Transforming the Vodafone/Ericsson Relationship

In the context of global business, there is limited evidence or guidance as to how firms transform their existing physical in-country relationships into an IT-enabled global relationship. When one of the world’s largest mobile operators, Vodafone of the UK, joined with the world’s largest supplier of cellular network infrastructure, Ericsson of Sweden, the aim was to transform their relationship into a global and virtual one, enacted through an inter-organisational information system (IIS). This article explains how this transformation proceeded.The transformation was treated from the start as an improvisation. There was no fixed destination or project plan, only a shared acceptance that the benefits accruing to the two companies would be asymmetric. The resulting IIS, which both companies now call the eRelationship, allows for information sharing, communication, virtual teams, competence development, network support services, and product forecasting, ordering and tracking. We consider and analyse some key features of this case, namely the role of improvisation, the impact of horizontal organisational relationships, and the evaluation of the transformation and the IIS.     

The systems revolution

In this paper the author brings together a number of ideas which are presented more fully in his forthcoming book—Redesigning the Future (John Wiley and Sons, New York): This synthesis amounts to a digest of Part 1 of that book. The article is organized into 5 parts: The Systems Revolution; The Self-Control Problem; The Humanization Problem; The Environmentalization Problem and Science in the Systems Age.     

Rank Xerox--management revolution

For 20 years Rank Xerox dominated the photocopier market until the Japanese entered the market in the late 1970s. Rank Xerox responded to the competitive challenge by instituting competitive benchmarking, and subsequently the Leadership Through Quality Strategy. The author describes the changes in the management philosophy and the organizational structure which enabled Rank Xerox to win back market share from the Japanese. Rank Xerox is now market led with sharp customer focus. It is strongly business led and has a team working culture to support it.     

An investigation of the attention effects of venture capitalist backing on entrepreneurial firms

In this paper, we predict that venture capital (VC) backed initial public offerings (IPOs) will attract more attention than non-VC-backed IPOs, as VCs offer important signals to investors searching for information about entrepreneurial firms. We use a measure developed by Google (i.e., Trends) to capture the spikes in investors' attention experienced by firms in the time period surrounding their IPOs. Our results demonstrate that firms backed by VCs enjoy a far greater spike in attention than their counterparts. Furthermore, we find that firms with more prominent VCs, a larger number of VCs, and VCs situated at farther geographic distances exhibit significantly greater spikes in investors’ attention during the week of their IPO. Combined, the findings show a clear demarcation between entrepreneurial firms with or without VC backing, they bring to the fore new upshots stemming from the relationship between VCs and entrepreneurial firms, and they raise new potential questions on this relationship and beyond.     

E-patients and the online health care revolution

Check out the latest statistics on the number of patients seeking health care advice on the Internet. Learn what your patients are looking for and what they find.     

Who lost the health care revolution?

Just a year ago, in the March-April 1989 issue of Harvard Business Review, Professor Regina E. Herzlinger of the Harvard Business School took a long look at the U.S. health care system and declared the much touted revolution in the health care delivery system a failure. This article is a summary of the arguments that Professor Herzlinger marshaled for her treatise. In the following two articles, members of the College assess those arguments in terms of the medical management profession and in terms of the organizations, a hospital and a managed care company, for which they work. Finally, Professor Herzlinger returns to the subject with a response to these physician executives.     

Management revolution in the age of the new economy

In the age of the new economy a management has evolved, including management ideology, learning organization, team work, incentive of all the staff, cooperative competition, and strategic alliances. The concept of this new management did not appear all of a sudden. It evolved from the traditional, profound thought of management culture and the traditional Chinese management culture in particular. The principles of the new economy are in accord with ancient Eastern philosophy. Management culture in the East and that in the West have been gradually integrated with one another. The Eastern management culture has undergone a period of spreading to the West and returning to the East. Management scholars throughout the world have noted and paid attention to the traditional Chinese management culture, whose quintessence is human orientation, moral priority, and behavioral cultivation by self-discipline (or ren wei wei ren). It is not only a new way of thinking about modern management behavior but also a manifestation of the successful adoption of the philosophical thoughts of ancient China into the age of networks.     

