Showing papers in "Harvard Business Review in 2008"

The five competitive forces that shape strategy.

Abstract: In 1979, a young associate professor at Harvard Business School published his first article for HBR, "How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy." In the years that followed, Michael Porter's explication of the five forces that determine the long-run profitability of any industry has shaped a generation of academic research and business practice. In this article, Porter undertakes a thorough reaffirmation and extension of his classic work of strategy formulation, which includes substantial new sections showing how to put the five forces analysis into practice. The five forces govern the profit structure of an industry by determining how the economic value it creates is apportioned. That value may be drained away through the rivalry among existing competitors, of course, but it can also be bargained away through the power of suppliers or the power of customers or be constrained by the threat of new entrants or the threat of substitutes. Strategy can be viewed as building defenses against the competitive forces or as finding a position in an industry where the forces are weaker. Changes in the strength of the forces signal changes in the competitive landscape critical to ongoing strategy formulation. In exploring the implications of the five forces framework, Porter explains why a fast-growing industry is not always a profitable one, how eliminating today's competitors through mergers and acquisitions can reduce an industry's profit potential, how government policies play a role by changing the relative strength of the forces, and how to use the forces to understand complements. He then shows how a company can influence the key forces in its industry to create a more favorable structure for itself or to expand the pie altogether. The five forces reveal why industry profitability is what it is. Only by understanding them can a company incorporate industry conditions into strategy.

Reinventing Your Business Model

Abstract: When does an established company need a new business model to capture a game-changing opportunity? Only companies that understand how - and why - their current model works can answer that question.

Is yours a learning organization

Abstract: An organization with a strong learning culture faces the unpredictable deftly. However, a concrete method for understanding precisely how an institution learns and for identifying specific steps to help it learn better has remained elusive. A new survey instrument from professors Garvin and Edmondson of Harvard Business School and assistant professor Gino of Carnegie Mellon University allows you to ground your efforts in becoming a learning organization. The tool's conceptual foundation is what the authors call the three building blocks of a learning organization. The first, a supportive learning environment, comprises psychological safety, appreciation of differences, openness to new ideas, and time for reflection. The second, concrete learning processes and practices, includes experimentation, information collection and analysis, and education and training. These two complementary elements are fortified by the final building block: leadership that reinforces learning. The survey instrument enables a granular examination of all these particulars, scores each of them, and provides a framework for detailed, comparative analysis. You can make comparisons within and among your institution's functional areas, between your organization and others, and against benchmarks that the authors have derived from their surveys of hundreds of executives in many industries. After discussing how to use their tool, the authors share the insights they acquired as they developed it. Above all, they emphasize the importance of dialogue and diagnosis as you nurture your company and its processes with the aim of becoming a learning organization. The authors' goal--and the purpose of their tool--is to help you paint an honest picture of your firm's learning culture and of the leaders who set its tone.

Motivación de los empleados: un poderoso modelo nuevo

Abstract: La motivacion de los empleados comienza con reconocer que para que hagan su mejor trabajo, las personas deben estar en un entorno que satisfaga los impulsos emocionales basicos de adquirir, formar lazos, comprender y defenderse. Eso dicen Nohria y Groysberg, de HBS, y Lee de Center for Research on Corporate Performance. Apelando a los resultados de las encuestas que realizaron a empleados en varias empresas de Fortune 500 y otras mas, desarrollaron un modelo respecto de como aumentar en forma drastica la motivacion en el trabajo. Los autores identifican las palancas organizacionales que las empresas y los gerentes en la primera linea tienen a su disposicion cuando tratan de satisfacer las necesidades profundas de los empleados. Los sistemas de recompensas que en verdad valoran el buen desempeno satisfacen el impulso de adquirir. El impulso de formar lazos es bien satisfecho por una cultura que promueve la colaboracion y la apertura. Los trabajos disenados para que tengan sentido y sean desafiantes satisfacen la necesidad de comprender. Los procesos justos, confiables y transparentes de evaluacion de desempeno y asignacion de recursos abordan el impulso de defenderse. Con ejemplos de empresas reales, los autores articulan la manera de aplicar estas palancas productivamente. Sostienen que la aplicacion no deberia ser selectiva, pues un enfoque holistico dara mejores resultados que uno gradual. Al usar simultaneamente las cuatro palancas, y asi satisfacer los cuatro impulsos, las organizaciones pueden elevar muchisimo la motivacion de sus empleados. Por ejemplo, una empresa que esta en el percentil 50 en motivacion de sus empleados sube solo al 56 si mejora el desempeno en un impulso, pero salta al 88 si mejora en los cuatro. Esa es una ganancia sustancial en ventaja competitiva que cualquier empresa puede obtener.

