Food and beverage sector

In most companies, strategic planning isn’t about making decisions. It’s about documenting choices that have already been made, often haphazardly. Leading firms are rethinking their approach to strategy development so they can make more, better, and faster decisions.

In Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story, Kurt Eichenwald relates how Enron’s leaders engaged in massive book-cooking with little interference from the dozens of managers, lawyers, and advisers who had a pretty good idea of what was going on. Similarly, at Parmalat, employees not involved in the Italian dairy giant’s fraud apparently were aware of […]

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.

A conversation with editor in chief Adi Ignatius.

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…

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.

New research finds that despite being demonstrably worse for the environment, overpackaging increases consumers’ perceptions of environmental friendliness.

Companies often resort to lobbyists and lawyers to fight unfair trade policies. But sometimes there are easier alternatives. Consider the case of Chiquita and Dole, organizations that faced restrictive new trade policies in the early 1990s that limited banana exports into Europe. Following World War II, Chiquita became Europe’s main banana provider, exporting to Germany […]

First, capitalize on consumers’ mental accounting behavior. And don’t put your prune-stuffed gnocchi on the menu.

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.

People will pay more for less.

The Idea: This year more than 20% of Heinz’s revenues will come from emerging markets such as China, India, Indonesia, Russia, and Brazil, versus less than 5% a few years ago. Longtime CEO Bill Johnson describes his strategy for growing sales in developing economies.

Starbucks is betting its brand—and its growth—on an innovative new relationship with third-world suppliers.

Between one-third and half of all food is wasted.

If your latest so-called supply chain partnership failed to live up to expectations, as so many do, it’s probably because you never stated your expectations in the first place.

Most of modern global strategy focuses on minimizing differences between countries. Perhaps it’s time to dust off approaches that exploit those differences as well.

Everyone’s wondering what the new COO’s been doing for the last 12 months. He wonders why he can’t get his foot in the door.

Visibility and values.

If your fees put them out of business, no one wins.

For decades in the United States, the name Hershey has been synonymous with chocolate. From the iconic foil-wrapped Hershey's Kiss to the chocolate syrup...