Fabrication and manufacturing

Competing in overcrowded industries is no way to sustain high performance. The real opportunity is to create blue oceans of uncontested market space.

Everyone agrees that managing change is tough, but few can agree on how to do it. Most experts are obsessed with "soft" issues, such as culture and motivation,...

Before they have received even a day of training, the best salespeople already have two seemingly incompatible qualities in abundance: empathy with customers and a need to overcome their hesitation to buy.

In many companies, sales forces and marketers feud like Capulets and Montagues—with disastrous results. Here’s how to get them to lay down their swords.

Your organization can become more decisive—and can implement strategy more quickly—if you know where the bottlenecks are and who’s empowered to break through them.

Six leaders offer their perspectives on sales success.

Powerful brands have distinct personalities: Duracell’s batteries last a long time. Volvos are safe in a crash. But even dominant brands can fade if they fall prey to multiple personality disorder. Consider General Motors. What’s the difference between a Chevrolet, a Pontiac, and a Buick? The company has recently woken up to the problem; last […]

High-stakes projects need all-star teams. But all-stars often play by their own rules—and fight like cats and dogs.

Artwork: Michael Johansson, Self Contained, 2010, containers, caravan, tractor, Volvo, pallets, refrigerators, etc., 8.2 x 10.8 x 2.4 m Hong Kong–based Esquel, one of the world’s leading producers of premium cotton shirts, faced a quandary in the early 2000s. Apparel and retail customers such as Nike and Marks & Spencer had begun asking the company […]

Toyota demonstrates how more-efficient supplier relationships can speed production and boost innovation.

An educational-gaming firm rethinks its talent strategy.

Many assume that China’s cost advantage in manufacturing comes from cheap labor. But in China’s burgeoning steel industry, our research suggests, massive government energy subsidies, not other factors, keep prices down. These subsidies have broad implications for how companies compete and collaborate with Chinese businesses. In 2005, Beijing designated steel as a pillar industry for […]

Hardware startups are easier to launch than ever.

One firm in India wanted to understand what leads workers to make unsafe choices, and why unsafe conditions go unreported.

High-definition televisions (HDTVs) should, by now, be a huge success. Philips, Sony, and Thompson invested billions of dollars to develop TV sets with...

Reprint: R0309E Despite companies' almost fanatical worship of innovation, most new products don't generate money. That's because executives don't realize...

For a leader, a public apology is always a high-risk move. Understanding what apologies can and cannot do will help you avoid both foolhardy stonewalling and unnecessary contrition.

The cumulative impact of the allocation of resources by managers at any level has more real-world effect on strategy than any plans developed at headquarters.

It’s a place where more energy is put into thwarting things than starting them, but in the nicest way. A startling percentage of companies, especially large, established ones, display the symptoms.

With workers defining their own job standards, quality and productivity at the Fremont plant went from worst to best.