Talent management for the twenty-first century.

Abstract: Most firms have no formal programs for anticipating and fulfilling talent needs, relying on an increasingly expensive pool of outside candidates that has been shrinking since it was created from the white-collar layoffs of the 1980s But the advice these companies are getting to solve the problem--institute large-scale internal development programs--is equally ineffective Internal development was the norm back in the 1950s, and every management-development practice that seems novel today was routine in those years--from executive coaching to 360-degree feedback to job rotation to high-potential programs However, the stable business environment and captive talent pipelines in which such practices were born no longer exist It's time for a fundamentally new approach to talent management Fortunately, companies already have such a model, one that has been well honed over decades to anticipate and meet demand in uncertain environments: supply chain management Cappelli, a professor at the Wharton School, focuses on four practices in particular First, companies should balance make-versus-buy decisions by using internal development programs to produce most--but not all--of the needed talent, filling in with outside hiring Second, firms can reduce the risks in forecasting the demand for talent by sending smaller batches of candidates through more modularized training systems in much the same way manufacturers now employ components in just-in-time production lines Third, companies can improve their returns on investment in development efforts by adopting novel cost-sharing programs Fourth, they should seek to protect their investments by generating internal opportunities to encourage newly trained managers to stick with the firm Taken together, these principles form the foundation for a new paradigm in talent management: a talent-on-demand system

Strategy as a Wicked Problem

Abstract: "Wicked" problems can't be solved, but they can be tamed. Increasingly, these are the problems strategists face - and for which they are ill equipped.

Which Kind of Collaboration is Right for You? The new leaders in innovation will be those who figure out the best way to leverage a network of outsiders

Abstract: In this article Gary P. Pisano and Roberto Verganti talk about different types of innovation collaboration. Four types of collaboration exist including an elite circle, innovation mall, innovation community and consortium. These four types of collaboration techniques involve open or closed, and flat or hierarchical governance systems . With a sold understanding of your business’ strategy and knowledge of what your company can offer the correct selection of collaboration greatly benefits a company’s innovation efforts.

Mastering the management system.

Abstract: Companies have always found it hard to balance pressing operational concerns with long-term strategic priorities. The tension is critical: World-class processes won't lead to success without the right strategic direction, and the best strategy in the world will get nowhere without strong operations to execute it. In this article, Kaplan, of Harvard Business School, and Norton, founder and director of the Palladium Group, explain how to effectively manage both strategy and operations by linking them tightly in a closed-loop management system. The system comprises five stages, beginning with strategy development, which springs from a company's mission, vision, and value statements, and from an analysis of its strengths, weaknesses, and competitive environment. In the next stage, managers translate the strategy into objectives and initiatives with strategy maps, which organize objectives by themes, and balanced scorecards, which link objectives to performance metrics. Stage three involves creating an operational plan to accomplish the objectives and initiatives; it includes targeting process improvements and preparing sales, resource, and capacity plans and dynamic budgets. Managers then put plans into action, monitoring their effectiveness in stage four. They review operational, environmental, and competitive data; assess progress; and identify barriers to execution. In the final stage, they test the strategy, analyzing cost, profitability, and correlations between strategy and performance. If their underlying assumptions appear faulty, they update the strategy, beginning another loop. The authors present not only a comprehensive blueprint for successful strategy execution but also a managerial tool kit, illustrated with examples from HSBC Rail, Cigna Property and Casualty, and Store 24. The kit incorporates leading management experts' frameworks, outlining where they fit into the management cycle.

Social intelligence and the biology of leadership.

