Recently added articles from European Business Forum:
CEMS an authority in management education.(Community of European Management Schools and International Companies )
Mar 22, 2008 ... COMMUNITY OF EUROPEAN MANAGEMENT SCHOOLS AND INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES www.cems.org The Community of European Management Schools and International Companies (CEMS) is an alliance of leaders in business and higher education. Founded in 1988, the network has ...
Letter from the editors.
Mar 22, 2008; ... In Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift portrays two nations ready to go to war over the subject of which end of a boiled egg should be broken in order to eat it. The Big-Enders and the Little-Enders are each convinced of their rightness and the utter wrongness of their opponents. National ...
Executive pay's faulty market.(Observations)
Mar 22, 2008; ... We probably all know examples of executives earning several millions of euros in salary, bonuses, and options. Almost every day the media reports on what seem like excessively generous pay packages. It is also likely that you entertain an opinion about executive pay, especially if you've ...
Personalisation overload.(Observations)
Mar 22, 2008; ... Most marketing conferences these days feature topics such as "relationship marketing", "permission marketing", "1:1 marketing", "personalisation" or "CRM". In fact, finding one without one of these subjects would be hard. Relationship marketing has been the "new black" for quite a while ...
The IT alignment problem.(Observations)
Mar 22, 2008; ... Most companies believe that IT goals must be aligned with business goals to create value. Yet fewer understand that alignment alone does not guarantee performance. In fact, it can be a trap. Charles Schwab gained prominence in financial services because of its IT mastery, first ...
Managing operations with a sense-of-place.(Observations)
Mar 22, 2008; ... All of us have at least one special place, somewhere that resonates with meaning and allows us to relax. It may be a place where we call home, or somewhere we go for sun, laughter, or adventure. It could also be our place of work. What do we mean by "place"? Management theory ...
Does nationality still matter? The importance of nationality to organisational performance depends on the sector. In some, it seems to have little bearing. In others, it is still a critical factor.(Debate)
Mar 22, 2008; ... Does nationality Still matter? It does--though less than it used to. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On the one hand, national identity is not a major driver of business performance: successful global companies come from a variety of countries, and no nationality dominates ...
Denmark's "cartoon crisis" shows how corporate and national reputations are intertwined. It is in the interests of both companies and states to work together.(Debate Does nationality still matter?)
Mar 22, 2008; ... The question we should be addressing is not so much whether national identity still matters, but rather: "how does globalisation affect the construction of national identity and the role companies play?" In 2006, Denmark became front-page news all around the world. The Danish ...
The lack of mobility in the international executive labour market proves that where senior management is concerned nationality still matters a great deal.(Debate Does nationality still matter?)
Mar 22, 2008; ... As they try to pass the time during endless rounds of meetings, fonctionnaires at the European Commission sometimes play a game. It's called "spot the nationality." The aim is to decipher small signals sent by meeting participants--body language, looks, dress style, accessories. If you can ...
To share knowledge effectively, firms must learn to be less ethnocentric.(Debate Does nationality still matter?)
Mar 22, 2008; ... Norwegian firms are relative late-starters as multinational enterprises. Swedish companies, tended to internationalise earlier, by contrast. It is only in the last decade that Norwegian firms have started to fully internationalise-in the sense of employing more people abroad than at home. ...
Nationality tends not to figure very strongly in modern corporate branding efforts. But don't count it out just yet.(Debate Does nationality still matter?)
Mar 22, 2008; ... Interest in "identity" has grown relentlessly over the past few decades. We now ponder who we are as individuals, as members of organisations, as participants in communities (fan clubs, sports teams, and so on). And, we struggle to make sense of our different roles, choosing either ...
"National champion" status can be a mixed blessing. Just ask some of India's most prominent companies.(Debate Does nationality still matter?)
Mar 22, 2008; ... No, in this globalised world, national identity is no longer important. Over the long-term, companies that focus on being national champions will lose out to free-playing rivals that concentrate on what matters. What the latter lack in national prestige, they make up for in their ability ...
Globalisation has reduced the ability of the state to effect economic and civic change. That leaves global companies with great power and great responsibility.(Debate Does nationality still matter?)
Mar 22, 2008; ... We know that globalisation has taken us beyond internationalisation (exchanges and relationships between countries or states) and multi-nationalisation (with its strategies for transfer and offshoring of resources in search of higher productivity and profit). What we have now is the ...
The success of Nokia and others has made Finland proud. But can its companies remain Finnish?(Debate Does nationality still matter?)
Mar 22, 2008; ... Finland offers an interesting case study in any discussion of national identify and corporate performance, as its companies have changed fundamentally over the last 15 years. Until 1993, the Finnish economy was marked by a heavy commitment to trade with the Soviet Union and the other ...
The secrets of career success in the 21st century: how do the careers of European and US CEOs compare? A new study suggests that we may need to rethink some popular notions.(In depth)
Mar 22, 2008; ... What are the secrets of career success in the modern business world? What experiences, qualifications and characteristics are required to get to the top? And how do career paths compare across countries and continents? Are they the same, for example, in the US as they are in Europe? These ...
Managing by values: many successful organisations are characterised by strong and widely held systems of values. How do managers embed these values and align them with an organisation's strategic goals?
Mar 22, 2008; ... This article presents a model of Managing by Values (MBV) as a framework for leaders and managers today. In the wake of the corporate scandals of recent years, integrity has become an increasingly important attribute of both leaders and organisations. We propose that MBV is vital to ...
Corporate responsibility: beyond the hype: so-called "stakeholders" have relatively little influence on decision-making at Europe's large companies.(In depth)(Company overview)
Mar 22, 2008; ... Advocates of corporate sustainability in the media, business and civil society claim that stakeholder pressure on companies to improve their social and environmental performance is rising. But does this claim hold up against a sober empirical analysis across different stakeholders in ...
Thales: in defence of independence; With rivals poised to pounce, is there a way for Thales to remain a standalone company?(Case study)(Company overview)
Mar 22, 2008; ... As he crossed the Place de la Bastille in Paris, Denis Ranque, chairman and CEO of the Thales Groups, saw a poster advertising a performance of Rigoletto at the Opera Bastille. He had VIP tickets for the day's show, but he did not know if he had time to attend. Recently, rumours about ...
The breaking of Standard Oil: Ida Tarbell's reporting not only led to the dismantling of Standard Oil. It also changed US attitudes to big business.(History lesson)
Mar 22, 2008; ... At the beginning of the twentieth century, Standard Oil was one of the world's largest and most powerful corporations. It had an effective monopoly of oil production and distribution in the United States, and controlled a large share of the world market. It's chairman, John D Rockefeller, ...
The view from the boardroom and beyond. Siemens' new CEO has a lot on his plate, including a major bribery scandal and a top-to-bottom re-organisation. The long-term aim, he says, is to emulate the success of Jack Welch and General Electric.(Leaders)
Mar 22, 2008; ... Peter Loscher dominates any room he walks into. At six-feet-five inches tall, this former captain of the Austrian volleyball team likes to stand up dead straight, accentuating his height advantage further. This causes almost everybody including his critics to have to look up to the new ...