https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/rss en-us Peter switched on his desk lamp. It was getting dark, and the past 11 hours had been full of meetings and decisions. His trucking company had been struggling with the high diesel prices and soft economy of the early 2000s, but he had been fighting back by cutting costs across the board. He wasn't failing yet, but... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/2362 Thu, 18 Jun 2015 06:27:23 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/2362-maintaining-a-long-term-view-during-turnarounds It's one thing for a CFO to understand the technical methods of valuation-and for members of the finance organization to apply them to help line managers monitor and improve company performance. But it's still more powerful when CEOs, board members, and other nonfinancial executives internalize the principles of value creation. Doing so allows them to make independent, courageous, and... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/2361 Thu, 18 Jun 2015 06:09:18 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/2361-the-ceo-s-guide-to-corporate-finance A case study of change at Philips illustrates the importance of the "soft stuff." When Pieter Nota joined Philips, four years ago, to run the Dutch technology group's Consumer Lifestyle sector, he found a business in poor shape. The market shares of several important products were falling in the wake of harsh trading conditions and a lack of earlier investment. Sales of the company's televisions were declining alarmingly following a brief spike ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. More fundamentally,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1961 Wed, 17 Dec 2014 06:42:03 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1961-from-bottom-to-top-turning-around-the-top-team Large capital investments that are completed on schedule and within their budgets are probably the exception rather than the rule-and even when completed many fail to meet expected revenues. Executives often blame project underperformance on foreseeable complexities and uncertainties having to do with the scope of and demand for the project, the technology or project location, or even stakeholder opposition. No doubt, all of these factors at one time or another contribute to cost overruns, benefit shortfalls, and delays. But knowing that such factors are likely to crop up,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1954 Tue, 16 Dec 2014 06:19:41 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1954-better-forecasting-for-large-capital-projects Veteran director David Beatty finds many boards wanting-and considers how to improve them. Boards of directors have always, in all cultures, represented the shareholders in publicly traded companies-validating financial results, protecting their assets, and counseling the CEO on strategy and on finding, then nurturing, the next generation of leaders. It's a tough and demanding responsibility, requiring individual directors to learn as much as they can about a company and its operations so that their insights and advice can stand up alongside those of executives. That, at least, is the ideal. One litmus test... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1915 Wed, 10 Dec 2014 05:53:20 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1915-are-you-getting-all-you-can-from-your-board-of-directors Strategic planning has been under assault for years. But good strategy is more important than ever. What does that mean for the strategist? Many companies have an executive to guide their strategies. The discipline's professionalization, which began in earnest in the 1980s as it evolved from the chief executive's domain into a core corporate function, prompted the creation of heads of strategy, strategic-planning directors, and, more recently, chief strategy officers (CSOs). Who better than a professional strategist to help meet the big new uncertainties of the 21st century? Yet today's unpredictable environment is... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1908 Tue, 09 Dec 2014 09:54:41 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1908-rethinking-the-role-of-the-strategist CEOs increasingly view the supply chain as a critical point of competitive differentiation. Here's how to make it better. In recent decades, companies in sectors from automotive and high tech to retail and consumer packaged goods have come to realize that their supply chain is much more than the cost of getting products into customers' hands. These companies understand that it is the supply chain that translates corporate strategy into day-to-day interactions both within and beyond the organization. Ultimately,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1856 Mon, 24 Nov 2014 08:46:52 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1856-three-ways-ceos-can-improve-the-supply-chain Here's how a tepid economy and rising interest rates support a strong stock market. For much of this year, the S&P 500 index has demonstrated fitful but steady growth, lifting it from just over 1,800 in January to just over 2,000 in September-a new record. That's something of a disconnect with lackluster economic growth and rising interest rates, and it has investors puzzled and executives casting a gimlet eye on their share prices. Whether you think the market is dangerously overvalued, as some worry, or... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1816 Wed, 12 Nov 2014 06:44:10 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1816-what-s-behind-this-year-s-buoyant-market Proximity to demand and innovative supply ecosystems will trump labor costs as technology transforms operations in the years ahead. When offshoring entered the popular lexicon, in the 1990s, it became shorthand for efforts to arbitrage labor costs by using lower-wage workers in developing nations. But savvy manufacturing leaders saw it as more: a decisive change in globalization, made possible by a wave of liberalization in countries such as China and India, a steady improvement in the capabilities of emerging-market suppliers and workers, a growing ability to transfer proven management processes to new locales, and increasingly favorable transportation and communications economics. Something of equal moment is occurring today... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1796 Mon, 10 Nov 2014 07:01:55 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1796-next-shoring-a-ceo-s-guide The combination of advanced analytics and lean management could be worth tens of billions of dollars in higher earnings for large manufacturers. A few leading companies are showing the way. The application of larger data sets, faster computational power, and more advanced analytic techniques is spurring progress on a range of lean-management priorities. Sophisticated modeling can help to identify waste, for example, thus empowering workers and opening up new frontiers where lean problem solving can support continuous improvement. Powerful data-driven analytics also can help to solve previously unsolvable (and even unknown) problems that undermine efficiency in complex manufacturing environments:... