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141 Articles match "downturn","Organizations"

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Cleveland's Galleria Mall Turns Lost Retail Space Into Greenhouse Farm Stand
Shopping malls, those bastions of American consumerism, have not been immune to the recent economic downturn. They dream of hosting school groups and teams of volunteer urban gardeners eager to work beds of herbs and greens and vine systems raised hydroponically, aquaponically and in organic soils. In a recent piece by our own Greg Lindsay, we looked at the impending decline of the mall, which is part of the "single-use environment" category of real estate development that will slowly disappear over the next thirty years, according to one developer. But what will replace these environments,
Fast Company - Tuesday, March 9, 2010
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Why Leadership Development in Asia Is Better Than in Europe
While it used to be that American and European companies had cornered the market on developing the leaders of tomorrow, our latest round of research shows that Europe is now second to organizations in Asia Pacific, with India making the fastest progress. It's open to organizations of all types (public, private, nonprofit) and sizes and from a variety of locations. A shift in leadership development has occurred. And while US companies still excel at leadership development, companies from South America are developing homegrown models that chip away at North America's dominance of
HarvardBusiness.org - Monday, March 8, 2010
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Why Peace and Harmony Are Bad for Innovation
Dunn , professors at Baylor's Hankamer School of Business, say an "unanticipated exogenous shock or destabilizing force" often seems to be a factor in prompting rapid, enduring, significant change in organizations. Citing examples from wartime as well as from the current downturn, they say they've found that "shocks and surprises did not deter progress, but actually drove it forward." To me, one of the most disturbing images in literature isn't Big Brother's menacing stare or Anna Karenina's body under the train, but what the Parsee did with his cake crumbs. When I was reading How
HarvardBusiness.org - Friday, February 26, 2010
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  • The Value of Role Models in the Downturn
    This downturn's survivors will be the role models for a new kind of business practice that is more socially responsible not as an add-on or after-thought but as a first thought at the core of its business operations. Seeking role models - not just benchmarks - is one way to find an upside in the downturn. Book club organizers, now's your chance. It's hard to find many bright spots in the increasingly gloomy economy , but they're out there. Among big companies, IBM and Procter & Gamble are bright spots.
    HarvardBusiness.org - Monday, March 2, 2009
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  • A Downturn Caution: Be Careful What You Cut
    It also improves the productivity and effectiveness of support functions, which in turn helps boost the performance of a company's front line--a powerful advantage in a downturn. The goal is to ensure that support services are located and organized in such a way that they can perform most effectively at lowest cost. Click here to read our first Winning in Turbulence post, What Does By Hernan Saenz and Darrell Rigby Preserving the G&A That Really Fuels Revenue
    HarvardBusiness.org - Wednesday, January 14, 2009
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  • How To Measure Your Company's Risk in a Downturn
    Many of the failed or failing organizations suffered from having a much too narrow focus on short-term financial performance. Even with the best of data, if the CEO is unwilling to make the tough decisions to sacrifice some short-term profits in return for increasing the probability of surviving a downturn, the BSC will not be the savior of the company. ...Tags: The crisis in financial institutions and the imminent failure of the US-based automobile producers have raised the issue about whether use of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) would have helped these companies avoid the disasters that occurred.
    HarvardBusiness.org - Friday, December 19, 2008
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  • Appraising Employee Performance in a Downsized Organization
    The experts call it "ghost work"; it's what's left for the survivors to do when layoffs have cut an organization's staff to a bare-bones minimum. Performance appraisals strengthen the organization In a downturn, employees' concern about their own performance is greater than ever, even among the star performers, says Lila Booth, a Philadelphia-area management consultant. Work that still has to get done is reassigned to people who may not have the skills — and certainly don't have the time — to do it. The strain of "ghost work," the specter of more downsizing
    HarvardBusiness.org - Thursday, April 9, 2009
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  • Is Your Company Brave Enough to Survive?
    As a professor of strategy, lately I've been getting asked quite a lot, "What can our company do to survive the downturn?" And an economic downturn is like winter in Alaska; many animals can live a happy life in Alaska all through spring, summer, and fall, but when winter comes, it's not a great place to be. But I do think there are a few survival techniques from looking at firms' downturn survival strategies, although they are not for the faint-hearted. I'm sorry, but the real answer is, "Not a lot." The market is Darwinian: the strongest ones survive.
    HarvardBusiness.org - Wednesday, May 20, 2009
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  • Why Ideals are the New Business Models
    It's the worst downturn for the better part of a century: business model redesign - lower costs, greater efficiency, choosing the most profitable customers and revenue streams - should be every boardroom's first priority, right? It is how production and consumption are organized - not merely how goods and services are bought and sold - that makes Threadless so radical. Take your pick: newspapers , autos , mobile , solar - across the zombieconomy, boardrooms are sweaty-browed with the task of business model redesign. Nothing could be more wrong.
    HarvardBusiness.org - Friday, March 13, 2009
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  • Use the Downturn to Your Advantage
    So when Terry Lundgren, CEO of Macy's, gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal talking about how he was using the downturn to improve operations, I thought it wise to pay attention. Leaders such as Lundgren teach us how you can use the downturn to your advantage. Adhering to the principles of value engineering will help an organization optimize operations, but that is The first time I heard department stores referred to as dinosaurs (e.g. facing extinction) was at least twenty-five years ago, and even then it was old news.
    HarvardBusiness.org - Friday, August 14, 2009
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  • In the Talent War, the Ceasefire Is Over
    With so many companies focused on simple survival during the downturn, with so much job loss and anxiety among those who survived, it was easy to forget about the war for top talent. But the downturn was just a temporary truce; the battle is about to erupt again in full force. Companies that did a clumsy job of managing cost-cutting and restructuring during the downturn are particularly at risk And ironically the companies are the most at risk of losing their best leaders are ones that responded most vigorously (but often misguidedly) during the recession. Why?
    HarvardBusiness.org - Wednesday, October 14, 2009
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  • Two Steps to Simplify Your Workday
    While globalization, innovation and communications technologies have created incredible opportunities, they also have made organizations much more complex, more exhausting, and more overloaded with meetings, emails, and presentations — often without the counterbalancing benefit of more productivity or satisfaction. And to make matters worse during the economic downturn, many organizations have cut their staffs and just expect the remaining people to do the same (or more) work. Have you ever gone home at the end of a long day and wondered what you really accomplished?
    HarvardBusiness.org - Thursday, August 20, 2009
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  • Why Doing Things Half Right Gives You the Best Results
    And in organizations, I think that's a good thing -- but not in the if-I-expect-imperfect-I-won't-be-disappointed sense. During economic downturns, when it is critical to get more done with fewer resources, getting things half right will take you half as long and give you better results. leaders in many of the world's premier organizations throughout the U.S., There are times in life when I expect something to be perfect. When I open the box of my new Macbook Air, for example.
    HarvardBusiness.org - Monday, February 2, 2009
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