Editor's note
For this issue of Journal of Business Strategy, we find ourselves in the fortunate position of introducing not one but two new columns. This is in addition to our much-admired current columns from Catherine and Dan Dalton and from Patrick Marren.
Ajit Kambil’s column, “Strategy crossroads”, will alternate each issue with Patrick Marren’s Alternative strategies. Dr Kambil, the global director of Deloitte Research, is also a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Babson College, Boston. His research focuses on harnessing the value of emerging technologies and understanding their impacts on business strategy, operations and marketing. He is an expert in designing and implementing electronic markets and holds a PhD from MIT.
The “Strategy crossroads” column, Dr Kambil told us, will raise questions on contemporary business strategy rather than providing answers. Like the researcher he is, he wants to pinpoint areas requiring greater thought and research. In his first column for JBS, he considers the dilemma of companies impoverished by too much cash, although that may seem oxymoronic. But the Fortune 500 companies today have more cash on their balance sheet than ever before. Business investment in the USA is lower than corporate profitability. How can this be? Dr Kambil reviews the extant research, suggests how managers and strategists can address the issue and speculates on the consequences of this unusual situation. Readers, too, will have ample material to consider as they ponder the proper use of these corporate cash piles.
Stuart Jackson’s first paper for JBS appeared in the January/February 2007 issue. He is now a regular member of our contributing team, with his column, “Reaching for value”, debuting in this issue. The column is an outgrowth of his recently published book, Where Value Hides: A New Way to Uncover Profitable Growth for your Business (Wiley, November 2006). In the book, he introduces the concept of “strategic market position” (SMP), which combines principles of customer preference and producer economics to construct a “game board” of a company’s opportunities for growth and development.
A graduate of Cambridge and INSEAD business school, Mr Jackson moved to the USA more than 20 years ago, first to California, then to Chicago to open LEK Consulting’s office there, which he currently heads.
Most business leaders, according to Mr Jackson, agree that when setting priorities for developing and growing their business, they should play to their strengths and develop leading positions in their markets to achieve scale advantages over their competition. But it may not be so easy to know where one’s strengths really lie or whether one has an advantaged position in a market niche or is really a subscale competitor in a more broadly-defined market. When a business does not perform as well as hoped, how do you decide whether it’s an operational problem or a more fundamental problem with how your company is positioned against competitors? When you are required to look for new sources of growth each year, how do know which opportunities truly build on your existing competitive strengths versus taking you into new business areas where your existing capabilities no longer apply?
In his column, which will appear in each issue of JBS, Mr Jackson offers a new approach, strategic market positioning, to answering these tough strategic questions. Both Dr Kambil’s and Mr Jackson’s columns are rich with data, research, new information, and provocative ideas.
The same can be said of Catherine and Dan Dalton’s regular column on corporate governance, especially this month, with the wrap-up of their two-part discussion of CEO succession. We think they make the subject of corporate governance, more important today than ever but often discussed in less-than-scintillating fashion, truly understandable, pithy, and spot-on in focus.
Our feature articles this month in no way take a back seat to our columns. Authors from the USA, Germany, France and the UK (Scotland and England) are all represented by papers that run the gamut from serving the poorest segments of society to the benefits of airline alliances.
We welcome comments from readers (nanci_healy5@earthlink.net)