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1795 Mon, 10 Nov 2014 06:57:11 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1795-when-big-data-goes-lean Managers often want to own good businesses they shouldn't buy-or hold onto businesses they should sell. Here's how some companies have made these tough decisions. Managers typically make portfolio decisions based on a series of logical justifications. The choice to invest, cut back, buy, or exit is ideally guided by the strength of a business's structural attractiveness (business logic); the potential to improve the business or create synergy with other businesses (added-value logic); and the state of the capital markets-whether they are likely to over- or under-value the business relative to the net present value, or NPV, of its future cash flows (capital-markets logic). These three logics are... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1790 Fri, 07 Nov 2014 06:55:39 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1790-making-trade-offs-in-corporate-portfolio-decisions Companies often shy away from the method because they fear it or believe it means "budgeting from zero." In reality, it's a structured process that can build a culture of cost management. As many companies watch growth in sales, general, and administrative (SG&A) costs outstrip increases in revenue, controlling expenses has become an even greater priority. As a result, executives are under ever-increasing pressure to deliver productivity improvements, and almost all companies have sought to reduce costs, whether through traditional programs such as outsourcing, offshoring, and strategic sourcing or other one-off cost-reduction events. But in many cases, these are still not enough. Executives need bigger savings that can be sustained over time. Unfortunately,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1786 Thu, 06 Nov 2014 10:08:08 -0500 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1786-five-myths-and-realities-about-zero-based-budgeting McKinsey director Gordon Orr goes behind the trends shaping the world's second-largest economy to explain what companies must do to operate effectively. China, a $10 trillion economy growing at 7 percent annually, is a never-before-seen force reshaping our global economy. Over the past 30 years, the Chinese government has at times opened the door wide for foreign companies to participate in its domestic economic growth. At other times,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1755 Mon, 27 Oct 2014 10:18:27 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1755-a-pocket-guide-to-doing-business-in-china Few decisions in an executive's career are as complex or sensitive as a multibillion-dollar investment with a payback timetable that can stretch on for decades. The right call can positively transform a company's value. The wrong one can damage the company's share price, draw public criticism, and perhaps even cost responsible managers their jobs. Insight into the process by which successful managers make such decisions is hard to come by. By their nature,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1680 Mon, 29 Sep 2014 08:24:19 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1680-preparing-to-make-big-ticket-investment-decisions Companies that improve the performance of their working capital can generate cash and see benefits far beyond the finance department. Managing a company's working capital isn't the sexiest task. It's often painstakingly technical. It's hard to know how well a company is doing, even relative to peers; published financial data are too high level for precise benchmarking. And because working capital doesn't appear on the income statement, it doesn't directly affect earnings or operating profit-the measures that most commonly influence compensation. Although working capital management has long been a business-school staple, our research shows that performance is surprisingly variable, even among companies in the same industry (exhibit). That's quite a missed opportunity-and... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1657 Tue, 23 Sep 2014 07:25:59 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1657-uncovering-cash-and-insights-from-working-capital Many companies have more sustainability initiatives than they can possibly manage. Here's how to get them under control. Sustainability has become a part of life for many companies. For some, it's a matter of meeting demands from customers seeking socially responsible goods and services. For others, it's about addressing pressure from stakeholders-including investors-or pursuing their own corporate values. For still others, especially those in a resource-constrained environment, it's a strategic imperative. Whatever the impetus, sustainability has become sufficiently pervasive that defining it and executing business programs, products, and practices with an eye to their environmental and social implications has become a demanding managerial exercise. For some,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1656 Tue, 23 Sep 2014 07:18:44 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1656-bringing-discipline-to-your-sustainability-initiatives New research suggests that the performance payoff from organizational health is unexpectedly large and that companies have four distinct "recipesH for achieving it. For the past decade, we've been conducting research, writing, and working with companies on the topic of organizational health. Our work indicates that the health of an organization is based on the ability to align around a clear vision, strategy, and culture; to execute with excellence; and to renew the organization's focus over time by responding to market trends. Health also has a hard edge: indeed,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1644 Tue, 16 Sep 2014 07:58:45 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1644-the-hidden-value-of-organizational-health-and-how-to-capture-it All companies are aware of the growing risk of cyberattacks, yet few are taking the steps necessary to protect critical information. The key? Senior managers need to lead. Why isn't more being done to protect critical information assets? Senior executives understand that the global economy is still not sufficiently protected against cyberattacks, despite years of effort and annual spending of tens of billions of dollars. They understand that risk alone undermines trust and confidence in the digital economy, reducing its potential value by as much as $3 trillion by 2020.1 They understand most institutions have... