Articles

Even the most price-conscious online shoppers are willing to pay a premium for brands they trust.

New research confirms that workers everywhere have the same needs.

Managers don't need to be told that globalization is accelerating, that new technologies are proliferating or that change is the only constant. Nor do they need anyone to point out how difficult it is for organizations to keep adapting to all the change. They have lived that story. What they may not realize, however, is the extent to which they may be the stumbling blocks to their organizations' transformation and growth. That is because the personal assumptions that undermine their decision making are often quite unconscious. Recent research shows that despite the genuineness and dedication of executives' attempts to manage change, "social projection," or the "false-consensus effect," keeps getting in the way. Projection involves making intuitive judgments about other people and places on the basis of one's own beliefs, knowledge and experience rather than on anything objective about the particular people or places. It leads to overestimating consensus, undervaluing objective assessments or different views, turning away constructive feedback and taking on new ventures without reaching consensus -- a dangerous scenario. Authors Robert L. Cross, a lecturer in the organizational behavior department at Boston University and a research fellow at IBM's Institute for Knowledge Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Susan E. Brodt, a professor of management at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, use industry examples to support their concrete advice on how to tackle the detrimental effects of projection. They suggest techniques such as creating and maintaining an individual's awareness of projection, practicing looking at ideas from a different perspective, encouraging conflict, and disentangling self-worth from consensus. Because well-honed intuitive judgment is an executive necessity, no manager should let it fall prey to projection. After managers have learned to identify that invisible barrier, they can gain insight into the workings of their own minds and make sense of others' actions. Having done so, they will be able to move ahead in implementing change while managing organizations that can excel in the global arena.

Integrating design and manufacturing helps, but only if the & #x0201C;fit” is right.

Many firms know about their customers, but few know the customers themselves or how to get new ones. Leaders in customer-knowledge management go beyond transaction data, using a mix of techniques, and they aren't afraid to tackle difficult problems. Davenport, director of the Institute for Strategic Change, Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) and coauthors Harris, also from Accenture, and Kohli, professor of marketing at Emory University, report results from interviews with 24 leading firms and describe seven practices that the leaders share. The companies interviewed -- including Harley-Davidson, Procter & ; Gamble, and Wachovia Bank -- have undertaken specific and successful initiatives centered around the management of customer knowledge. Within the seven practices, two results stand out: First, firms are beginning to rely more on data from actual interactions, such as sales and service. They are learning that customers are more than transactions, and they are seeking creative ways to turn data from these interactions -- human data -- into knowledge. Second, even the most ambitious firms are keeping data from different approaches separate. They are not accepting the notion of an integrated data repository. Focus on the most valued customers. Know which customers are worth the organization's resources. Prioritize objectives. Successful firms begin all customer-knowledge management initiatives by prioritizing business strategies and customer-relationship objectives. They know which customers to focus on and what new behaviors the customers should exhibit. Aim for the optimal knowledge mix. There's no single solution to knowledge management. Use a variety of approaches. Don't use one repository for all data. The fully integrated customer-knowledge environment seems more an intriguing idea than a practical reality. Diverse forms of information are difficult to combine in one set of database records, and firms risk having a departing employee walk away with highly developed knowledge. Consequently, customer data is fragmented across multiple systems and locations. No one has been able to combine hard (transaction-based) and soft knowledge in one customer database. Think creatively about human knowledge. This is the main practice that separates the leaders from the laggards. We saw many creative solutions to managing both explicit (documented and accessible) and tacit (understood but undocumented and not accessible) knowledge. Look at the broader context. Customer-knowledge initiatives do not exist in a vacuum. Their success depends on the organization's roles and responsibilities, the workplace culture, and the organizational structure. Establish a process and tools. Many firms seem to stop working when they've selected a management strategy -- avoiding the planning that is critical to implementation. The leading firms work hard to deliberately manage customer knowledge, using a defined process and creating tools as needed.

In many ways, the industrial age has been an era of harvesting natural and social capital in order to create financial and productive capital. So far, the New Economy looks more like the next wave of the industrial era than a truly postindustrial one. Why should we care? Because, say the authors, the basic development patterns of the industrial era are not sustainable. In the face of this challenge, organizational-learning expert Peter Senge and former Volvo and IKEA senior executive Goran Carstedt hail the emergence of a new environmentalism driven by innovation, not regulation & #8212; radical new technologies, products, processes and business models. They describe how more and more companies are recognizing the business opportunities that a focus on sustainability creates. Such a shift in thinking is already evident in many companies and industries. Xerox employed “zero-waste-to-landfill” engineering to develop its 90% remanufacturable Document Centre 265 copier. Interface Inc. is no longer just a maker of commercial carpet tiles, but now & #8212; as a provider of “floor-covering services” & #8212; leases products and later recycles them completely. Such companies are applying learning-organization principles to create sustainable business models. Simultaneously, they become inspirational, energetic places to work, where even relationships with customers and suppliers improve. Nonetheless, ecoefficiency alone will not create a truly postindustrial age. Ecoefficiency gains are laudable but dangerously incomplete, say the authors, as is any strategy that fails to consider how the economic system affects the larger ecological and social systems within which it resides. Only a more integrated view will enable companies to innovate for long-term profitability and sustainability. Industrial-age systems follow a linear flow of extract, produce, sell, use, discard: the “take-make-waste” approach to economic growth. A systemic approach would reduce all sources of waste: from production, use and disposal. How can managers adapt? In stark contrast to industrial-age, command-and-control management methods are the three core competencies that learning organizations must master to profit from sustainability. First, they must encourage systemic thinking so that they can sense the emerging future. Second, they must convene strategic conversations with investors, customers, suppliers and even competitors to build the trust needed to change outmoded mental models about what business success is. Finally, they must take the lead in reshaping economic, political and societal forces that stymie change. True learning organizations stand out by championing business models that foster sustainable growth. According to Senge and Carstedt, no time in history has afforded greater possibilities for a collective change in direction.