Why smart executives fail: Four case histories of how people learn the wrong lessons from history

In a series of inductive case histories of leadership and strategy, we document the problem of how executives often learn the wrong lessons from history. The costs associated with such misdirected learning are significant, and often tally in the hundreds of millions to billions in losses. These mistakes are seldom due to managerial incompetence or random events, but rather are driven by common patterns of managerial behaviour. The case histories of two American and two Japanese companies highlight how and why apparently talented managers often learn the wrong lessons from history.     

Professional codes: Why,how, and with what impact?

A tension between the professions' pursuit of autonomy and the public's demand for accountability has led to the development of codes of ethics as both a foundation and guide for professional conduct in the face of morally ambiguous situations. The profession as an institution serves as a normative reference group for individual practitioners and through a code of ethics clarifies, for both its members and outsiders, the norms that ought to govern professional behavior. Three types of codes can be identified — aspirational, educational and regulatory. All codes serve multiple interests and, as a consequence, perform many functions, eight of which are discussed. The process of developing a code of ethics is assessed because of the role it plays in gaining consensus on professional values and ethical norms. After discussing some of the weaknesses in current approaches to professional self-regulation, several new private and public initiatives are proposed.Mark S. Frankel is Head of the Office of Scientific Freedom and Responsibility of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, where he is Staff Director of the Association's Professional Ethics Program. Prior to joining AAAS, he was Director of the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. His recent research and writings focus on the role of professional societies in promoting ethical practices by their members. He has conducted several workshops and seminars on ethics for corporate managers, scientists, and engineers.     

Time bandits: How they are created, why they are tolerated, and what can be done about them

Organizations today own little slack, and they must very carefully manage their resources. In this article, we describe an omnipresent, yet often ignored resource utilization problem whereby some workers abandon certain responsibilities and use the freed-up time to pursue personal interests such as hobbies and side businesses. In essence, these “time bandits” work part-time in exchange for full-time pay. While bandits are a minority among workers, their negative effects are significant and widespread. Specifically, banditry undermines an organization's mission, morale, and productivity, as well as putting stakeholder support at risk. In an effort to address this problem, we offer insights in three areas. First, we identify key causes of banditry, including supervisors not enforcing performance standards, poorly constructed reward systems, and the failure to recognize individual differences when designing jobs. Second, we describe reasons why banditry is tolerated within organizations, such as supervisors' desire to avoid conflict and their fear of being labeled as hypocrites. Most importantly, we offer a set of techniques that can prevent and reverse banditry. These include carefully defining expectations, intervening quickly when the symptoms of banditry appear, reducing bandits' compensation over time, and designing jobs that capitalize on individuals' varied skills and motivation.     

Better marketing to developing countries: Why and how

Managers have long understood the rationale for investing in new products. Now, however, they face an even more compelling need: to invest in targeting new markets, specifically those in less developed countries (LDCs). The argument presented in this article, for initiating or increasing marketing efforts in these nations, makes two related points. First, a healthy world economy requires consumers in developing nations—particularly China—to spend more, because trade imbalances between the United States and LDCs cannot be sustained. Second, in order to foster consumption in LDCs and to profit from it, marketing expertise in the developed world must refocus. Success will require devising, promoting, and distributing products that will overcome economic constraints in some markets, and in others will overcome an understandable reluctance to spend rather than save. We suggest that lessons may be gleaned from examples regarding recent efforts targeting LDCs by a pharmaceutical company (Pfizer) and a food supplement marketer (Procter & Gamble), as well as efforts pioneered in less developed countries themselves (including low-cost private schools and $2,500 automobiles).     

Consumer insights into luxury goods: Why they shop where they do in a jewelry shopping setting

The question that guides this research concerns why consumers prefer to shop where they do for luxury goods. This study applies Tauber's (1972) motives, as representative of Sheth's (1983) nonfunctional shopping motives for luxury goods purchases. The study examines how well Tauber's motives describe consumers’ shopping motivations at each retail outlet in a jewelry shopping setting. These retail outlets consist of store- and non-store formats. The study identifies motives that are considered most important by consumers and that contribute to their shopping preferences. This study also identifies demographic profiles of jewelry shoppers at each retail outlet. Jewelry shoppers are more influenced by functional motives than nonfunctional motives.     

