Everyone is aware of the radical shift—pioneered by the Japanese in the 1970s—from “just in case” (safety stock) inventory philosophy to “just in time.” But new competitive realities are pushing the inventory ante up at an alarming rate. Today's strategic imperative goes beyond JIT...

“The date which will live in infamy,” December 7, 1941, is branded in our consciousness as the day the most famous surprise attack of the 20th century was launched. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor shocked the nation into joining a war many of its citizens were trying desperately to...

When Alice's journey through Wonderland took her into the Queen of Hearts' croquet garden, she found a world short on logic, rules, and common sense.

From the dawn of recorded business history, there has been a “secret formula” that every successful business leader has followed. Those who didn't know the formula, or those who chose to ignore it, were doomed to failure. That formula is, of course:

Students of corporate strategy are used to seeing metaphors used to help explain strategic concepts. Most typical are those metaphors using sports, war, or the military. In fact, it was from military strategists, such as Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, or Montgomery, that we borrowed many of our ideas and...

As a young economist graduating from college nearly 30 years ago, I would have laughed if someone had suggested to me that virtually every company in the U.S. would an “information management” company. But at the end of the 20th century, that now seems quite true.

Once while on business in Japan, I took some time off to study the local culture. At a famous Shinto shrine, I saw a gardener trimming a pine tree. He was using a pair of small garden scissors to cut the needles one at a time, referring to a small book before each cut. Coming from a part of the...

Recently, I was asked to be the technical editor for a book that purported to put in one volume all the knowledge gained from an MBA program. Since a typical MBA program requires two full years of study, this was an ambitious undertaking. Always up for a challenge, I decided to give it a look....

The idea of trade is almost as old as the world itself. Very early in the Agrarian Age, farmers grasped the concept that we now call “comparative advantage”; i.e., that some people or groups are more efficient than others in creating certain kinds of consumables, and that everyone benefits...

One of the more contentious areas of corporate governance today is how active a company's board of directors should be in the development and execution of corporate strategy. While the spotlight is on public companies, private ones (and even not‐for‐profits) would do well to pay attention....