Abstract: A decade ago in these pages, Goleman published his highly influential article on emotional intelligence and leadership. Now he, a cochair of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations, and Boyatzis, a professor at Case Western, extend Goleman's original concept using emerging research about what happens in the brain when people interact. Social intelligence, they say, is a set of interpersonal competencies, built on specific neural circuits, that inspire people to be effective. The authors describe how the brain's mirror neurons enable a person to reproduce the emotions she detects in others and, thereby, have an instant sense of shared experience. Organizational studies document this phenomenon in contexts ranging from face-to-face performance reviews to the daily personal interactions that help a leader retain prized talent. Other social neurons include spindle cells, which allow leaders to quickly choose the best way to respond to someone, and oscillators, which synchronize people's physical movements. Great leaders, the authors believe, are those whose behaviors powerfully leverage this complex system of brain interconnectedness. In a handy chart, the authors share their approach to assessing seven competencies that distinguish socially intelligent from socially unintelligent leaders. Their specific advice to leaders who need to strengthen their social circuitry: Work hard at altering your behavior. They share an example of an executive who became socially smarter by embracing a change program that comprised a 360-degree evaluation, intensive coaching by an organizational psychologist, and long-term collaboration with a mentor. The results stronger relationships with higher-ups and subordinates, better performance of her unit, and a big promotion.

Cuando el crecimiento se estanca

Abstract: Una caida repentina y prolongada en el crecimiento de los ingresos es una crisis que puede golpear hasta a las organizaciones mas ejemplares. El analisis exhaustivo de los autores del crecimiento en empresas Fortune 100 efectuado en los ultimos 50 anos revela que 87% de estas se habia estancado al menos en una ocasion. Los hechos muestran que si la direccion no logra reestructurar una empresa en unos anos lo mas probable es que esta nunca mas vuelva a experimentar un crecimiento saludable de sus ingresos. Afortunadamente, Olson, van Bever y Verry del Corporate Executive Board han descubierto y categorizado las causas mas comunes detras de los estancamientos. La mayoria de estos son prevenibles, senalan los autores, debido a que se derivan de las decisiones de la direccion respecto de la estrategia o el diseno organizacional; factores externos, tales como acciones regulatorias o bajas economicas, representan solo 13%. Cuatro categorias predominan: Cautiverio de la posicion premium. Cuando el producto de clase mundial de una empresa se ha ganado a los clientes mas exigentes, a menudo no responde eficazmente a los desafios de bajos costos, o a un gran cambio en la valoracion del cliente de las prestaciones del producto. Colapso de la gestion de la innovacion. Dado que la mayoria de las grandes empresas generan innovaciones secuenciales de productos, cualquier ineficacia sistemica o disfuncion en la cadena de innovacion puede derivar en problemas sumamente graves que duran muchos anos. Abandono prematuro del negocio central. Los ejecutivos podrian concluir de forma demasiada precipitada que un mercado central esta saturado. O podrian interpretar ?erroneamente? los impedimentos operacionales en el modelo del negocio central como una senal para irse a nuevos terrenos competitivos. Deficit en la reserva de talentos. Una carencia de capacidades ?especialmente a nivel ejecutivo y normalmente en areas clave y especializadas? paralizara totalmente el crecimiento. Los autores tambien identificaron un culpable comun en los estudios de casos de 50 empresas que se habian estancado: la incapacidad de adaptar los supuestos que impulsan la estrategia de la empresa a cambios en el entorno externo. Dos herramientas pueden ayudar a los ejecutivos a evitar los estancamientos de crecimiento: un test de auto-diagnostico para detectar estancamientos inminentes y una gama de practicas destinadas explicitamente a identificar supuestos estrategicos y probar su relevancia actual.

The secrets to successful strategy execution.

Abstract: When a company finds itself unable to execute strategy, all too often the first reaction is to redraw the organization chart or tinker with incentives. Far more effective would be to clarify decision rights and improve the flow of information both up the line of command and across the organization. Then, the right structures and motivators tend to fall into place. That conclusion is borne out by the authors' decades of experience as Booz & Company consultants and by the survey data that they have been collecting for almost five years from more than 125,000 employees of some 1,000 organizations in more than 50 countries. From this data they have distilled--and ranked in order of importance--the top 17 traits exhibited by the organizations that are most effective at executing strategy. The single most common attribute of such companies is that their employees are clear about which decisions and actions they are responsible for. As a result, decisions are rarely second-guessed, and accurate competitive information quickly finds its way up the hierarchy and across organizational boundaries. Managers communicate the key drivers of success, so frontline employees have the information they need to understand the impact of their day-to-day actions. Motivators--like performance appraisals that distinguish high, adequate, and low performers and rewards for fulfilling particular commitments--are also important but are most effective when applied after decision rights and information flows have been addressed. That holds true for structural moves as well. Surprisingly, the most effective structural moves turn out to be promoting people laterally--and more slowly. How can you make the most educated and cost-efficient decisions about which change initiatives to implement? The authors have developed a powerful online diagnostic and simulation tool that can help you test the effectiveness of various approaches virtually, without risking significant amounts of time and money.

