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How Apple Is Organized for Innovation
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleWhen Steve Jobs returned to Apple, in 1997, it had a conventional structure for a company of its size and scope. It was divided into business units, each... -
6 Key Levers of a Successful Organizational Transformation
Organizational Development Digital ArticleLeaders, don't overlook your employees' emotional journey. -
What Companies Still Get Wrong About Layoffs, Spanish Version
Organizational Development Digital ArticleMany cling to the idea that reducing staff is the fastest, easiest way to cut costs. But there are smarter, more humane approaches. -
Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier
Leading teams Magazine ArticleNot so long ago, companies were reinvented by teams. Communities of practice may reinvent them yet again—if managers learn to cultivate these fertile organizational forms without destroying them. -
First, Let’s Fire All the Managers
Corporate governance Magazine ArticleMorning Star, a leading food processor, demonstrates how to create an organization that combines managerial discipline and market-centric flexibility—without bosses, titles, or promotions. -
Layoffs That Don't Break Your Company
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleToday layoffs have become companies' default response to the challenges created by advances in technology and global competition. Yet research shows that... -
Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow
Managing people Magazine ArticleManagement practices that work well in one phase may bring on a crisis in another. -
What Every Leader Needs to Know About Followers
Organizational restructuring Magazine ArticleThe distinctions among followers are every bit as consequential as those among leaders—and have critical implications for how managers should manage. -
Clusters and the New Economics of Competition
Government policy and regulation Magazine ArticleParadoxically, the enduring competitive advantages in a global economy lie increasingly in local things—knowledge, relationships, and motivation that distant rivals cannot match. -
Where Does the Customer Fit in a Service Operation?
Organizational restructuring Magazine ArticleWhile 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, […] -
Thinking Ahead: Power Tactics
Managing people Magazine ArticleBeneath the general principles, attitudes, and ideals of “human relations” lie the actual tactics and day-to-day techniques by which executives achieve, maintain, and exercise power. In the current enthusiasm for “democratizing” business procedures, these hard, practical devices tend to be overlooked. Yet they exist just the same—and, in many ways, do not depart substantially from […] -
How Process Enterprises Really Work
Managing people Magazine ArticleWhat do IBM, Texas Instruments, Owens Corning, and Duke Power have in common? They’re all redesigning their organizations around their core processes—and reaping enormous benefits as a result. -
Coevolving: At Last, a Way to Make Synergies Work
Strategy & Execution Magazine ArticleThe promise of synergy is the prime rationale for the existence of the multibusiness corporation. Yet for most corporations, the "1-plus-1-equals-3" arithmetic... -
Downsizing Lost Its Bad Rap
Downsizing Magazine ArticleBig companies formerly took a reputational hit when they laid off massive numbers of workers. But according to E. Geoffrey Love and Matthew Kraatz, of the University of Illinois, U.S. business culture norms gradually changed from 1985 to 1994 as new ideas about boosting shareholder value took hold in executive suites and boardrooms. At the […] -
Making Mass Customization Work
Innovation Magazine ArticleContinuous improvement at Toyota Motor Company is now a business legend. For three decades, Toyota enlisted its employees in a relentless drive to find faster, more efficient methods to develop and make low-cost, defect-free cars. The results were stupendous. Toyota became the benchmark in the automobile industry for quality and low cost. The same, however, […] -
The Coming of the New Organization
Finance and investing Magazine ArticleThe typical large business 20 years hence will have fewer than half the levels of management of its counterpart today, and no more than a third the managers. In its structure, and in its management problems and concerns, it will bear little resemblance to the typical manufacturing company, circa 1950, which our textbooks still consider […] -
Hollow Ring of the Productivity Revival
Global Business Magazine ArticleThe U.S. economy has been on the upswing for more than four years. Inflation is low, corporate profits are up, and the stock market has risen beyond anyone's... -
The Real Problem with Computers
Business communication Magazine ArticleEven the best-designed systems can’t overcome faulty relationships. -
Taking Time Seriously in Evaluating Jobs
Organizational restructuring Magazine ArticleIn appraising performance, designing pay systems, and in organizing and planning work, managers make assessments about the size and importance of jobs. Whether the assessments are accurate deeply affects how well the organization runs. But what do we mean when we say that one job is bigger than another? Bigger in what sense? One way […] -
The Feudal World of Japanese Manufacturing
Competitive strategy Magazine ArticleYears ago, while visiting friends in the United States, I happened to see the classic children’s film The Wizard of Oz. Near the end, Dorothy at last appears before the all-powerful wizard—a terrifying image of smoke and light. Only when her dog, Toto, tugs at a curtain over to one side does she see a […]
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Prabhu Bank Limited: The Challenges of Merging with Ailing Banks
Leadership & Managing People Case Study8.95View Details In FY2018-19, Prabhu Bank, an 'A' class Nepalese commercial bank, reported its operating profit of Rs1.74 billion, a significant decrease of 34 per cent... -
Ten Thousand Villages in Crisis: Can the Fair Trade Pioneer Survive and Flourish in an Economic Downturn?
