A four-step approach to 1992

Here's a four-step process to help you analyze both the opportunities and potential hazards of 1992. Even if you've already made your plans, it's a way to make sure you've considered all the implications of a Single Europe.     

Hiring local managers and employees overseas

Hiring and retaining local employees for an overseas plant or office calls for abandoning ordinary American hiring techniques and assumptions and rethinking the entire process. When hiring a national, whether a manager or lower-level employee, you must be acutely aware of that country's cultural mores. Only then can you best fulfill your organization's goals while simultaneously meeting the needs of the employee.     

Differentiating hospitality operations via experiences: why selling services is not enough

By infusing your hospitality operation with a theme—explicitly stated or creatively subtle— you can improve your guests' experience and (not incidentally) your profits.     

Basing service management on customer determinants: The importance of hot pizza

Before tinkering with product and service attributes (such as product price and service speed), it helps to know what's most important to your customers. Discrete-choice analysis can provide that information.     

The craft of business intelligence: An American view

Business is war. And in war, it is a matter of survival of the fittest. In order to survive in today's cutthroat business environment, we must be properly armed. And one of the most important arrows in the executive's quiver is accurate knowledge of competitors and their business environment. In other words, detailed knowledge of the enemy and the terrain of the battlefield. Every major country on earth recognizes the importance of intelligence and employs an intelligence agency to collect it for them. Over 2,500 years ago, the Chinese general Sun Tzu wrote: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” Frederick the Great also expressed his opinion on the importance of intelligence when he said: “It is pardonable to be defeated, but never surprised.” In today's highly competitive business world it is becoming more and more important to know your competition-know your enemy-and, particularly in the international arena, to know your battlefield. There are minefields out there, and it is imperative to be able to identify and avoid them. You can still lose, even when armed with superior forces, if the terrain is against you. 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

It was 60 years ago today! Reflections on change in China: A decade framed by two parades

The lyrics below are mine but the tune is “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Though you may have been born after this song hit the airwaves, this Beatles standard should be one of those melodies that is indelibly etched in your mind … so sing, and sing it loud:

相似文献   

Cultural influences on global firms' decisions to cut the strategic brand ties that bind: A commentary essay

Today's global firms face increasing pressure to protect their brand identity from encroachments of copycat brands that seek to benefit from associations firms have established in the minds of consumers. This essay is a commentary to the article “Marking your trade: cultural factors in the prolongation of trademarks” by Melnyk, Giarratana and Torres that raises several important issues warranting further attention by researchers. This essay comments on the paper's contributions, limitations, and opportunities contributing to future research about trademark practices and strategies. Furthermore, the essay suggests useful extensions relative to the more general strategic issue of prolongation or abandonment of intangible brand assets in global markets and the dynamic interface between firm-created and consumer-created brand meaning.     

Hong Kong 1997–a look back at Hong Kong's future

July 1st, 1997–the date on which Hong Kong reverted to Chinese sovereignty, an event with a world-wide audience: Did the date symbolize the long-awaited end of Western imperialism in Asia? Or a retreat from freedom? Or, now that it's in the past, was the whole thing just a case of journalistic overkill? It all depends on your point of view. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

More value for your company's continuing education dollar

Money for training is in short supply, so dollars for “outside” training must be spent wisely. Here are some ways your employees can get the most for your company's money out of those external training programs.     

Managing innovation: Military strategy in business

“How in God's name do you think you lead …? By the strength of your arm only? No. But by your brain … And by magic.” From Tai-Pan by James Clavell     

The lurker in the object

ABSTRACT

A peculiar note from a neighbor of a consumer culture theorist stationed at Miskatonic University who has gone missing arrives for you. The Arkham police have tasked the neighbor with sorting out some seemingly-incoherent academic notes left behind by the professor. In particular, they have tasked him with reaching out to you in order to determine the meaning of a peculiar phrase, “the lurker waits in the object” scrawled into the missing professor's desk. The notes concern several topics, but seem, in the neighbor's opinion, to revolve around object-oriented ontology, horror reality, genre horror, and information by allusion. The neighbor emphasizes that the missing professor may have suffered some mental illness or other tragedy, but has no other viable leads aside from the phrase and notes and begs your expert advice on the topic.     