Competing on Resources

Abstract: A successful strategy links core competence and capabilities with market demands and competitors' offers. Does yours? A set of pragmatic market tests can help you accumulate a competitively distinct stock of resources while keeping a sharp eye on industry forces.

Which Kind of Collaboration Is Right for You

Abstract: To stay ahead in the race to develop new technologies, designs, and services, firms need a framework for making choices about which outside parties to work with - and how.

Creativity and the role of the leader.

Abstract: In today's innovation-driven economy, understanding how to generate great ideas has become an urgent managerial priority. Suddenly, the spotlight has turned on the academics who've studied creativity for decades. How relevant is their research to the practical challenges leaders face? To connect theory and practice, Harvard Business School professors Amabile and Khaire convened a two-day colloquium of leading creativity scholars and executives from companies such as Google, IDEO, Novartis, Intuit, and E Ink. In this article, the authors present highlights of the research presented and the discussion of its implications. At the event, a new leadership agenda began to take shape, one rooted in the awareness that you can't manage creativity--you can only manage for creativity. A number of themes emerged: The leader's job is not to be the source of ideas but to encourage and champion ideas. Leaders must tap the imagination of employees at all ranks and ask inspiring questions. They also need to help their organizations incorporate diverse perspectives, which spur creative insights, and facilitate creative collaboration by, for instance, harnessing new technologies. The participants shared tactics for enabling discoveries, as well as thoughts on how to bring process to bear on creativity without straitjacketing it. They pointed out that process management isn't appropriate in all stages of creative work; leaders should apply it thoughtfully and manage the handoff from idea generators to commercializers deftly. The discussion also examined the need to clear paths through bureaucracy, weed out weak ideas, and maximize the organization's learning from failure. Though points of view varied, the theories and frameworks explored advance the understanding of creativity in business and offer executives a playbook for increasing innovation.

How to sell services more profitably.

Abstract: When products become commodities, manufacturing companies may seek to differentiate themselves with value-added services--a potentially profitable strategy. Unfortunately, companies often stumble in the effort. Reinartz and Ulaga conducted in-depth studies of 18 leading companies in a broad variety of product markets to learn what distinguished the successes from the rest. They discovered four steps to developing a profitable services capability. RECOGNIZE THAT YOU ALREADY HAVE A SERVICE COMPANY: You can identify and charge for simple services--as Merck did when it stopped quietly absorbing shipping costs. Switching services from free to fee clarifies their value for managers as well as for customers. INDUSTRIALIZE THE BACK OFFICE: To prevent delivery costs from eating up service-offering margins, build flexible service platforms, closely monitor process costs, and exploit new technologies that enable process innovations. The Swedish bearings manufacturer SKF provided off-site access to an online monitoring tool that could warn of potential failure in customers' machines. CREATE A SERVICE-SAVVY SALES FORCE: Services require longer sales cycles and, often, decisions from high up in a customer's hierarchy; what's more, product salespeople may be inimical to change. Schneider-Electric did a major overhaul of its sales organization and trained its people to switch from cost-plus pricing to value-based pricing. FOCUS ON CUSTOMERS' PROCESSES AND THE OPPORTUNITIES THEY AFFORD FOR NEW SERVICE OFFERINGS: You may need to acquire new capabilities to take advantage of those opportunities: The industrial coatings specialist PPG had to learn how painting robots function after it offered to take over Fiat's Torino paint shop. Services can both lock in customers and help acquire new accounts. They should be developed with care and attention.

Should You Invest in the Long Tail

Abstract: Are blockbusters losing their power now that online retailing can offer a little something for every taste? The answer may surprise you.

Employee motivation: a powerful new model.

