Consumer services

The information technology explosion was set off by visionaries who thrive on uncertainty. Today that innovation-fueling uncertainty is in danger, a victim of its own success and excess. IT producers have historically built platforms that are useless standing alone, inviting others to parlay them into a variety of useful applications. The first PC makers shipped […]

As anyone with the slightest interest in the consulting business knows by now, the SEC has brought civil charges against Rajat Gupta in the Galleon insider-trading case. What makes the matter fascinating to industry watchers, approximately their equivalent of the Charlie Sheen supernova, is that Gupta served three terms as managing director of McKinsey & […]

The most dubious business plan can look solid—even smart—if it’s cast as a virtuous circle. “See, we invest our profits in innovation to create delightful products that customers buy—which generate profits that we invest in innovation!” Who could argue with that? Indeed, the merit of self-reinforcing systems seems so obvious that businesspeople instinctively describe their […]

The hardest part of being an entrepreneur can be learning to turn down business. It is also the only way to survive—and grow.

A new study finds three traits that help people rise to the top.

In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the buying of professional services by management. This is true for a broad range of advisory activities, such as financial, economic, public relations, advertising, legal, personnel, research, and many others. By the same token, there has been a marked growth in the firms selling these […]

Your organization can become more decisive—and can implement strategy more quickly—if you know where the bottlenecks are and who’s empowered to break through them.

Professional services firms typically have a 24/7 on-call culture. But one management consulting company is getting better results by experimenting with downtime—even in this economy.

When the biotech pioneer had to get a blockbuster drug to market fast, it didn’t lock itself into a rigid supply chain. It joined with partners to become a virtual manufacturer.

Readers and clients have some things in common.

As "doer-sellers," professional services partners are responsible for not just delivering services but also the entire business-development process. As...

Researchers studied backlash to change at five elite law firms — and how leadership eventually won the skeptics over.

Rewarding individual performance is the way of the business world, but there are rare exceptions. At executive search firm Egon Zehnder International, seniority and companywide results determine pay. The company’s founder explains how this unconventional compensation system works—and why.

Get it right and you win more work; get it wrong and the relationship is over.

Proposed changes by the SEC don’t go far enough to guarantee impartial audits by the accounting profession.

360-degree feedback is all the rage in companies big and small. But it is frequently bureaucratic, politically charged, and agonizing. The good news is that by understanding four paradoxes inherent to peer appraisal, managers can take some of the pain out of the process—and get better results in.

The best executive and professional jobs may no longer be full-time gigs.

To the trained eye, even a quick plant tour can reveal a lot about a company. Here’s how to tell if a factory is truly lean—in as little as 30 minutes.

Fifteen years after it was first chronicled, the “unseen revolution” transforming corporate ownership in the United States is now visible to all. The 20 largest pension funds (13 of them funds of state, municipal, or nonprofit employees) hold around one-tenth of the equity capital of America’s publicly owned companies. All told, institutional investors—that is, primarily […]

Frank Heberer, a human resources manager at Medignostics, has proposed a long-term HR strategy for the German midsize pharmaceutical company. All his...