| Theme: E-Business
Features
In Conversation: Gary Hamel
By Stephen Bernhut
Convention and tradition may still have their (smaller) place in organizations today, but not in the company envisioned and described by one of the world's leading and most respected management gurus, Gary Hamel. "In the years ahead," he says in this extensive and provocative interview, "the challenge for every organization is going to be to begin to think about how to measure and support three newer kinds of capital, imagination capital, entrepreneurial capital and relationship capital." From prescribing how a company can claim and sustain a competitive advantage to meeting the next imperative, developing "business concept innovation," Mr. Hamel offers his trenchant observations and valuable recommendations on how organizations in any business can win and stay on the leading edge.
Order Fulfillment: Delivering the e-promise
By Joseph Shlesinger, Miles Cook, Darrell Rigby and Julian Chu
"I got it the day after Christmas" or "I never got it at all" are two of cyber-shoppers most common complaints. Indeed, many organizations still don't get right today, shipping, that is. Executives and managers confused and challenged by order fulfillment would do well to read this helpful article. According to the authors, consultants at McKinsey&Co., managers must consider and answer two key questions to sort out the fulfillment conundrum - and to avoid disappointing customers. They must first consider which performance capabilities will satisfy customers' order fulfillment needs and deliver acceptable profit margins. Second, they must decide which of those capabilities a company should own and which it should outsource. Detailed solutions to these issues are the core of this comprehensive article on fulfillment.
Algorithms: The intellectual capital of the Internet
By Peter C. Bell
Understanding and describing algorithms may be a formidable and unappealing task, but it is a challenge that managers today must meet, if they are to survive and win on the Net. The reason is that e-business today is driven by algorithms, step-by-step coded procedures that determine how tasks on the Internet are performed. Examples of such tasks include a potential customer browsing with a shopping cart or suppliers bidding to do business with a certain manufacturer in a Web auction. In clear and simple language, Mr. Bell, a professor of management science at Ivey, helps readers understand algorithms and the critical role they play in an e-business strategy. Using market examples to illustrate his points, he shows managers how they can manage - if not thoroughly understand - algorithms to their advantage.
Driving Loyalty by Managing the Total Customer Experience
By John Calhoun
While companies realize the value of CRM technologies, many of them use the technologies for specific purposes, such as targeting customers better and maximizing the opportunities for cross selling. Most companies, says the author, fail to set and meet a broader, more strategic goal, improving customer loyalty and creating advocacy. Only an integrated, strategic approach, argues Mr. Calhoun, will unlock CRM's full value and improve the customer's total experience with the organization across the entire enterprise. As Mr. Calhoun writes, "improving customer relationships and increasing loyalty aren't simply about managing interaction with customers better, but about serving them in a fundamentally improved way." In the article, he outlines a road map that will help managers re-define the customer experience so that those very customers will remain loyal and think better of the company, whether they're dealing with order fulfillment or accounts receivable.
Changing the Value Chain: A modular approach
By Barbara Marcolin and Brad Gaulin
Jumping rather than stepping slowly into cyberspace can be disastrous, as many companies have discovered. A gradual, piecemeal approach, these authors point out, is not only a more cautious one, but importantly, one that enables managers to evaluate and modify each stage of an e-business plan immediately after it has been implemented. In this article, the authors describe a three-stage model that will force managers to closely examine their relationships along the supply chain and lead to more efficient and productive relationships. At each stage, a manager will feel in control and on top of change in what is a very dynamic, fast-paced business environment.
Managing for Value: EVA and a portfolio strategy
By Justin Pettit
How can a company manage for value? The answer, says Mr. Pettit, is by carefully applying and interpreting the numbers in formulating and executing value-based strategies. Mr. Pettit should know, since he is a managing partner at Stern Stewart & Co., the firm that developed and has perfected one of the more favoured measures for determining value, Economic Valued Added (EVA). In the article, he first describes why managers are too often drawn to business that seem, on the surface, attractive, but in fact actually destroy value. Using examples, Mr. Pettit then proceeds to describe EVA, how most managers apply it (wrongly) and how to apply it to uncover and create real value.
Leveraging the Power and Value of Intellectual Property
By Thomas J. Colson
Intellectual property, from concepts to patents, is quickly emerging to have a growing impact on mainstream business practices. In almost every industry, intellectual property is increasing its presence on corporate balance sheets and demonstrating that it has an influence on product positioning, revenue generation and shareholder. In this article, Mr. Colson, a patent lawyer and CEO of a Rochester, New York-based patent/trademark registration firm, describes how intellectual property can become a powerful business weapon, if it is managed properly. How to do that, and how to make the management of intellectual property a strategic business issue are the focus of this article. In it, Mr. Colson offers practical suggestions for developing and managing the various intellectual property resources that are common in most companies today.
Ensuring the Successful Privatization of Ontario Hydro
By David W. Conklin and Trevor Hunter
The road to privatization is a road traveled frequently these days, but as cases in jurisdictions such as California (electricity) and the United Kingdom (telecom) illustrate, the ride on that road is not always a smooth one. Privatization, and managing it successfully, has taken on added importance for residents of several Canadian provinces, especially Ontario, where generating, distributing and marketing electricity are gradually being assumed by the private sector. In this article, the authors outline a road map for the successful privatization of Ontario Hydro, and lay down guidelines that both entrepreneurs and consumers can follow.
Departments
Headstart
Strategic Planning for Internet Opportunities
By Allan J. Magrath
Any plan to exploit the Web must address the five key questions posed and discussed by this marketing executive and regular contributor to the Ivey Business Journal. The questions include determining which Web functionalities will drive goal outcomes, and how will the new functionalities be integrated into the firm's legacy systems and processes; how can Web content be kept robust and meaningful for the target audiences; and how to identify the investments that need to be made in people, technology and outsourcing. The answers to these and other questions are a road map for leveraging the power of the Internet.
Accounting for Stock-based Compensation: As easy as SFAS 123
By Christine Wiedman and Daniel Goldberg
Granting stock options is one of the most popular, and perhaps controversial, ways of attracting and retaining key employees, especially those of high-tech companies. However, new accounting rules will soon be introduced for Canadian firms. The rules will be similar to those that were recently implemented in the U.S. The new guidelines require companies to disclose the fair value of the options and make the popular practice of re-pricing unattractive. As these authors point out, the new rules will force Canadian companies to learn from their counterparts in the U.S. and become more prudent in their option-granting practices.
Viewpoint
Management and Literature
By John McCallum
As this Ivey Business Journal regular contributor points out, "the difference between success and failure is marginal, and executives need all the help they can get." Literature may be an unlikely source for an executive seeking to establish a sustainable competitive advantage, but as the author also points out, "the link between literature and successfully running an enterprise is not as far-fetched as it may first appear." The reason is that managing successfully means managing people, and one of the best sources of insight into human behaviour and sound judgment is good literature. In this article, the author suggest two excellent books, whose wisdom and observations are invaluable for CEO or manager today.
Best Practice
The Shape of Governance to Come
By Tony Comper
The recent report by Guylaine Saucier on corporate governance is the latest one on a topic that has come under tighter and tighter scrutiny over the past ten years. One of the leaders in governance standards has been Bank of Montreal, and in this article, its Chairman and CEO Tony Comper describes the practices for which the bank received the Conference Board of Canada's National Award in Governance. From its policy on recruiting directors to its role in ethical oversight, the board's exemplary -- and best - practices are described by Mr. Comper. This article inaugurates a feature, Best Practices, that will run from time to time in the Ivey Business Journal.
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