Abstract: Motivating employees begins with recognizing that to do their best work, people must be in an environment that meets their basic emotional drives to acquire, bond, comprehend, and defend. So say Nohria and Groysberg, of Harvard Business School, and Lee, of the Center for Research on Corporate Performance. Using the results of surveys they conducted with employees at a wide range of Fortune 500 and other companies, they developed a model for how to increase workplace motivation dramatically. The authors identify the organizational levers that companies and frontline managers have at their disposal as they try to meet workers' deep needs. Reward systems that truly value good performance fulfill the drive to acquire. The drive to bond is best met by a culture that promotes collaboration and openness. Jobs that are designed to be meaningful and challenging meet the need to comprehend. Processes for performance management and resource allocation that are fair, trustworthy, and transparent address the drive to defend. Equipped with real-world company examples, the authors articulate how to apply these levers in productive ways. That application should not be selective, they argue, because a holistic approach gets you more than a piecemeal one. By using all four levers simultaneously, and thereby tackling all four drives, organizations can improve motivation levels by leaps and bounds. For example, a company that falls in the 50th percentile on employee motivation improves only to the 56th by boosting performance on one drive, but way up to the 88th percentile by doing better on all four drives. That's a powerful gain in competitive advantage that any business would relish.

Can you say what your strategy is

Abstract: Crafting a clear, succinct strategy statement for everyone in the company to internalize and use as a guiding light can do wonders for your firm's performance. Here's how to put one together that really works.

It's time to make management a true profession.

Abstract: In the face of the recent institutional breakdown of trust in business, managers are losing legitimacy To regain public trust, management needs to become a true profession in much the way medicine and law have, argue Khurana and Nohria of Harvard Business School True professions have codes, and the meaning and consequences of those codes are taught as part of the formal education required of their members Through these codes, professional institutions forge an implicit social contract with society: Trust us to control and exercise jurisdiction over an important occupational category, and, in return, we will ensurethat the members of our profession are worthy of your trust--that they will not only be competent to perform the tasks entrusted to them, but that they will also conduct themselves with high standardsand great integrity The authors believe that enforcing educational standards and a code of ethics is unlikely to choke entrepreneurial creativity Indeed, if the field of medicine is any indication, a code may even stimulate creativity The main challenge in writing a code lies in reaching a broad consensus on the aims and social purpose of management There are two deeply divided schools of thought One school argues that management's aim should simply be to maximize shareholder wealth; the other argues that management's purpose is to balance the claims of all the firm's stakeholders Any code will have to steer a middle course in order to accommodate both the value-creating impetus of the shareholder value concept and the accountability inherent in the stakeholder approach

Rebuilding the R&D engine in big pharma.

Abstract: From December 2000 to February 2008, the top 15 companies in the pharmaceutical industry lost roughly $850 billion in shareholder value Although a number of factors--including the rise of generics, pricing pressures, regulatory requirements, and legal entanglements--are to blame, Garnier, the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, believes that declining R&D productivity is his industry's primary problem The way to solve it, he says, is to return power to the scientists--by reorganizing R&D into highly focused groups headed by inspirational leaders, seeking the best science outside as well as inside a company, fixing broken processes, and promoting a strong culture of innovation and passion for excellence GSK has replaced its organizational pyramid with 12 "centers of excellence The company has worked to untangle the quest for breakthrough drugs from the effort to develop best-in-class offerings and has overhauled incentives for the scientists who actually make discoveries It has also pursued contractual relationships with academia and biotech companies in a bid to secure the best science, wherever it may reside When the company began a sweeping reengineering of its R&D, it had only two products in late-stage development Today it has 34--the most in the industry But much more remains to be done, the author says Significant cost efficiencies could be achieved by offshoring clinical trials Development of new blockbuster drugs could be simplified and accelerated if researchers targeted only a limited segment of the potential patient population and then expanded to others over time The innovation malaise in pharmaceuticals is not unique, Garnier says Many other industries face the same challenges A cultural revolution and a broad transformation of the organization are necessary first steps to rebuilding the R&D engine

How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity

Abstract: A few years ago, I had lunch with the head of a major motion picture studio, who declared that his central problem was not finding good people—it was finding good ideas. Since then, when giving talks, I’ve asked audiences whether they agree with him. Almost always there’s a 50/50 split, which has astounded me because I couldn’t disagree more with the studio executive. His belief is rooted in a misguided view of creativity that exaggerates the importance of the initial idea in creating an original product. And it reflects a profound misunderstanding of how to manage the large risks inherent in producing breakthroughs.

