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Web Only Articles (2011)

Below is a full article list from this issue of strategy+business.

What’s Your Company’s Facebook LPM (Likes per Million)?
by Nicholas Hodson, Umut Aytekin, and Jon Crawford
Every company can compare its brand value to that of its competitors based on a readily available scale: Facebook “likes,” adjusted for company revenue.
 
Highlights from the Decade
strategy+business published its first “Best Business Books” section in Winter 2001. Here, in retrospect, is the book from each year that we think was most significant.
 
How Coca-Cola Manages 90 Emerging Markets
by William J. Holstein
The world’s largest beverage company has delegated major decision making to individual markets, but it maintains its global brand strategy through collaborative practices.
 
Demographics Are Not Destiny
by Richard Shediac, Chadi N. Moujaes, and Mazen Ramsay Najjar
Even as the world’s population reaches 7 billion, the rate of growth is slowing and workforces are aging. Companies and countries can prosper by preparing for the changes to come.
 
How Female Talent Could Transform Emerging Economies
by Melissa Master Cavanaugh
Authors Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Ripa Rashid argue that corporate leaders are overlooking one of the most enthusiastic, capable sources of talent in the world: women in emerging markets.
 
China in Transition
by Sheridan Prasso
China’s rising middle class will challenge the world’s resources — and press China’s leadership for change, says Cheng Li, a leading Chinese political scientist.
 
How to Prevent Self-Inflicted Disasters
by Eric Kronenberg
All too often, companies unintentionally create their own worst crises. With a little awareness of your organizational DNA, you can avoid that fate — and the headlines that go with it.
 
Global Lessons for Controlling Healthcare Costs
by Peter Behner, Rick Edmunds, and Elizabeth Powers
Health insurers are reaching beyond national borders for more effective medical management strategies.
 
IT Road Maps for IT Transformation
by Michael Connolly and Edward H. Baker
A conversation with Aetna Executive Vice President Meg McCarthy.
 
M&A in the New CPG Strategy
by J. Neely, Paul Leinwand, and Amit Misra
For consumer products companies seeking acquisition targets, the game-changing deals are those that bring more coherence.
 
Focus vs. Hocus-Pocus at Alberto-Culver
by James Marino
The CEO of this nimble cosmetics company explains the advantages of a small size and a coherent strategy.
 
Consumer Packaged Goods: Escaping the Consolidation Mentality
by Steffen Lauster, Elisabeth Hartley, and Samrat Sharma
Holding fast to the two myths that have long dominated strategy in consumer-oriented industries — that bigger companies win, and that one or two players control every product category — can get a firm into trouble. A capabilities-driven strategy can provide a better path to profit.
 
3M’s Open Innovation
by Barry Jaruzelski, Richard Holman, and Edward Baker
Fred J. Palensky, chief technology officer at one of the world’s most innovative companies, explains how to foster the ongoing cross-pollination of ideas.
 
Next-Generation Product Development
by Barry Jaruzelski, Richard Holman, and Omar Daud
Combining agile up-front processes with a lean approach to the back end can help companies outperform the competition.
 
The Missing Link in Innovative Research
by Anna Pettersson and August Vlak
When the pipeline of technological breakthroughs has stalled, especially in industries like pharmaceuticals, midlevel managers may hold the key to R&D productivity.
 
The Three Paths to Open Innovation
by Barry Jaruzelski and Richard Holman
To build your capabilities and cast a wider net for ideas, you must figure out which of the three types of innovation strategies you already have — and design your R&D approach accordingly.
 
A Long-Wave Theory on Today’s Digital Revolution
by Art Kleiner
Historian Elin Whitney-Smith looks at previous periods of disruption to understand what companies (and people) are going through today.
 
The Virtual Fitting Room
by Annette Kramer
As simulation technologies transform the apparel shopping experience, retailers must decide how rapidly to embrace innovation. The Fits.me story demonstrates how challenging — and rewarding — an Internet marketing strategy can be.
 
Service Operations as a Secret Weapon
by Harry Hawkes, Curt Bailey, and Patricia Riedl
Effectively managing service operations is crucial to controlling labor costs and improving customer satisfaction. By addressing six drivers of performance, executives can go a step further — turning their service operations into a key source of competitive advantage.
 
Is the U.S. Auto Industry Ready for Economic Recovery?
by Scott Corwin, Brian Collie, and Patrick Mulcahy
A new survey of U.S.-based automotive executives shows they are optimistic about their own companies — but pessimistic about the auto industry’s prospects at large.
 
Nuclear Realism after Fukushima
by Tom Flaherty, Joe van den Berg, and Nicolas Volpicelli
A hasty, large-scale movement away from nuclear power would not resolve most of the issues raised by the ongoing crisis in Japan. Instead, we need more thoughtful discussions now about the energy systems of the future.
 
The Innovation Advantage
by Laura W. Geller
Council on Foreign Relations fellow Adam Segal decodes the rise of innovation in China and India — and what it really means for the United States.
 
Total Shareholder Returns
by Ken Favaro and Greg Rotz
This measure of business performance is the best indicator of corporate success.
 
How to Balance Power and Love
by Art Kleiner
Scenario planning and social change expert Adam Kahane suggests that to master large and difficult challenges, leaders need to learn to act and empathize simultaneously.
 
Saving a Crisis-Ridden Company
by Priscilla Nelson and Ed Cohen
After massive fraud was discovered there, Satyam Computer Services survived by helping its employees focus on their emotional trauma.
 
A Continuous Quest for Economic Balance
by Richard Shediac, Chadi N. Moujaes, and Mazen Ramsay Najjar
Only diverse economies are truly stable — and diversity must be more broadly defined.
 
Hotbeds of Innovation
by William J. Holstein
U.S. multinationals are looking to small companies and startups for the next big ideas.
 
Five Industries Hit the Reset Button
by the Booz & Company industry teams; introduced and edited by s+b Senior Editor Karen Henrie
As a prerequisite for growth in the post-crisis environment, leading companies in the consumer products, telecommunications, industrial goods, automotive, and financial-services industries are shifting their business models and operating practices.
 
How to Bring Innovations to Market
by Theodore Kinni
Management professor Vijay Govindarajan explains why companies have trouble implementing new ideas — and what they should do about it.