Theme: The Organization
Features
In Conversation: Henry Mintzberg
By Stephen Bernhut
McGill University professor Henry Mintzberg is an astute, acclaimed management thinker, a prolific author, and an iconoclast who has advised some of the world's largest corporations. In this feature Ivey Business Journal interview, Whether he's discussing management, the organization, or shareholder value, Professor Mintzberg provokes with his observations on what is and what is needed in many aspects of the organization today.
Taking a Closer Look
By Henry Mnintzberg and Ludo Van der Heyden
The organization chart can no longer help us understand what an organization does, What's needed in these dynamic times is a much richer diagram that gives us a more revealing picture of a more dynamic organization. That organization can be a hub, a web, or a chain. It is critical that we understand each of these forms and how they work in a particular organization. Then, and only then, will we be able to understand how an organization really works.
One big, happy family: The emotionally intelligent organization
By Howard E. Book
If a family can be dysfunctional, so can organization. In fact, the principles that make for a happy family are very similar to those that make for a healthy organization. That organization is the Emotionally Intelligent organization, one that promotes openness and transparency, encourages diversity and spontaneity and tolerates constructive disagreement. As the author points out, emotional intelligence starts at the top, with leadership that inspires trust and cooperation throughout. The steps to becoming an Emotionally Intelligent oganization are described in this feature.
Hot Groups: The rebirth of Individualism
By Harold J. Leavitt and Jean Lipman-Blumen
A Hot Group, is not just another name for a team or task force. Rather, a Hot Group is the name for one of the most powerful - or potentially powerful - forces in the organization today. A Hot Group is a group state of mind, an attitude that brings real people together around an invigorating challenge, inspiring them to meet that challenge through an extraordinary combustion of creativity, passion, exhilaration, determination and ordinary perspiration. As the authors write, Hot Groups are doing nothing less than revitalizing the organization today.
Unlocking the rusty supply chain
By David Bovet and Gilles Roucolle
A growing number of customers today are pressuring manufacturers to deliver customized products immediately, bundled wit the services they want. Yet most manufacturers can't deliver, and a major reason is poor management of the supply chain. The solution, the authors write, is a Value Net, a dynamic network of customer/supplier partnerships and information flows. Reinventing a company around a Value Net will restore not only the supply chain to its former efficiency, but also a company's ability to satisfy customer demand and deliver promises in real time.
Performance measurement: Implementing a corporate scorecard
By Caroline Goulian and Alexander Mersereau
For some time, managers have argued that financial numbers fail to provide a complete view of an organization's progress. The introduction of the Balanced Scorecard changed that notion. In this article, the authors discuss the experience of a major financial services institution, Standard Life, in implementing the scorecard. The article has valuable lessons for senior executives and managers and describes the guidelines needed for a successful implementation.
Vanishing Walls
By Doug Treen
Bricks and mortar may disappear when an e-organization is created, but too often the old way of doing things does not. In this article, consultant Doug Treen discusses the key differences of an e-organization, the processes and structures that must disappear, and those that must take their place. For an executive hoping to build a true e-organization, the article will serve as a blueprint for success.
Departments
International Trade
A proactive step against bribery and corruption
By Riyaz Dattu, John W. Boscariol, and Tzen-Yi Goh
The recently signed Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions is a major step to eliminate practices that can be de-facto non-tariff trade barriers. These international trade lawyers discuss the Convention and its meaning for Canadian businesses.
Asian Influence
Korea's Economy Opens Up
By O. Yul Kwon
Once closed and protected, the Korean economy is now open and transparent, thanks to a government that has recognized that major changes had to be made. For Canadian companies, it is now easier to do business in Korea. At the same time, however, it is also more competitive. As the author points out, companies would do well to understand just how the Korean economy works.
Headstart
Control self-assessment: A new approach to auditing
By Noreen Foh
Mergers, acquisitions, downsizings and restructurings have exposed weaknesses in traditional auditing, especially its ability to address new risks in a volatile business environment. To meet these challenges, auditing professionals developed Control Self-Assessment (CSA). With CSA, a more flexible, enterprise-wide framework for internal control integrates business risk management with continuous change. The dynamic CSA model replaces the more traditional, top-down financial model, and leads to wider ownership of auditing controls and the introduction of business-risk evaluation.
Compensation disclosure: Who wins?
By Jane Craighead, Micel Magnan and Linda Thorne
In 1993, the notion that shareholder value would increase prompted the Ontario Securities Commission to make the disclosure of executive compensation mandatory. Shareholder value did increase, but as a study by three accounting academics shows, so did the amount of the total compensation that CEOs received. One reason is that in the post-disclosure period, bonus and stock options came to represent close to half of a CEO's compensation, an increase from the one-third before forced disclosure. Yet the larger incentive component raises two important questions: Are shareholders' interests better served and is a firm's performance better under the new compensation structure?
Winning the race for new market opportunities
By Nora Aufreiter and Teri Lawver
While there is no shortage of new business opportunities, too many organizations today lack a disciplined approach for pursuing and managing those opportunities. A highly effective, new approach is theVenture Marketing Organization. Replicating the behaviour of the venture capital organization, the VMO does four things very well: It creates a fluid organization that can mobilize opportunity teams quickly; it hires people into roles, not jobs; it drives fast decision making from the top while making opportunity identification everyone's job; and it focuses resources on the highest-payback opportunities, while it prunes losers quickly.
Viewpoint
The new economy: Preparing for a slowdown
By John McCallum
So far, says regular contributor and economist John McCallum, the "new" in new economy has meant stronger and longer growth, with moire jobs, lower inflation and interest rates and more investor and and consumer spending. But, warns McCallum, don't bet against the possibility that that the downside of the new economy will be as grim as the upside has been fun. A slowdown, even a recession, may be closer than many people think.
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