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Issue 2, 1992

How the New Telecommunications Will Change the Way We Live

Since 1984, the fateful year of divestiture, the historic trickle of new telecommunications products and services has swelled to a flood. Today, telephone companies are rapidly upgrading networks and implementing software platforms that will reduce the time required to introduce new services from...
Issue 2, 1992

The Role of Telecommunications Technology in the Year 2000

Products such as the facsimile machine, the video recorder, and the personal stereo are the fruit of numerous incremental developments in technology. Our ability to forecast the "what and when" of such incremental technical innovations is satisfactory, although the prediction horizon stretches...
Issue 4, 1992

Envisioning: Creating the Context for Strategy

A CEO friend of ours recently expressed a deep concern about his staff's inability to "think strategically." This was surprising to us, given that this corporation is well-populated with excellent talent. Its staff includes brand-new MBAs armed with the latest management tools as well as seasoned "...
Issue 2, 1992

Viewpoint The Message from Rio

The historic Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro - the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development - effectively demonstrated to the world the magnitude of the challenge we face. Those of us who represented industry and government in Rio, like the many delegates and environmentalists who...
Issue 4, 1992

Division Management: In Charge or at Sea?

We have seen much evidence that the extensive delayering of organizations in recent years has left both CEOs and division managers in many companies confused about their roles. The CEO of an engineering conglomerate told us proudly that he had taken 15 to 20 staff out of each division office. Later...
Issue 1, 1992

Process Thinking: Today's Path to Improved Performance

In the past, when a business was underperforming, its management selected from a set of traditional paths for improvement. They looked at specific functions or identified problem departments or concentrated on broken business units. For example, a company would take a function such as marketing and...
Issue 4, 1992

Environmental Performance and Business Strategy

Across North America and Europe, companies in a variety of businesses are beginning to use environmental performance to achieve competitive advantage, integrating the management of environmental, health, and safety issues into their operations, business processes, and corporate strategies. In this...
Issue 1, 1992

Viewpoint Japanese Executives Face Life Out of the Nest

Just as the abrupt end of the Cold War has created a "new world order" for statesmen to puzzle over, management leaders worldwide are facing the challenge of a new economic order. Incongruous as it may seem, the legendary Japanese management system appears ill-prepared to cope with this transition.
Issue 3, 1992

Eastern Europe: The New Investment Frontier

Eastern European countries have strong industrial traditions, much like those of the West, but their economies have been severely distorted by the mismanagement of the now-discredited communist system. Therefore, investment opportunities in the region are often clouded by significant issues.
Issue 3, 1992

Industrial Renewal Through Regional Development

The dissolution of the centrally controlled political and economic system in Eastern Europe has led naturally to the regionalization of this part of the continent. National and - increasingly - regional (i.e., subnational) governments are assuming responsibility for fundamental political and...