Strategy and Planning


Recent Strategy and Planning Articles

The Complete Franchise Business Plan

By Roger C. Rule |  Mar 1, 2000

What's the big difference between a traditional start-up business plan and a start-up franchise plan? Essentially, the latter must combine compone...  Read more

Products Liability Basics

Feb 22, 2000

Products liability is the area of tort law that deals with a manufacturer's or seller's liability for injuries suffered by a purchaser, user, or bystander...  Read more

Searching for a CEO

By Karen Carney |  Feb 10, 2000

It's not easy to hire someone to run the company you founded. But in early 1999, as start-up Roving Software was raisi...  Read more

Shake Up an Inbred Board

By Ralph Ward |  Feb 1, 2000

Whether it's the board of a start-up, a family firm, or a closely held company, there always comes a point when you need to crack open the boardroom door ...  Read more

Board Basics

By Ralph Ward |  Feb 1, 2000

Robert Lear belongs in the boardroom Hall of Fame. Recently retired from Columbia University, retired chair of Schaefer Corp., and chairman of the advisor...  Read more

Safeguarding the Troops

By Elyse Umlauf-Garneau |  Feb 1, 2000

Charlie Williams and about eight of his staff regularly wander through the Nicor Gas headquarters in Naperville, Ill., schmoozing with employees. The schm...  Read more

Making a Success of Succession

By Caroline Clarke Graves |  Feb 1, 2000

Black Enterprise is going to be 30 years old in August 2000. Not a lot of American companies, let alone African-American companies, reach that a...  Read more

Creating a Buzz on Your Board of Directors

By Ralph Ward |  Jan 1, 2000

The young startup company may have a great idea, market potential, or hot technology, but that's often not enough to get it over the hump. A strong succes...  Read more

The Surprising Rules of Boardroom Etiquette

By Ralph Ward |  Jan 1, 2000

The business world offers no other environment quite like the boardroom. The risks are very high, the rules are vague, and the directors often powerful, a...  Read more

Five Ways to Beat Board Presentation Blues

By Ralph Ward |  Jan 1, 2000

Boardroom chemistry involves more than just the directors. If you're a nondirector member of staff making a presentation to the board, knowing your etique...  Read more

Second Thoughts on a CEO?s Successor

By Ralph Ward |  Jan 1, 2000

Question: "So far, the CEO succession process at my company has gone well. The current chief executive gave our board a good plan wit...  Read more

Boosting Performance with Critical Numbers

By John Case |  Dec 11, 1999

Learn how to figure out your company's critical numbers -- and how to use them to build a stronger company.  Read more

Star Boards -- Nothing but Star Boards

By Mike Hofman |  Dec 1, 1999

Operating under the theory that celebrities are money magnets, America's largest companies have long stocked their boardrooms with a ration of star power....  Read more

Coping with the Boardroom Talent Pinch

By Ralph Ward |  Dec 1, 1999

The search for good directors to serve on corporate boards has become tougher and tougher, a toss-up between opposing trends. The tide of mergers has free...  Read more

Preventing Sexual Harrassment

Nov 9, 1999

What Every Manager Needs To Know About Sexual Harassment by Darlene Orlov and Michael T. Roumell AMACOM, 217 pages, $24.95 E...  Read more

Building the Board

By Jill Andresky Fraser |  Nov 1, 1999

A strong board of directors can make all the difference to a growth company. Here's how to draft one.  Read more

Boardroom QA: When the Founder and CEO Clash

By Ralph Ward |  Nov 1, 1999

Q: I'm an outside director of an established company with a growing governance problem. The company founder (and board chairman) is w...  Read more

A Boardroom Pro's Governance Gems

By Ralph Ward |  Nov 1, 1999

William Adams, a retired chairman of Armstrong World Industries and a member of several other corporate boards, is a pro on good boardroom procedures. Rec...  Read more

New Boss on the Block

Oct 21, 1999

Many entrepreneurs have a problem bringing outside managers into their companies. Kevin Owens, CEO of Select Design, aproducer of custom corporate sportsw...  Read more

Successful Succession

Oct 21, 1999

One test of a great team is how well it functions after its leader steps aside. A good succession plan can eliminate many problems, but drawing up and fol...  Read more

Fresh Start: Accident Alters Destiny

By Anne Marie Borrego |  Oct 15, 1999

Accident Alters Destiny First start : Management trainee in family business Catalyst : Near-...  Read more

Strategies for Reducing Your Environmental Liability

Oct 13, 1999

Today, a comprehensive web of environmental laws regulate the use, disposal and remediation of hazardous materials. This regulatory scheme includes federa...  Read more

The Peer Group: The Benefits of Brutal Honesty

By Susan Greco |  Sep 27, 1999

In the movie You've Got Mail , when Meg Ryan asks Tom Hanks how to save her ailing Manhattan bookstore, he suggests that she seek insights from Read more

Boards and CEO Succession

By Ralph Ward |  Jul 1, 1999

Despite talk of "imperial CEOs," the average tenure for chief executives has steadily shrunk over the past decade. This trend, combined with the proven da...  Read more

The New Commandments of Change

By George Gendron |  Jun 1, 1999

Much of the current literature on change promotes one feeling: fear of the future. How refreshing, then, to hear a message that's not just saner but more per...  Read more

Put Skin in the Game

By Edward O. Welles |  Jun 1, 1999

By taking equity from some of its clients in lieu of fees, the Parthenon Group, a Boston consulting firm, thinks it's hit upon a win-win formula. Others aren...  Read more

Board Pay: Five Hot Trends

By Ralph Ward |  Jun 1, 1999

Rhoda Edelman, of Pearl Meyer and Partners, a New York-based consultancy specializing in board pay, identifies five hot trends in director compensation ba...  Read more

Five Tips for Putting Your Board Online

By Ralph Ward |  Jun 1, 1999

Using Communications Technology for Better Board Results June Klein, president of Technology & Marketing Ventures in New York City...  Read more

When Everyone Was Excellent

By Joshua Hyatt |  May 15, 1999

With "In Search of Excellence," co-authors Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr. turned management advice into a fashion industry. Here are some overlo...  Read more

Confessions of a Ghost

By Anonymous Anonymous |  May 15, 1999

A best-selling ghostwriter explains the making of business books, and what you don't want to know about it.  Read more

America's Best-Kept Secret

By Karen Dillon |  May 1, 1999

An introduction to the 1999 Inner City 100. Explains how the winners were selected and describes the ways that companies on the list made their locations a b...  Read more

Strategic Planning 101

By Karen Carney |  May 1, 1999

Unfortunately, strategic planning gets a bad rap at a lot of companies because it' s perceived as a useless exercise. But at many innovative, well-managed...  Read more

Silicon Valley Confidential

By Jeffrey L. Seglin |  Apr 1, 1999

Reviews of six new business books. Subjects include the early days at Apple Computer, ways to avoid a crisis, and Mom's business advice. Plus: a Xerox scient...  Read more

The New Girls' Club

By Marc Ballon |  Mar 1, 1999

Sheri Grady is on a crusade to crack what she calls the "last bastion of male domination": corporate boards.There are too few women governing corporate Am...  Read more

Hook, Line, and Sinker

By Susan Greco |  Feb 2, 1999

It all sounded so simple and so true. "Grow or die." "You must be virtual." "Go global." "Capi...  Read more