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| In this Issue ... |
IVEY BUSINESS JOURNAL
November/December 2001
Volume 66 Number 2 |
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Theme: Outlook
Features
In Conversation: I.H. Asper
By Ed Pearce
In one way, CanWest Global Communications chairman and founder I.H. Asper has never left his home province of Manitoba. But between his purchase of a small TV station that he bought in 1975, and his choice today to keep one of Canada's largest media empires headquartered in Winnipeg, Mr. Asper has traveled far and wide. The one-time tax lawyer and politician has built what was once Canada's smallest national television
network into a media powerhouse that owns 16 TV stations, 7 specialty channels, 120 community newspapers, and 26 daily newspapers, including the National Post. Earthy, frank and expansive, Mr. Asper reflects, projects and muses about his life and many businesses in this In Conversation piece with Business Journal publisher Ed Pearce.
Globalization and the legitimacy of dissent
By Jeffrey Gandz
It may be inexorable and championed by some, even many, but to others, globalization is a juggernaut that needs to be stopped, if not reversed. Those "others' are the critics and demonstrators who, over the past few years, have come to variously protest, disrupt and destroy the calm, official proceedings of meetings to further the advance of globalization. But, as Ivey professor Jeffrey Gandz points out, leaders need to listen to and accommodate those voices of protest. As he maintains, dissent is virtually synonymous with democracy, and organizations like the World Trade Organization must not only uphold the democratic tradition but also carefully consider the criticism that protesters from trade unionists to peace groups voice.
Building competitive advantage and managing risk through sustainable development
By Pratima Bansal
Business leaders who choose to ignore pressing social, economic and environmental issues do so at their own considerable peril - and their organization's. But it is for reasons other than avoiding extinction or being branded as a pariah that a business today needs to walk the talk of sustainable development. Ivey professor Pratima Bansal has done extensive research on the issue of sustainable development, and her findings, which are the basis of this article, suggest that a business can gain competitive advantage and manage risk by being proactive and responsible. In this article, she maps out the domain of sustainable development and describes the benefits that will accrue to a company that develops sound, effective responses to the issue.
Value-building growth: A Canadian challenge
By Tim Macdonald and Dean Hillier
Among the pressing challenges for today's CEO is the need to achieve the right balance between top-line and bottom-line growth and to determine the exact role that growth and profitability will play in the creation of shareholder value. To determine the right approaches, and the true relationship between growth and shareholder value, the authors, who work in the Toronto office of consulting firm A.T. Kearney, analyzed 1,100 global companies. The sample included 223 Canadian companies, whose growth strategies are limited by being too complacent, Canada focused, and by being followers not leaders in innovating. However, CEOs who develop and adhere to a strong strategy, and promote innovation, expansion and risk taking will create superior shareholder value over the long term.
Talent management: A critical part of every leader's job
By Helen Handfield-Jones, Ed Michaels and Beth Axelrod
Many CEOs are naturally inclined - and responsible for - overseeing the day-to-day operations of their respective firms. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but in the years ahead, one of a company's major competitive advantages will be its ability to attract, develop, excite and retain talent. Responsibility for managing that talent is already being assumed by some CEOs, who, these co-authors and McKinsey consultants say, are fast coming to the realization that their respective organizations are going to have to improve their talent management practices. In this article, which is based on their recently published book, The War for Talent, the co-authors survey the state of talent management as practiced by 13,000 managers. While becoming a talent manager is imperative, it will require a fundamental shift in how a CEO sees his or her job and a significant time commitment, tasks that the authors describe in the article.
Departments
Best practice
Customer relationship management at CCL
By Ian Gordon and Connie Wente
Packaging aerosol products may seem like a rather unglamorous business, especially in today's New Economy, but the way CCL has practiced it over the years has won the firm wide recognition and strong growth over its almost-50 year history. At the core of the company's success is the view that stakeholder relationships are vital corporate assets that should be nurtured and grown over time. Such a view, in fact, makes it seem that CCL was practicing Customer Relationship Management well before the term was popularized. After reading this article, and getting an inside look at how the company manages its relationships, it will be easy to understand why CCL is such a leading practitioner of Customer Relationship Management.
Headstart
Jack Welch: Business Jock
By Yvan Allaire
Jack Welch's take-no-prisoner, suffer-no fools approach to managing is the stuff of business legend, and if that approach seems uncannily like that of a coach in sports, say someone like the unrelenting and not always forgiving taskmaster, Vince Lombardi, well then, that's was just Welch's style. Deified, lionized and, in some quarters, vilified, Welch made General Electric one of the world's biggest and most profitable corporations, and the model of managerial effectiveness and success. Now, Mr. Welch has recounted how he did it in Jack: Straight From the Gut (with John A. Byrne, Warner Books, September 2001). The book, and Jack Welch, are reviewed by someone whose own management expertise is well recognized, and who actually jousted with him, if only verbally, former Bombardier Inc. Executive Vice President Yvan Allaire.
Revenue recognition: More stringent rules on the horizon
By Nadi Chlala and Suzanne Landry
Revenue recognition is an area that concerns managers, regulators and auditors. Arguably, managers are and should be more concerned than other parties. And why not? Selecting the wrong accounting method or one that may be challenged, and falling stock prices that can results in shareholder litigation that in turn can affect and, in some cases destroy, management's reputation and credibility. Those possibilities are becoming more real, given the emergence of the New Economy, which without clear, authoritative guidelines has made revenue recognition and classification decisions a largely subjective matter. These two financial academics, from Laval University and the University of Quebec in Montreal, offer this timely article that identifies the issues for Canadian managers and analyzes aspects such as timing and measuring revenue recognition.
Combining on-line and off-line marketing strategies
By S. Ramesh Kumar
While the Internet is a dynamic, highly-effective marketing medium, its ability to return a profit has, for the most part, been unproven. One possibility is to combine on-line and off-line marketing strategies. This article, by a marketing professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India, describes a practice-oriented model than could enable marketers to achieve that goal. As Mr. Kumar points out, on-line and off-line tactics can not only complement each other but also achieve a distinct synergy that can have a direct impact on marketing costs.
Viewpoint
Adapt or die
John S. McCallum
Dinosaurs are an apt and widely used metaphor today. After all, if a firm can't or won't adapt, it's straight to the dustbin of business oblivion. As regular contributor John S. McCallum points out, a business enterprise is not totally dissimilar from a dinosaur; ignore rapidly changing circumstances, and a leader authors his or her company's demise. Adapt to rapid changes better than your competitors and you'll make great strides. Outlining suggestions that will help managers adapt to today's volatile, fast-paced environment, Mr. McCallum quotes no less than a change authority than Charles Darwin to illustrate what the real imperative is for a business leader today: " It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change." |
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