“唯女子与小人为难养”新解——孔子没有鄙视妇女的辨析

《论语》＂唯女子与小人为难养＂,历来被视为是孔子鄙视妇女的言论。然而《论语》中有19个＂女＂,除有一＂女＂作女本字解,其余18个＂女＂作＂汝＂解;＂女子＂应作＂汝子＂解。＂难养＂是难教育、难培养,＂唯女子与小人为难养＂是说只有你的儿子与小人算是难教育、难培养。孔子没有鄙视妇女的意思。     

The corporation and its employees: A case story

One of the main objectives in the information society is to improve the quality of life. — Paying attention to the needs of people seems to be a key element in good ethical behaviour, says Tor Dahl, Managing Director of Manpower Scandinavia. In defining these needs, Manpower used Abraham Maslow's famous pyramid, his hierarchy of needs, as a model for trying to satisfy in practise the needs on each level. However, they went a step further, asking; what comes after Maslow? To mean something for others; togetherness and that people can be trusted and that they seek a purpose with their work, came out as answers. In his paper Mr. Dahl tells us how Manpower Scandinavia has developed a written set of values, which function as a basis for action and guidelines for behaviour, and where the key idea behind it all is to let people be self-managed. Furthermore, he shows us how Manpower has organised the company according to this conviction. — If your really have faith in people and show them trust, they will show you trust in return. Then you have a good basis for ethical behaviour, Tor Dahl concludes his paper.     

Jobs '90. Attitude aptitude

Is your job all it's cracked up to be? Take R&I's job$ quiz and compare your opinions about career and industry issues with those of your executive colleagues.     

Balancing dominance: Diagnosing the buyer-supplier relationship

There is often more than meets the eye in any relationship—especially business relationships. Using the author's “stability matrix” can help you find out just where you stand with your customers or suppliers and where things might be headed.     

Jumpstarting the use of social technologies in your organization

How do you get your organization to start using social technologies to become more innovative and productive? Where and with whom should you begin? We interviewed over 70 managers across 30 companies and found that the most successful firms employ one of three jumpstart strategies, depending on the organization's mission, work processes, culture, and industry. Some start at the bottom of the organization, finding and enabling ‘young experimenters’ to use social technologies to enhance their individual productivity. Others start in the middle, finding and helping ‘corporate entrepreneurs’ in middle management to use social technologies to improve collaboration on teams and projects. Others begin at the top, finding ‘enlightened executives’ who are open to new technology and the potential of social tools to strengthen their organizational culture. We combine our research with concepts from change management, technology adoption, and social networks to suggest ways managers can best introduce social collaboration tools into their organizations.     

Should We Hire David Beckham to Endorse our Brand? Contextual Interference and Consumer Memory for Brands in a Celebrity's Endorsement Portfolio

Imagine that you are browsing through a magazine, and you see one of your favorite celebrities in an advertisement. Then, a bit further into the magazine you see that same celebrity in an ad for a different product. A few hours later, you think of the celebrity again and try to remember the products s/he was endorsing, but what will you actually recall? This paper examines consumer memory for celebrity advertising under conditions where a single celebrity advertises for more than one brand. Using contextual interference as the theoretical lens, the current research posits and demonstrates how brands in a celebrity's “endorsement portfolio” compete with one another when consumers use the celebrity as retrieval cue for information that was contained in the ads. The findings of the laboratory experiment reveal that brands sharing either a high or low match with the celebrity win the battle during retrieval and inhibit consumers’ ability to accurately recall ad information for brands sharing a more moderate match with the celebrity. The theoretical practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

The counter-conventional mindsets of entrepreneurs

These days, it seems, nearly everyone aspires to be an entrepreneur. But many entrepreneurs think and act differently than the way in which most other businesspeople do and the way much of today’s business education encourages them to think and act. My in-depth examination of dozens of entrepreneurs I’ve come to know well over the past 2 decades tells me that their unconventional—or, dare I say, counter-conventional—mindsets and behaviors are marked by six common patterns: (1) ‘Yes, we can;’ (2) beg, borrow, or steal; (3) think narrow, not broad; (4) problem-first, not product-first logic; (5) ‘No’ is something waiting to be turned into ‘Yes’; and (6) ask for the cash and ride the float. Thankfully, we now know that entrepreneurs are made, not born. These six patterns of entrepreneurial thought and action are eminently learnable. If you want to someday be an entrepreneur, or if you want the people in your company to become more entrepreneurial, then developing—or encouraging and incentivizing your people to develop—such a mindset might constitute a suitable first step toward preparing you to follow a more entrepreneurial path or to foster a more entrepreneurial culture in your company.