ABC/M was developed as a practical solution for problems associated with traditional cost management systems that we now realize are distorting and incomplete. Indirect expense and overhead cost allocation practices of traditional systems can bring more damage than good to organizations. In traditional cost- ing the indirect expenses are usually too aggregated to serve any [...]
Innovation is very much a capability in its own right. For an organization to be innovative, all aspects of a capability must be considered and must be well honed. And as the level of sophistication in the innovation capability increases, so does the value the organization reaps. Most people are at the “innovation as an [...]
From 1996 to 2006, U.S. airlines’ outsourced maintenance expenses increased from 26 percent to 64 percent of their maintenance costs. In that period, the number of foreign FAA certificated repair facilities grew from 344 to 698. At issue are three very critical problems: • Eroding passenger safety. Airline-owned and FAA certificated contract repair stations must [...]
Christopher Marquis and Julie Battilana develop an institutional theory of how local communities continue to matter for organizations, and why community factors are particularly important in a global age. Since globalization has taken center stage in both practitioner and academic circles, research has shifted away from understanding effects of local factors. In their paper, entitled [...]
The balanced scorecard revolutionized conventional thinking about performance metrics. When Kaplan and Norton first introduced the concept, in 1992, companies were busy transforming themselves to compete in the world of information; their ability to exploit intangible assets was becoming more decisive than their ability to manage physical assets. The scorecard allowed companies to track financial [...]
Paul Saffo argues that the primary goal of forecasting is to identify the full range of possibilities facing a company, society, or the world at large. In his article, Saffo demythologizes the forecasting process to help executives become sophisticated and participative consumers of forecasts, rather than passive absorbers. He illustrates how to use forecasts to [...]