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1632 Thu, 11 Sep 2014 06:11:51 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1632-why-senior-leaders-are-the-front-line-against-cyberattacks Using cross-functional teams to break down silos improves the chances of success when building highly complicated systems. Large technology-led transformation programs are important for creating business value and building strategic capabilities across industries. With many organizations spending around 50 percent of their IT budget on application development, the ability to execute software programs faster and at lower cost is essential to success for many transformation projects. However,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1565 Tue, 12 Aug 2014 11:05:41 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1565-achieving-success-in-large-complex-software-projects Additive manufacturing is evolving quickly. Senior executives should begin preparing for five disruptions that will accompany it. 3-D printing, or additive manufacturing,1 has come a long way from its roots in the production of simple plastic prototypes. Today, 3-D printers can not only handle materials ranging from titanium to human cartilage but also produce fully functional components, including complex mechanisms, batteries, transistors, and LEDs. The capabilities of 3-D printing hardware are evolving rapidly, too. They can... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1559 Thu, 07 Aug 2014 10:10:18 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1559-3-d-printing-takes-shape A retired Toyota executive describes how to overcome common management challenges associated with applying lean, and reflects on the ways that Toyota continues to push the boundaries of lean thinking. In the two years since I retired as president and CEO of Canadian Autoparts Toyota (CAPTIN), I've had the good fortune to work with many global manufacturers in different industries on challenges related to lean management. Through that exposure,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1558 Thu, 07 Aug 2014 10:04:55 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1558-still-learning-from-toyota Executives fret that writing down goodwill invites a negative market response. But that isn't always so. Goodwill impairments are, by definition, an acknowledgment that companies have made poor investment decisions. Writing down goodwill allows companies to move on-often taking actions to improve performance that would have been difficult without formally acknowledging the impairment. And although many executives fear that any write-down announcement will automatically cause their company's share price to tumble, a negative reaction is by no means certain. Some cases in point:... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1551 Tue, 05 Aug 2014 09:57:31 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1551-goodwill-shunting-how-to-better-manage-write-downs Harnessing the flood of data available from customer interactions allows companies to price appropriately-and reap the rewards. It's hard to overstate the importance of getting pricing right. On average, a 1 percent price increase translates into an 8.7 percent increase in operating profits (assuming no loss of volume, of course). Yet... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1535 Tue, 29 Jul 2014 11:23:35 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1535-using-big-data-to-make-better-pricing-decisions In the past 20 years or so, manufacturers have been able to reduce waste and variability in their production processes and dramatically improve product quality and yield (the amount of output per unit of input) by implementing lean and Six Sigma programs. However,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1498 Tue, 15 Jul 2014 11:53:18 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1498-how-big-data-can-improve-manufacturing A handful of pragmatic tools can help managers decide which projects best fit their portfolio and risk tolerance. Never is the fear factor higher for managers than when they are making strategic investment decisions on multibillion-dollar capital projects. With such high stakes, we've seen many managers prepare elaborate financial models to justify potential projects. But when it comes down to the final decision, especially... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1424 Tue, 10 Jun 2014 08:06:56 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1424-making-better-decisions-about-the-risks-of-capital-projects The application of data analytics offers a useful approach to build more collaboration in support of stronger growth. Marketing is in the midst of a performance revolution. The application of advanced analytics and plentiful data has allowed chief marketing officers (CMOs) to demonstrate the return on investment from marketing activities with a degree of precision that's never been possible before. With companies spending as much as 10 percent of their annual budgets on marketing, depending on the industry-a whopping $1 trillion globally-this rapidly developing ability to put hard numbers against marketing performance is music to the ears of both CMOs and CFOs. To date, however,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1416 Fri, 06 Jun 2014 12:15:01 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1416-why-can-t-we-be-friends-five-steps-to-better-relations-between-cfos-and-cmos It may not seem sexy, but consistency is the secret ingredient to making customers happy. However, it's difficult to get right and requires top-leadership attention. "Sustaining an audience is hard," Bruce Springsteen once said. "It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose, and of action over a long period of time." He was talking about his route to music stardom, yet... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1353 Tue, 06 May 2014 07:09:19 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1353-the-three-cs-of-customer-satisfaction-consistency-consistency-consistency At a unique gathering of data-analytics leaders, new solutions began emerging to vexing privacy, talent, organizational, and frontline-adoption challenges. This past October, eight executives from companies that are leaders in data-analytics got together to share perspectives on their biggest challenges. All were the most senior executives with data-analytics responsibility in their companies, which included... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1346 Thu, 01 May 2014 08:03:32 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1346-views-from-the-front-lines-of-the-data-analytics-revolution There's a reason your inbox always seems jam-packed: e-mail marketing works. But companies can get smarter about ensuring every message counts. It's a post holiday tradition up there with returning unwanted gifts and vowing to exercise more: spending a few hours cleaning out your e-mail inbox. If you're wondering why marketers seem intent on e-mailing you more and more,... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1345 Thu, 01 May 2014 07:55:02 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1345-why-marketers-should-keep-sending-you-e-mails For the world's economy to get full value from technological innovation, it must have a robust, coordinated approach to cybersecurity. A new report from the World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Company looks at how that could happen... http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1338 Wed, 23 Apr 2014 12:05:15 -0400 https://www.businesswatchnetwork.com/articles/1338-risk-and-responsibility-in-a-hyperconnected-world-implications-for-enterprises