In a previous column on this topic, four major stages of the regulatory process were identified and the formative stage of regulation was discussed. In this column, attention will be given to the next stage—the legislative stage, in which the regulations are created by the passing of a bill...

In the past year, over 400 middle and senior executives from just about every industry in the United States were asked the following question: “In the next 5–10 years government intervention in business will increase: True or False?”

To be successful, a company has to capture the initiative in an industry from its competitors. The author offers a detailed prescription for getting and keeping the strategic initiative in the face of countermoves by your opponent.

When a company is considering a major strategic move, a key issue is predicting the speed and extent of the competition's response to that move. Under ideal circumstances, countermoves are blocked by substantial entry barriers (discussed extensively by Porter) which keep new competitors from...

As a result of massive doses of external constraints on business, the past two decades have seen a trend in many U.S. companies from aggressive, tough‐minded fast movers, with confident independent middle managers, to much more procedure‐bound and uncertain or slow‐acting bureaucracies....

Preemptive strategies often offer the best opportunity to gain advantage over competitors and upset industry balance. Preemptive moves exist all along the industry chain if one knows where to look for them. Companies can preempt their rivals in myriad ways, ranging from threatening major...

Although new products in the financial services field can be easily duplicated by competitors, it often takes a long time for competitors to do so. An investigation by the authors reveals that there are many reasons for this phenomenon ranging from product complexity to the internal politics and...

As the pace of competition intensifies in the 1980s, information systems will emerge as critical new weapons in the battle to gain an advantage over competitors. The authors show how a business can use modern information technologies to create a competitive edge by adding value to present...

Creating new business within a company is often the only way to grow. But many attempts result in abysmal failure. The authors describe what CEOs and senior managers must do to increase the chances of success for new ventures.

A previous article described a research program the authors conducted on the creation of new businesses within the company, which is called corporate venturing.