Organizational restructuring

Before you adopt a new management idea, figure out if it’s right for you.

Research on downsizing, gender, and race.

Most companies view the handling of product returns as a costly nuisance. But some savvy businesses are making the process profitable.

Regions where social ties are tight may be the worst places for creative operations.

Andrew Jordan sat at his desk, absentmindedly watching a barge chug slowly upstream on the Thames. The dinner meeting he had scheduled with a select group of senior managers at Universal Products Company, Ltd. would begin in an hour. For three years, it had seemed enough to focus on the business problems of UPC’s Connectors […]

When the two work in concert, they can create a powerful advantage.

Leaders, don't overlook your employees' emotional journey.

Few deal makers have been at it as long, and at such a high level, as Lazard’s CEO. Here’s how he unlocks value in people, companies, and industries.

Conventional wisdom says that layoffs are a necessary evil during economic downturns, but new research shows that shareholders tend to punish companies...

The approach is as old as borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. If one of your divisions is not growing as quickly as it ought to, you take cash from a healthy, stable unit to fund the growth. Often this strategy works, but many times it doesn’t. The reason it may not work, the authors […]

While management skills can improve service systems, a manager is better off if he or she first has a clear understanding of the operating characteristics that set one service system apart from another. This author offers one view of services, which, if followed, results in a “rational approach to the rationalization” of services. His view, […]

Most CEOs who specialize in turning around struggling companies focus on costs. But for Fred Hassan, chairman and CEO of Schering-Plough, the primary...

It can provide guidance, supervision, and governance — while leaving the most critical decisions to humans.

The company’s founder opens up.

There was a gust from the overhead duct, and my project manager certification floated onto my keyboard—no amount of Fun-Tak and tape could keep it attached to the walls of my cubicle. At the same moment, a meeting invite appeared on my screen, accompanied by Outlook’s distinctive doink—another “emergency” department meeting. As the pop-up slowly […]

Even successful corporations have to shake things up to stay ahead of the competition.

Considering the extent to which the service industry contributes to our GNP, very little has been said or written about the application of rational management techniques to the development of new services. Many believe that good service results from the style of an individual entrepreneur or company and is therefore highly idiosyncratic. As a result […]

A fundamental shift in the economics of information is under way—a shift that is less about any specific new technology than about the fact that a new behavior is reaching critical mass. Millions of people at home and at work are communicating electronically using universal, open standards. This explosion in connectivity is the latest—and, for […]

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

The virtual demise of hostile takeovers and leveraged buyouts has not cooled the tensions over corporate governance. In congressional hearings, at annual meetings, and in proxy contests splashed across the business pages, senior executives and powerful shareholders continue to confront each other. The basic issues remain remarkably consistent. When do investors’ legitimate needs for returns […]