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Eight years ago, Bain & Company launched an annual survey to investigate the actual experience of companies that adopt leading management tools: Which tools are the most popular? How well do they work? And do they continue to deliver results over time? This article presents the answers to these questions, based on the latest (2000) North American survey results. On the one hand, 78 percent of respondents agreed that “Companies that use the right tools are more likely to succeed.” Yet, at the same time, 82 percent agreed that “Most management tools promise more than they deliver.” Senior executives fundamentally believe there are tools that can improve organizational performance, yet experience using these tools has also dampened their enthusiasm for the results. Includes a discussion of the 25 top management tools.

To win in turbulence, senior executives must continually review three dimensions of their business context: their industry’s source and level of turbulence, their own strategic position within their sector, and their financial strength. The author reports on a study that suggests that there is a significant opportunity to win in turbulence. The companies that were prepared for bad times captured a disproportionate share of industry growth and profits. These companies had developed situational strategies that could be called upon immediately when the market changed. The article describes the key steps in developing and implementing these alternative strategic moves.

The annual Bain 2003 global survey of companies finds that managers are using more tools than ever to make headway in tough times. On average, the companies surveyed used 16 tools in 2002 with the heaviest reliance on tried and true “compass‐setting” tolls such as strategic planning, benchmarking, and mission and vision statements. Surprisingly, given the pressure to control expenses, executive’s choice of tools shows a clear bias toward growth over cost cutting. The message: moving ahead, not retrenching, is critical to control your destiny. The resolve to turn the economic slump into advantage showed up in the types of tools companies adopted in 2002. Overwhelmingly, senior executives favored tools that help sharpen strategies and prepare managers for an increasingly hard road to growth. Proven disciplines like strategic planning and core competencies drew raves once again for helping companies stay on course. This year, these tools were joined in the satisfaction ratings by tools focused on defining markets and improving customers relationships – key activities as companies tried to eke out as much revenue from existing customers as possible. A total of 78 percent said they used CRM systems compared with 35 percent in 2000. At the same time executives discarded tools that might divert management attention or require big cash outlays, such as stock buybacks, corporate venturing, and merger integration teams. A clear sign of the times in this year’s survey was the soaring popularity of the corporate code of ethics. Given the rash of corporate scandals, it is not surprising that top executives at 78 percent of the surveyed companies said they have enacted a code of ethics to be their common standard for acceptable behavior.

Lou Holtz, one of football's most successful coaches, offered a brilliant description of his employment contract: “I have a lifetime contract. That means I can't be fired during the third quarter if we're ahead and moving the ball.”

Some consultants are selling process reengineering as if it were a spanking new discovery. It isn't. And managers who assume that it is, and innocently go where they presume no one has gone before, are likely to repeat the big and little mistakes of the past.

The past dozen years in business have witnessed an explosion in the use of management tools and techniques. Keeping up with the tools and deciding which ones to use have become an essential part of every executive's responsibilities.

In 1993, Bain & Company launched a multiyear research project to get the facts about management tool use. Over 12 years Bain assembled a global database of more than 7,000 respondents, including 960 this year. They supplement the survey with follow‐up interviews to probe the specifics of tool use in individual companies.

This year, the news is that executives are using more tools for acquiring customers, keeping them, learning more about what they want, and then satisfying and delighting them. They know they need tools to innovate, but they are not entirely sure how to go about it. To free up cash, they are outsourcing like crazy. And they are relying on information technology to run their businesses more efficiently.

This survey formerly was done annually and now is taken every other year.

Managers who promote tool fads undermine employees' confidence that they can create the change that is needed. Executives are better served by championing realistic strategic directions – and viewing the specific tools they use to get there as subordinate to the strategy.

Without satisfaction and usage data from companies that have adopted management tools, choosing and using them becomes a risky and potentially expensive gamble.

Hoping to find a potent formula for performance improvement, executives have invested heavily in new management tools and techniques in recent years. But there has been no objective evidence on whether increased tool usage is good or bad for companies, or which tools have produced what results over what period of time.

Here's a three‐part blueprint for building processes for innovation—disruptive innovation—into your organization.

These days, the first order of business at many firms seems to be learning new management tools and techniques, not creating profitable customers. The employees at many companies are getting groggy from Hying to absorb and implement initiatives ranging from business process reenginering to agile manufacturing. It's time for results‐minded managers to take control of the situation, and to actively and intelligently manage the adoption of management tools.

The authors reviews the leadership responsibilities involved in managing an organization that practices Agile management.

Outlines the best practices of major corporations that have adopted Agile processes both for teams and C-suite leadership.

Agile leaders spend less time reviewing the work of subordinates. They add value by adapting corporate strategies, leading critical agile teams, spending time with customers, mentoring individuals and coaching teams.

It is the C-suite leadership’s responsibility to establish and maintain a hierarchy of competence rather than a bureaucratic hierarchy of authority.

Describes how top management at some of the world’s largest and most successful corporations are adopting Agile practices to spur innovation and promote continuously adding customer vale.