apply to multidivisional firms that operate in different markets or business segments.

If you put a dog in a green room and give it electric shocks, it learns to steer clear of that room. But what if the green room is organizational change, and people are so afraid of past experiences with it that they won't try anything new? In this article, Schein unravels the key psychological elements that inhibit or promote change. His primary goal is to help organizations not only to change, but to change faster, in order to keep up with the rapidly shifting environment. He begins with abstract concepts of learning and then outlines a change management procedure that leaders can use to help their organizations change and, ultimately, to develop perpetually learning organizations. This paper is based on an invited address to the World Economic Forum, 6 February 1992, Davos, Switzerland.

Shouldn't quantitative analysis -- the results of which influence many managerial decisions -- be held to "total quality" and "zero defect" standards? The author suggests that managers become exacting consumers of quantitative analysis, demanding and creating the proper environment for a high-quality product without logical or methodological defects. He shows managers how they can become more effective users of analysis, he identifies the ingredients of a sound quantitative analysis methodology, and he recommends ways to improve the quality of analysis in organizations.

What is the U.S. military to do now that the Soviet enemy is gone? This author makes some concrete suggestions for a dual-use military that would combat external threats like nuclear and biological warfare but, at the same time, help develop struggling nations, provide disaster relief, and deal with inner-city problems.

Changes in U.S. demographics demand rethinking the assumptions on which the current career system is based.

How do human resource practices contribute to strategy development and implementation? The authors argue that they play a major constitutive role. Human resource management occurs at all levels or organizations and, increasingly, outside organizations, as companies manage relationships with free-lancers, consultants, and suppliers. The authors show how innovative human resource practices have been involved in the strategic success of a number of Italian companies. They discuss the need for new skills, new policies, and new human resource management structures.

Managers who are struggling to make investment decisions during this recession may find it hard to take financial risks. Ghemawat argues that you must consider the competitive risks of not investing as well as the financial risks of investing. In his 1991 book, "Commitment: The Dynamic of Strategy" (New York: Free Press), he describes this problem in general. Here, he tackles the problem of balancing financial and competitive risks when it becomes most difficult at the bottom of the business cycle.

Business process redesign has focused almost exclusively on improving the firm's internal operations. Although internal efficiency and effectiveness are important objectives, the authors agree that business network redesign -- reconceptualizing the role of the firm and its key business processes in the larger business network -- is of greater strategic importance. To support their argument, they analyze the evolution of Baxter's ASAP system, one of the most publicized but inadequately understood strategic information systems of the 1980s. They conclude by examining whether ASAP's early successes have positioned the firm well for the changing hospital supplies marketplace of the 1990s.