钱袋子如何“革命”

一个国家的财政史是惊心动魄的,如果你读它,看到的不仅是经济的发展,而是社会结构和公平正义的程度。 ——温家宝     

After the revolution: the physician executive of the future

There is a revolution in health care occurring in our midst. The roots of this revolution are explored. The physician executive of the future will need a new set of skills because the health care system will change. This new, evolving set of skills includes being: Savvy about business; simultaneously employer- and customer-focused; and technologically driven. This manager must be a team builder rather than a lone ranger. These skills are learnable, just like piloting a plane or doing a surgery. None of us was born with the skill to practice medicine any more than we were born with business skills. While many physicians are depressed by the present health care climate, feeling a loss of power and a loss in spirit, the vision of the physician manager must carry them and the organizations they build forward through uncharted waters to a future which is every bit as exciting as our past.     

Electronics: The new revolution

Electronics has produced a succession of remarkable accomplishments within the lifetime of living men. Yet, new developments in the field are so vast and exciting that they may be viewed as the advent of an Electronic Revolution comparable to the Industrial Revolution.     

Brexit as the unlikely leading edge of the anti-expert revolution

In this invited piece, I deal with Brexit as the leading edge of an ongoing anti-expert revolution. I begin by considering Brexit in relation to my own long-standing anti-expertist approach to social epistemology, which in many ways makes me a kindred spirit to the Brexiteers. Next, I turn to the struggle of parliamentary elites that eventuated in the win for Brexit, focussing on the Brexiteers' distinctive epistemic and ethical strategy with regard to public opinion. Finally, I consider the unforeseen emergence of a Rousseau-style ‘general will’ with regard to Brexit, which is where British democracy stands for the foreseeable future, ending on the role of academia – and specifically business schools – in the anti-expert revolution.     

The service sector revolution: the automation of services

This paper describes the service sector revolution in the United States and covers the automation of 10 U.S. service industries. It discusses the implications of the simultaneous automation of goods and services and suggests action required to smooth the transition for the worker as the United States becomes an automated society.     

Health care technology. Evolution toward revolution

The assessment process has a significant effect on the development and diffusion of any new technology. An assessment during the infancy of a new technology may have to be updated as more experience and data accumulate and change the analysis of the technology's safety and effectiveness. An outdated assessment can result in inappropriate utilization either by hindering diffusion of a valuable technology or by promoting utilization of an inappropriate technology. Those who conduct technology assessments must recognize that technologies have life cycles of their own.     

The coming alliance revolution in health care

Like it or not, the health care profession is being "shifted" into a revolutionary new world. The question is not will it change but rather how will it change? Who will determine its fate? What form will these changes take? What are the best alternatives for physicians, institutions, health care workers, insurers, employers, and, most importantly, patients? Some of the changes will come from government mandate, others from market forces. To understand what the future might bring, we should look at both the driving forces behind the changes and how other industries have responded to similar forces. An important consideration for health care professionals will be how, if at all, the concepts of collaboration and cooperation that are inherent in networking and alliances will guide their planning.     

The retromarketing revolution: l'imagination au pouvoir

Marketing is in the throes of a retromarketing revolution. This review examines the nature and implications of marketing's post-nostalgic leanings. It draws upon the work of leading cultural theorists Walter Benjamin and Fredric Jameson to contend that retro is an invitation to reconceptualize the field. The future of the marketing concept involves abandoning customer focus and reverting to re-production orientation.     

转化后进部属三式

领导者在对待后进部属时,有三种情况需要克服:一是冷眼相向,恶语相加,动不动就训斥责难,把他们置于自己的“对立面”;二是放任自流,不管不问,既不安排工作,也不教育引导,让他们成为工作的“旁观     

Corporate democratic nation-building: Reflections on the constructive role of businesses in fostering global democracy

Europe finds itself in a challenging situation dominated by economic and political uncertainty, which has deep ramifications for businesses and society. The Brexit vote for the UK to leave the EU has caused a political crisis, which raises fundamental questions about the founding mission of the EU as a largescale nation-building experiment aiming at promoting democracy, peace and prosperity across Europe through an “ever closer union among the peoples of Europe”. This Reflection on Europe argues that Europe needs to establish a new democratic equilibrium and that businesses can play a fundamental constructive role to achieve this new equilibrium by actively designing core internal and external business activities to be conducive to key enabling conditions of democracy.