1. Management Tips______________________________________________________________________ Sources :HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW HELP YOUR COMPANY BOUNCE BACK FROM DISASTER Just one day after a hurricane devastated southeast Florida, UPS was delivering packages to customers in the area –even those living in cars because their homes were destroyed. UPS had resilience : THE ABILITY TO BEND AND BOUNCE BACK FROM HARDSHIP. How to help your company strengthen its resilience? Encourage yourself and others to call on your company’s enduring values. Those values help everyone find meaning in hardship—and build bridges between current difficulties and a better future. The bridges make bearable even the most painful present. And shared values help employees interpret reality in the same way, so they don’t make conflicting decisions that threaten your organization’s survival. From : Article,”How Resilience Works,” by Diane L.Coutu ( May 2002 ) Dedicated by thetrustworthy.wordpress.com

2. Management Tips______________________________________________________________________ Sources :HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW USE IT to TROUNCE YOUR RIVALS Thanks to powerful tools like CRM, companies are swiftly replicating innovations in business processes such as order fulfillment, field installation, and job closing. But rivals are stricking back with their own IT-based process innovations. How to gain—and keep – a sharp edge in this hypercompetitive environment ? Use IT to improve processes applying across all your company’s units. For example, UK grocery Tesco had used customer-rewards cards to collect data on individual purchases, segment shoppers, and tailor offers. But it went further : tracking redemption rates for direct-marketing initiatives and then tweaking offers to improve shoppers’ responses. Result ? A redemption rate of 20%. The industry average is 2%. From : Article,”Investing in the IT that Makes a Competitive Difference,” by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson. ( August 2008 ). Dedicated by thetrustworthy.wordpress.com

3. Management Tips______________________________________________________________________ Sources :HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ARE YOU USING THE RIGHT SUPPLY CHAIN FOR YOUR PRODUCT ? Do you have persistent supply chain headaches – excess inventory, stockouts? If so, you may be using the wrong supply chain for your product. Is your offering functional – it satisfies basic needs and has a long life cycle, low margins, and stable demand ? ( Think paper towels ). Use an efficient supply chain to minimize costs. For example, real-time contact with your retailers helps you replenish product as needed, reducing inventory costs. Is your product innovative—it has great variety, a short life cycle, high profit margins, and volatile demand ? ( Think a laptop line with numerous novel features ). You need a responsive supply chain to manage uncertainty. For instance, use standard components for different product versions. From : Article,”What is the Right Supply Chain for Your Product ?” by Marshall L.Fisher Dedicated by thetrustworthy.wordpress.com

4. Management Tips______________________________________________________________________ Sources :HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW HOW SHOULD YOU COUNTER STRATEGIC RISK Your company has back-up data systems, earthquake insurance, and other forms of risk protection. But are you prepared to mitigate the many types of strategic risk ? These include new technologies that can render your products obsolete, and sudden shifts in customer tastes that could redefine your industry. If you’re not thinking about strategic risk, you may be putting your company in danger. To escape this fate, apply powerful countermeasures for each form of strategic risk. For example, to protect against dangerous shifts in customer preferences, gather and analyze proprietary information to detect signs of change. Then conduct fast, cheap experiments to identify attractive offerings for different customer microsegments. From : Article,”Countering the Biggest Risk of All,” by Adrian J.Slywotzky and John Drzik ( April 2005 ) Dedicated by thetrustworthy.wordpress.com

5. Management Tips______________________________________________________________________ Sources :HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW DON’T LET YOUR NEW VENTURE WITHER ON THE VINE New ventures rarely coexist peacefully with the core businesses that launched them. Why ? Organizations often fail to nurture their nascent divions-and the ventures stumble badly. For example, toy and gaming giant Hasbro had to unload its new software divison at rock-bottom price just five years after launching it. One way to ensure that your new ventures thrive is to recognize they have unique answers to the questions “Who’s our customers?” “What value do we offer?” and “How do we deliver that value?” Listen to those answers. Then use them to provide the skills and business processes the venture needs to serve its customers from its own business model. From : Article,”Building Breakthrough Businesses Within Established Organizations,” by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble ( May 2005 ). Dedicated by thetrustworthy.wordpress.com