Fabrication and manufacturing

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.

When Ben Franklin wrote Poor Richard’s Almanac and the words, “A little neglect may breed great mischief,” he did not have price fixing in mind. To the 47 executives in companies in the folding-box industry convicted of price fixing, however, the words seem tailored to fit. In those companies convicted under antitrust laws in 1976, […]

Femtosecond lasers emit pulses of light that last just a millionth of a billionth of a second. These lasers enable surgery so precise that a single mitochondrion can be removed without harming the rest of the cell, and machining so controlled that structures can be micromachined within a piece of glass. Eric Mazur, a professor […]

The “bounded awareness” phenomenon causes people to ignore critical information when making decisions. Learning to expand the limits of your awareness before you make an important choice will save you from asking “How did I miss that?” after the fact.

At this large GM plant the union and management jointly seek to change the meaning of work itself

An eight-step process to help companies learn to cope creatively with large and complex selling tasks—and have lasting results.

Strategic dreams often turn into nightmares if companies start engaging in expensive and distracting restructurings. It’s far more effective to choose a design that works reasonably well, then develop a strategic system to tune the structure to the strategy.

High-definition televisions (HDTVs) should, by now, be a huge success. Philips, Sony, and Thompson invested billions of dollars to develop TV sets with...

For a leader, a public apology is always a high-risk move. Understanding what apologies can and cannot do will help you avoid both foolhardy stonewalling and unnecessary contrition.

Toyota demonstrates how more-efficient supplier relationships can speed production and boost innovation.

Examples from Maersk, IBM, and TRIP.

Artwork: Michael Johansson, Self Contained, 2010, containers, caravan, tractor, Volvo, pallets, refrigerators, etc., 8.2 x 10.8 x 2.4 m Hong Kong–based Esquel, one of the world’s leading producers of premium cotton shirts, faced a quandary in the early 2000s. Apparel and retail customers such as Nike and Marks & Spencer had begun asking the company […]

An educational-gaming firm rethinks its talent strategy.

A chief executive reflects on what makes employees passionate and the business lessons he learned in a close call on a glacier.

Two Japanese automakers have had stunning success building relationships with North American suppliers—often the same companies that have had contentious dealings with Detroit’s Big Three. What are Toyota and Honda doing right?

Before they have received even a day of training, the best salespeople already have two seemingly incompatible qualities in abundance: empathy with customers and a need to overcome their hesitation to buy.

Delaying may not have been good for the company or its workers.

Fifty percent of Americans play video games, spending approximately seven hours a week glued to some type of screen, according to the Electronic Software Association. While that level of play gets blamed for everything from violence to obesity to illiteracy, gamers can bring some desirable qualities to the workforce if companies know how to exploit […]

A first look at the economic data.

When a promising project doesn’t deliver, chances are the problem wasn’t the idea but how it was carried out. Here’s a way to design projects that guards against unnecessary failure.