Editor’s note

Citation

(2011), "Editor’s note", Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 32 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/jbs.2011.28832faa.001

Editor’s note

Article Type: Editor’s note From: Journal of Business Strategy, Volume 32, Issue 6

In sunny Greece, home owners reluctant to pay their pool taxes were perhaps the most surprising example of how dependent the industrialized world is on all the parts of the global machine working properly. As the Greek economy reeled, in part because the government spent too much and received too little from citizens who flouted their obligations, so did economies throughout Europe and in the US. Unraveling the causes of the debt crises and the ensuing new financial crises will surely occupy policy makers and researchers for many months. But no one can doubt that events even in second-tier countries can roil the global tides and drag along the strongest navigators.

Future issues of JBS will undoubtedly feature papers on how business strategists and businesses dealt with this extraordinarily volatile period. We can only hope that the new year brings renewed stability and real growth.

This issue of JBS focuses more on quantitative issues than conceptual ones in the business world. Two papers examine analytics and their valued place in strategic planning.

From Accenture we include a paper on measuring and predicting human resource outcomes using analytics. One example of the predictive accuracy of analytics when applied to people describes an Italian soccer team that recruits new players based not only on past performance but on the likelihood that they may get injured. Team management analyzes such qualities as how a player moves and what the nuances of particular movements may imply for future injuries. The program, based on scientific and empirical evidence, has resulted in a huge reduction in player injuries.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have such a system when hiring new employees, to know whether they will be successful at the company or not? For years, companies have been administering different tests to potential hires to predict success, but with mixed results. Analytics may be the next step and may provide more reliable results.

In a collaboration among two German authors and a Swiss colleague, the paper on integrating business analytics into strategic planning for measurably improved performance investigates this sophisticated tool in several German industries. Two other German researchers contribute a paper on product service bundles – the solutions concept – in the semiconductor industry. Many companies are now promoting their expertise in “solutions” although it is not always clear whether they are touting a solution to a problem or a package of products and services.

Cloud computing, which sounds ethereal to the uninitiated but is actually quantitative in nature, enables value networks that generate benefits both financial and intangible, as the paper from two Finnish academics explains.

In an entirely different vein, the paper on improving advertising effectiveness by incorporating customer satisfaction ratings into the planning process emphasizes the need to measure ad dollar outcomes more accurately.

With this last issue of JBS for the year we wish all our readers happy holidays and, most of all, a happy new year!