Reverse Engineering : Google's Innovation Machine

Abstract: Much of the company's astounding success is rooted in its legendary IT infrastructure, but that's not the whole story. At Google, technology and strategy are inseparable and mutually permeable.

The customer-centered innovation map.

Abstract: We all know that people "hire" products and services to get a job done. Surgeons hire scalpels to dissect soft tissue. Janitors hire soap dispensers and paper towels to remove grime from their hands. To find ways to innovate, it's critical to deconstruct the job the customer is trying to get done from beginning to end, to gain a complete view of all the points at which a customer might desire more help from a product or service. A methodology called job mapping helps companies analyze the biggest drawbacks of the products and services customers currently use and discover opportunities for innovation. It involves breaking down the task the customer wants to accomplish into the eight universal steps of a job: (1) defining the objectives, (2) locating the necessary inputs, (3) preparing the physical environment, (4) confirming that everything is ready, (5) executing the task, (6) monitoring its progress, (7) making modifications as necessary, and (8) concluding the job. Job mapping differs substantively from process mapping in that the goal is to identify what customers are trying to get done at every step, not what they are doing currently. For example, when an anesthesiologist checks a monitor during a surgical procedure, the action taken is just a means to the end. Detecting a change in patient vital signs is the job the doctor is trying to get done. Within each of the discrete steps lie multiple opportunities for making the job simpler, easier, or faster. By mapping out every step of the job and locating those opportunities, companies can discover new ways to differentiate their offerings.

The four things a service business must get right.

Abstract: Many of the management tools and techniques used in service businesses were designed to tackle the challenges of product companies. Although they are valuable to service managers, they aren't sufficient for success. In this article, Harvard Business School's Frei explains why and urges companies to add some new ones to the mix. After years of extensive research and analysis, she offers an approach for crafting a profitable service business based on four critical elements: the design of the offering, employee management, customer management, and the funding mechanism. Just like a product that's going to market, a service needs to be compellingly designed, and management must field a workforce capable of producing it at an attractive price. Additionally, however, service firms must manage their customers, who do not simply use the service but also can be integral to its production: Because customers' involvement as producers can wreak havoc on costs, companies must also develop creative ways to fund their distinctive offerings, by providing a self-service alternative, for example, or by offsetting expenses with operational savings. A close look at successful service businesses--Wal-Mart, Commerce Bank, the Cleveland Clinic, and others--reveals that effective integration of the four elements is key. There is no "right" way to combine them; the appropriate design of one depends upon the other three. If managers don't get all four pulling together, they risk pulling the enterprise apart. Incumbents can fend off attacks from highly focused upstarts by becoming multifocused--that is, by pursuing multiple niches through optimized service models rather than trying to cover the entire waterfront with one model. Shared services within a firm (functions such as HR and finance) can help, since they will enable it to generate economies of scale and experience across models.

Nudge Your Customers Toward Better Choices

Abstract: When car rental agencies include insurance unless you specifically decline it, or software vendors recommend that you click "next" for a quick install, they're choosing default options for you-covertly or overtly guiding your choices. Well-designed product or service defaults benefit both company and consumer by simplifying decision making, enhancing customer satisfaction, reducing risk, and driving profitable purchases. Ill-conceived defaults (or, simply, defaults no one thought much about) can leave money on the table, fuel consumer backlashes, put customers at risk, and trigger lawsuits-costing companies dearly.

THE CONTRIBUTION REVOLUTION : Letting Volunteers Build Your Business

Abstract: Intuit's cofounder challenges traditional companies to follow the lead of internet superstars -and of innovative peers such as Honda, Procter & Gamble, and Hyatt-in tapping the contributions of countless people beyond their organizations.

LEADERSHIP'S Online Labs

Abstract: TOMORROW'S BUSINESS LANDSCAPE could well be alien territory for today's business leaders. At many companies, important decision making will be distributed throughout the organization to enable people to repond rapidly to change. A lot of work will be done by global teams - partly composed of people from outside the institution, over whom a leader has no formal authority that are assembled for a single project and the dishanded. Collaboration within these geographically diverse groups will, by necessity, occur maintly through digital rather than face-to-face interaction. What on earth will leadership look like in such a world a world whose features have alrealdy begun to transform business?.