为何我说中国没有真正的高科技企业——对话郎咸平

2005年底郎咸平与四川长虹董事长赵勇在演讲会上的舌战,曾经被视作国内科技企业高层代表对于郎咸平长期批判的反击。当我们本以为郎咸平在2006年初会安静下来的时候,他撰写的一本《科     

Intellectual property marketplaces and how they work: Evidence from German pharmaceutical firms

This article examines a sample of German pharmaceutical firms to highlight the strategic reasons why firms participate in various intellectual property (IP) marketplaces, both proprietary (patents and copyrights) and non-proprietary (open source and non-patented technology). The obstacles that prevent these marketplaces from functioning efficiently are also investigated. The analysis suggests that IP policy must embrace all IP forms and must recognise that IP marketplaces do not work “automatically” but suffer many institutional failures.     

Envisioning consumers: how videography can contribute to marketing knowledge

ABSTRACT

Based on a review of the past 30 years of videographic research and outputs in the field of marketing, we highlight the key contributions that videography has made to the marketing literature and identify the key issues facing videographic research today. We develop a typology that identifies four ways that videography can contribute to theory development and verification, presenting new criteria for assessing academic videographies. We note that making theoretical contributions is one of the most difficult issues facing videographic researchers and that this is an area in need of significant developments to help the field progress. Finally, we envision what the future of videography might look like and consider the implications of new forms of videographies.     

Markets for risk and openness to trade: how are they related?

If protectionist trade policies aim to insure domestic industries against swings in world market prices, the development of financial markets could lead to trade liberalization. Likewise, trade liberalization could lead to the development of financial markets that help agents diversify the added risks. In this paper, we empirically address the hypothesis that there is a positive interdependence between financial development and liberal trade policies. We find a positive and economically significant relationship between the two, with causation running in both directions. The results are, however, somewhat dependent on the measure of trade policy being used.     

Application of military strategies to business: Why they are more relevant to Japanese than American companies

Among various factors contributing to the economic success of the Japanese, the use of military-like strategies has been recently cited by scholars, prominent journalists, and politicians in the United States. Some of them are now advocating retaliation through the use of similar military-type methods. However, will the American companies and their government be able to do this successfully? A lot depends on a clear appreciation of some of the fundamental principles underlying the use of military strategies to business practices. This article seeks to highlight and explain why militarytype strategies are more applicable to Japanese than American companies. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A survey of commercial laundry detergents — how effective are they? Part II: liquids

The effectiveness of 11 unbuilt liquid detergents and eight built liquid detergents, of varying formulations, in cleaning a standard soiled fabric in soft water (5 ppm) were evaluated. It was found that in soft water there were no significant differences between washing in warm or hot water with either type of detergent, except for a melaleuca oil based detergent which was significantly better in hot water. However, although not significant, in general, washing with unbuilt liquid detergents did give somewhat better results in both warm and hot water.     

A survey of commercial laundry detergents – how effective are they? Part I: powders

The effectiveness of 11 non-phosphate containing powdered detergents and 12 phosphate containing powdered detergents, of varying formulations, in cleaning a standard soiled fabric in soft water (5 ppm) were evaluated. It was found that in soft water there were no differences between washing with either phosphate or non-phosphate detergent. In general, washing with detergents which contained phosphates did give somewhat better results in warm water. Detergents that contained bleach as an additive did not result in a whiter fabric.     

Why, when, and how to diversify? A comparison between Western theories and the cognition of Chinese enterprises

This paper uses as research samples 140 papers on enterprise diversification published in top-notch Western journals, and public statements from 30 influential contemporary Chinese CEOs on enterprise diversification. Both the qualitative open coding and the qualitative factor analysis are employed to analyze the two samples respectively, and then the corresponding analysis is utilized to explore the differences between Western theories and the cognition of Chinese enterprises on the motivation (why), timing (when) and industry choice (how) of enterprise diversification. Results show that, first, both consider the motivation of diversification mainly from the perspectives of resource-based view and asset portfolio theory. However, Western theories pay more attention to the factors related to the perspectives of the resource-based theory, transaction cost theory and agency theory, while Chinese enterprises put more emphasis on those factors associated with the asset portfolio theory, government policies and institutional theory. Second, on the cognition of the timing of diversification, Western theories insist that enterprises should diversify when they meet threats, while the practice of Chinese enterprises insists that diversification should take place when enterprises have enough strength. Third, Western theories focus more on the interrelationship between the original industry and the intended industry than on the attractiveness of the intended industry, while Chinese enterprises pay more attention to attractiveness than interrelationship. Translated from Guanli Shijie 맜理世界 (Management World), 2005, (8): 94–104