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details This case examines major challenges faced by Ten Thousand Villages Canada in 2013, in the aftermath of the 2007-08 global financial crisis. Ten Thousand... -
Higashimaru Shoyu Co. Ltd. (B): Revitalizing the Organization
Finance & Accounting Case Study5.00View Details Documents how Higashimaru's plant manager converted a reluctant workforce into one that was open to change. Illustrates "human reengineering" and shows... -
Buenos Aires Embotelladora S.A. (BAESA): A South American Restructuring, Spanish Version
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details In 1998, BAESA, PepsiCo's largest bottler and distributor outside North America, experienced severe financial difficulty and had to restructure its debt... -
Central European Distribution Corporation: Hostile Takeover, Bankruptcy Makeover
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details In early 2013, CEDC, a large publicly-traded producer and distributer of vodka and spirits in Eastern and Central Europe, has suffered significant declines... -
DePaul Industries in 2012: Financing Growth in a Social Venture
Leadership & Managing People Case Study8.95View Details Established in 1971, DePaul Industries was a social venture operated as one organization (and for short called DePaul Industries) but legally registered... -
Ayala Corp.
Organizational Development Case Study8.95View Details Ayala Corporation is the oldest conglomerate in the Philippines and has been controlled by the Zobel de Ayala family for seven generations. Over the past... -
Cat Is Out of the Bag: KANA and the Layoff Gone Awry (A)
Organizational Development Case Study6.95View Details Vicki Amon-Higa, vice president of KANA, a publicly traded, midsize development company, was working with Bryan Kettle, KANA's CFO, to plan a layoff in... -
County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response
Organizational Development Case Study8.95View Details The anthrax attacks of 2001 exposed serious inadequacies in the response of the U.S. public health system to meet such grave threats. The public health... -
Dressen (Abridged) (A)
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details John Lynch, CEO of the Dressen Division of Westinghouse, was elated by the proposed leveraged buyout by the private equity firm, Warburg Pincus Ventures.... -
Star Cablevision Group (E): Voluntary Restructuring
Finance & Accounting Case Study5.00View Details Fifth case in a series of six cases. This case describes the company during voluntary restructuring. -
Vector (A): Labour Negotiations at Maxime Platform
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details This series of three sequential cases recounts the story of labour negotiations. The Maxime Platform, France, built in 1916 to accommodate the increasing... -
Bradley Marquez: Reduction in Force (A), Spanish Version
Organizational Development Case Study8.95View Details The Bradley Marquez advertising agency had created a successful niche delivering ethnic markets to their clients, corporate giants like Compaq, Sprint,... -
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details One of the leading publishers of textbooks and other educational materials for the U.S. K-12 educational instruction market has suffered a dramatic decline... -
IBM's "On Demand Business" Strategy
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details In the late 1990s, IBM successfully moved up the value chain and became one of the largest business and information technology (IT) solution providers... -
Transforming Kimball International, Inc. (B)
Strategy & Execution Case Study5.00View Details In the spring of 2021, the board of directors of Kimball International, Inc. (KII) was considering changes to the company's executive compensation plan.... -
Citibank: Weathering the Commercial Real Estate Crisis of the Early 1990s, Russian Version
Leadership & Managing People Case Study8.95View Details As the commercial real estate market began to crash in early 1990, heavily exposed banks like Citibank and Chase Manhattan were left largely undercapitalized.... -
RPG Enterprises--1995
Strategy & Execution Case Study6.95View Details As in most emerging markets, a significant portion of the Indian private sector is dominated by extensively diversified, often family-owned or controlled,... -
Busse Place
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details Busse Corporate Center's largest tenant recently declared bankruptcy, leaving the building 38% occupied and significantly overleveraged. In a depressed...
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How Apple Is Organized for Innovation
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleWhen Steve Jobs returned to Apple, in 1997, it had a conventional structure for a company of its size and scope. It was divided into business units, each... -
6 Key Levers of a Successful Organizational Transformation
Organizational Development Digital ArticleLeaders, don't overlook your employees' emotional journey. -
What Companies Still Get Wrong About Layoffs, Spanish Version
Organizational Development Digital ArticleMany cling to the idea that reducing staff is the fastest, easiest way to cut costs. But there are smarter, more humane approaches. -
Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier
Leading teams Magazine ArticleNot so long ago, companies were reinvented by teams. Communities of practice may reinvent them yet again—if managers learn to cultivate these fertile organizational forms without destroying them. -
First, Let’s Fire All the Managers
Corporate governance Magazine ArticleMorning Star, a leading food processor, demonstrates how to create an organization that combines managerial discipline and market-centric flexibility—without bosses, titles, or promotions. -
Layoffs That Don't Break Your Company
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleToday layoffs have become companies' default response to the challenges created by advances in technology and global competition. Yet research shows that... -
Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow
Managing people Magazine ArticleManagement practices that work well in one phase may bring on a crisis in another. -
What Every Leader Needs to Know About Followers
Organizational restructuring Magazine ArticleThe distinctions among followers are every bit as consequential as those among leaders—and have critical implications for how managers should manage. -
Clusters and the New Economics of Competition
Government policy and regulation Magazine ArticleParadoxically, the enduring competitive advantages in a global economy lie increasingly in local things—knowledge, relationships, and motivation that distant rivals cannot match. -
Prabhu Bank Limited: The Challenges of Merging with Ailing Banks
Leadership & Managing People Case Study8.95View Details In FY2018-19, Prabhu Bank, an 'A' class Nepalese commercial bank, reported its operating profit of Rs1.74 billion, a significant decrease of 34 per cent...