Consumer services

Your organization can become more decisive—and can implement strategy more quickly—if you know where the bottlenecks are and who’s empowered to break through them.

The information technology explosion was set off by visionaries who thrive on uncertainty. Today that innovation-fueling uncertainty is in danger, a victim of its own success and excess. IT producers have historically built platforms that are useless standing alone, inviting others to parlay them into a variety of useful applications. The first PC makers shipped […]

What they should prove before you bring them on board.

"Please don't tell me that I need to have a baby to have this time off." Those words were still ringing in the ears of Jessica Gonon an hour after a tense...

The most dubious business plan can look solid—even smart—if it’s cast as a virtuous circle. “See, we invest our profits in innovation to create delightful products that customers buy—which generate profits that we invest in innovation!” Who could argue with that? Indeed, the merit of self-reinforcing systems seems so obvious that businesspeople instinctively describe their […]

The hardest part of being an entrepreneur can be learning to turn down business. It is also the only way to survive—and grow.

In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the buying of professional services by management. This is true for a broad range of advisory activities, such as financial, economic, public relations, advertising, legal, personnel, research, and many others. By the same token, there has been a marked growth in the firms selling these […]

Advances in genetic research are setting off an industrial convergence that will have profound implications for the global economy. Farmers, computer companies, drugmakers, chemical processors, and health care providers will all be drawn into the new life-science industry. To make the transition successfully, they’ll have to change the way they think about their businesses…

When the biotech pioneer had to get a blockbuster drug to market fast, it didn’t lock itself into a rigid supply chain. It joined with partners to become a virtual manufacturer.

In making decisions, you may be at the mercy of your mind’s strange workings. Here’s how to catch thinking traps before they become judgment disasters.

Readers and clients have some things in common.

Predicting what happens when employees leave.

The leader’s fall from “Who’s Who” to “Who’s that?” is full of stigma and shame. But the story doesn’t have to end there.

The unique benefits of private equity investment

Teams whose members come from different nations and backgrounds place special demands on managers—especially when a feuding team looks to the boss for help with a conflict.

Proposed changes by the SEC don’t go far enough to guarantee impartial audits by the accounting profession.

Few jobs in business are as exciting as that of adviser to the CEO. But those who sit at the right hand of power learn that the influence game has to be played by the rules.

Service companies have long suffered from haphazard approaches to innovation. But a leading bank is proving that service development can be as rigorous as product development.

Internet telephony, or VoIP, is rapidly replacing the conventional kind. This year, for the first time, U.S. companies bought more new Internet-phone...

Biotech has not delivered on its promise because the industry’s structure—much of it borrowed from Silicon Valley—is flawed. Businesses engaged in advancing basic science as a core activity need a new design.