Business structures

They keep things fresh and fair.

Collaboration between competitors is in fashion. General Motors and Toyota assemble automobiles, Siemens and Philips develop semiconductors, Canon supplies photocopiers to Kodak, France’s Thomson and Japan’s JVC manufacture videocassette recorders. But the spread of what we call “competitive collaboration”—joint ventures, outsourcing agreements, product licensings, cooperative research—has triggered unease about the long-term consequences. A strategic alliance […]

Data shows that family businesses outperform professionally-managed companies.

Academic–industry alliances have been around long enough to sprout their own ivy, yet these staples of technology innovation have undergone little innovation themselves. Now a few companies are pioneering ways to get more out of university research. One particularly successful model comes from Porsche, which has brought academic brainpower inside. A few years ago, Porsche, […]

You can’t expect to just step into mom or dad’s shoes.

The age of proprietary information systems is coming to an end, and the age of shared services is dawning. Don’t panic. There’s a pragmatic way to make the change pay off for your company.

Focus on fairness.

As the parents of two children with Down syndrome, the authors learned that 80% of people with disabilities in the United States are unemployed. They...

Traditionally, business viewed the social sector as a dumping ground for spare cash, obsolete equipment, and tired executives. But today smart companies are approaching it as a learning laboratory.

Too many focus on the former.

It can be done.

The Idea: Fadi Ghandour has built one of the most successful entrepreneurial enterprises to emerge from the Arab world, Aramex International , overcoming rejections, cash-flow crises, and naysayers in every country where he tried to do business.

In approaching the prospect of a joint venture in the People's Republic of China, foreign executives often plunge ahead with insufficient attention to...

Three priorities to help lay the groundwork for success.

Market leaders maximize returns by actively shaping - and reshaping - their partnership portfolios.

It's an important stage of the company's growth.

I’ll never forget my 25th Harvard Business School reunion, when Professor Howard Stevenson gave a lecture titled “Make Your Own Luck.” To a packed room he revealed this truth: If you want big success, build a business that responds to big trends. When he prompted us, the audience volunteered the biggest ones in the world: […]

Techniques that can help you seal a deal may end up torpedoing the relationship when it’s time to put the deal into operation.

Don’t pigeonhole yourself.

They spend less on R&D but get higher returns.