Citation
Healy, N. (2003), "Editor's note", Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 24 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/jbs.2003.28824faa.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2003, MCB UP Limited
Editor's note
While no one wants to read about the editor on an ongoing basis, I gather from my phone calls and e-mails that readers and contributors want to know the background, and, implicitly, the credentials of the new JBS editor. Briefly, then, I have a corporate background, having served as a corporate communications executive with two major financial institutions. Earlier, I was a consultant with two national consulting firms. For the past few years, I have been consulting on communications and public affairs with large companies, foundations, and professional service firms.
Every company for which I worked as a full-time employee has either merged or been acquired. Probably many of JBS's corporate readers could recite similar stories about their careers, although academics seem so far to have escaped. It is not easy to have a career strategy when business strategy can throw plans into disarray. Just ask the dot-com contingent.
In this last issue of the year, we include two articles on giving new life to existing businesses. Elizabeth Gibson and Andy Billings are management consultants who use psychological assessment and principles to improve organizations. When they were both at RHR International, they were retained by Best Buy to help determine how to harness the free spirit of a booming home electronics and appliance company to the steadiness of a draft horse team. The article on Best Buy, drawn from their book, describes the process that changed an entire corporate culture.
Also in the case study mode is an article by Larry Ackerman on changing perceptions of Boise Cascade. The company had disparate businesses and it was not clear that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. But through digging deep into the core of the organization, the team found a common denominator that helped clarify Boise's identity for key stakeholders, including shareholders and customers. The company became more of an entity, less of a loosely-held assortment of services and products.
When the old name is not good enough, companies look to rebranding for a solution. Jack Kaikati and Andrew Kaikati have researched the critical factors for a successful rebranding campaign and have also encountered some notable duds in their travels. They offer solid advice for avoiding rebranding pitfalls along with six different approaches to successful rebranding efforts.
On the subject of strategic planning itself, we have two articles, both of which urge managers not to neglect strategic development. Too often, according to Dennis Rheault of Bridge Strategy, long range planning is subservient to the budget process. Leanne McGrath and Richard Heiens of the School of Business Administration at the University of South Carolina Aiken also discuss strategy omissions. They caution that e-business needs a solid strategy just as any other kind of business does.
Rob Morgan of the University of Wales Aberystwyth School of Management and Business continues the theme of how important it is to integrate strategic planning into other business functions. He takes a new look at information technology and the change drivers in organizations.
Columnists Catherine Dailey and Dan Dalton opine on a timely and controversial issue – board evaluation, or, more precisely, self-evaluation. Board members are no more enthusiastic about self critiques than most people, but the task must be done and must hold up to inspection by shareholders.
Patrick Marren, who has been spending much of his time recently consulting with the US military, goes decidedly in a non-military direction in this issue's column. Inspired by a quote from Kafka, he expands on the impossibility of arriving at the ideal model or solution for a given problem. There are alternatives, though, and inductive reasoning can take us beyond our obsolescent ideas to a new way of seeing the situation.
Finally, our book reviewer tackles two books that expand in different ways on the analogy between sports and business. She also finds some candid thoughts in a book on how the accounting profession failed the public trust.
The Journal of Business Strategy wishes all our readers a very happy holiday season and a joyous new year!
Nanci HealyEditor