No intente hacer esto en otro país

Abstract: Desde mediados de los 90, la boutique de las metaforas de gestion Serendipity Associates (SA), ha ofrecido a sus clientes cautivadoras comparaciones y ludicos lemas. Pero el jefe de SA, Barton Brady, se entera de que alguien le esta robando clientes. Se trata de la empresa de poca monta Tropes R Us, que ha empezado a tercerizar su produccion a Irlanda y esta a punto de inundar el mercado con metaforas de alta claridad y con bajos costos. ?Confirma aquello las sospechas de Brady de que EE.UU. esta perdiendo su ventaja competitiva en el trabajo del hemisferio derecho del cerebro? Cuatro expertos comentan este caso ficticio. Daniel H. Pink, autor y consultor, dice que SA deberia desplazarse a un terreno mas alto, para asi encontrar nuevas formas de diferenciarse con capacidades del hemisferio derecho que dificilmente se podran tercerizar en el extranjero. Postula que para hacer aquello se requiere de un sistema de educacion que fomente la creatividad. John Chuang, CEO de la empresa de consultoria de talentos Aquent, senala que Brady podria organizar a un grupo de ciudadanos estadounidenses que protesten contra las actuales politicas de inmigracion que hacen muy dificil que las empresas importen el mejor talento. Brady tambien deberia ampliar la definicion del negocio de SA. Richard Phelps, un ejecutivo de recursos humanos en PricewaterhouseCoopers, postula que al contrario de lo que cree mucha gente en Occidente, los empleados en las economias emergentes estan a la altura de las demandas del trabajo creativo. SA deberia reunir los mejores cerebros creativos del planeta para contratarlos o para que representen la marca SA. Charlie Wrench, el CEO de la empresa consultora de marcas y diseno Landor Associates, aconseja a Brady que en lugar de preocuparse de su pais �el cual seguira atrayendo una cuota desproporcionada del talento creativo del mundo, segun Wrench� deberia preocuparse de sus clientes multinacionales, quienes necesitan proveedores de servicio dotados de una poderosa combinacion de destrezas de los hemisferios derechos e izquierdos del cerebro.

Invertir en la TI que sí hace una diferencia competitiva

Abstract: Las investigaciones en ciertas tecnologias otorgan una ventaja competitiva que siempre debe ser renovada ya que los rivales no solo buscaran igualar sus jugadas, sino que usaran la tecnologia para desarrollar ideas mas potentes para poder superarlo Esa es la conclusion de un exhaustivo analisis que efectuaron McAfee, profesor de Harvard Business School, y Brynjolfsson, profesor de MIT, de todas las empresas estadounidenses �de todos los sectores� que cotizan en bolsa, en las ultimas decadas Encontraron una correlacion clara entre los gastos en TI y una nueva dinamica competitiva: desde mediados de los 90, cuando la tasa de gastos en TI comenzo a aumentar bruscamente, la brecha entre los lideres y rezagados en un sector dado ha crecido Hay mas mercados donde los ganadores se llevan todo Pero la mayor concentracion ha aumentado en lugar de aplacado la turbulencia entre los actores restantes Y esta dinamica es mayor en aquellos sectores que son intensivos en el uso de TI Este patron es conocido entre los fabricantes de productos digitales, pero ahora se ha expandido hacia sectores mas tradicionales, senalan los autores, no debido a que mas productos se estan haciendo digitales, sino porque los procesos se estan digitalizando El software para empresas como los sistemas ERP y CRM, en conjunto con redes de bajos costos, esta permitiendo que las empresas reproduzcan sus procesos de negocios unicos de forma mas generalizada, rapida, y con mayor fidelidad En este nuevo entorno, los ejecutivos deben elegir con cuidado cuales procesos deben ser globalmente coherentes y cuales podrian variar a nivel local Ademas, aunque estandaricen algunas formas de trabajar, tambien deben alentar a los empleados para que generen mejoras creativas a los procesos que superen las innovaciones de los competidores Competir a un ritmo tan rapido no es facil, y no todos podran mantener aquel ritmo, pero las empresas que lo logren generaran mejores procesos de negocios e incrementaran su valor de mercado