Strategy & Leadership: Volume 30 Issue 1

Rip the band‐aid off quickly: Why “fast, focused, and simultaneous” works best in corporate transformations

Suggests that in transforming their companies CEOs and management teams often do not act extensively enough to reposition their businesses. States that companies should be…

Strategy development for the real world: A metro newspaper has nowhere to grow and lots of “new media” competition

A respected Wisconsin metro newspaper, confronting significant market change and eroding profit opportunities, gathered a broad cross‐section of its management team together a…

The reinvention and sale of J.C. Penney’s Direct Marketing Services unit

This case chronicles the changing of a corporate unit’s business model, organizational model, and mindset. The reinvention process started in early 1999 when Mercer Management…

In a downturn do you cut pay, slash the workforce or protect precious talent?

Little research has explored how best to reduce labor costs when the economy turns down. A recent phone survey of CEOs and senior executives at 20 “Fortune 100” companies suggests…

Five myths that blind high‐growth companies: The case of “RosyOpticals.com”

This case is a cautionary tale. Though “RosyOpticals.com” was one of analysts’ favorite start‐ups in the Internet boom, this San Francisco company’s prodigious plans to get big in…

Civic scenarios as a tool for societal change

Since the early 1990s, Generon Consulting has been developing the use of scenario thinking as a tool for effecting societal change. In its civic scenario projects, a group of…

An incubator for foreign companies hoping to hatch in the USA

Interviews the founder and executive director of the International Business Incubator (IBI) of Silicon Valley, which stimulates regional growth and acts as an economic development…

Editor's page

How September 11 changed business strategies for influencing government

Looking ahead to the next issue

Blunt Welch

Quick takes