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The relationship between strategic positioning and the appropriate mechanism for its implementation is important to most top managers. The determination of an appropriate organisational relationship will largely reflect the complexity of the trading environment. Intrapreneurship within traditional organisational structural formats is one mechanism to combat turbulent trading conditions. A “menu” of organisational relationships is presented which are used within a looser model of organisational relationships. Changes of this nature imply a re‐examination of managerial “grooming”. Educators must design school curricula around criteria of increasing self‐reliance and risk taking. Management developers should encourage the same characteristics. A change in political and social attitudes is also indicated.

Considerable ignorance exists as to what directors actually do. Increasingly the legitimacy of the board is being challenged. Much controversy surrounds the question of to whom the board should be responsible. The role of directors and the inevitability of stakeholder conflict are reviewed. The merits of different board structures are considered from the international perspective. Major conceptual alternatives are proposed. It is concluded that however mechanistically efficient structure may be, its success will be inhibited by the strategic skills of its constituents.

This article describes the perceptions of 177 senior executives within smaller firms as to the extent to which the marketing concept is practised within their company. The study was conducted amongst manufacturing firms in the Northern Indiana, Southern Michigan, Eastern Illinois triangle in the United States. The aim of the research was to discover the extent to which size delineated firms with respect to their marketing activity. Would the popular wisdom that small firms do not market, and as a corollary that larger ones do, be supported?

Ten years ago, small businesses were very much viewed as “country cousins” and were considerably patronized by their larger counter‐parts in big business. The small‐business owner was considered rather odd, and was certainly bereft of the modern techniques and skills possessed by the larger company manager. Organizations were established, serviced by retired large company executives, in order to pass on their administrative pearls of wisdom to these ignorant embryos. Wise old “grandfathers” would smooth the way for these “children” to bypass the trauma of adolescence and achieve adulthood.

An adaptation of the inaugural address to 1991‐92 postgraduates at Imperial College, expounds the required skills of managers present and future emphasizing that they should acquire the ability to scan with an overview, as if from a helicopter. Britain′s insularity, which held good in the post‐war years, is now seen as a very large drawback particularly in relation to the growth of Japan and Germany as world economic powers. States that Britain′s future in the marketplace depends on variability and technologically literate managers.

The perceptions of 497 consumers of the various philosophies involved in the evolution of marketing thought — product, selling, marketing and societal marketing concepts are examined. Results show that the sample fails to delineate the subtle distinctions between the product, marketing and societal marketing concepts, and support is lent to the view that if the marketing concept is to be more broadly implemented, product and social dimensions found within the definitional domain of the product and societal marketing concepts should be encompassed to establish a wider marketing‐oriented philosophy.

Acquisitions are a key element of corporate strategy. The performances of organisations involved in mergers and acquisitions are examined. The article also examines the significance of corporate culture to company performance, and the change in culture that an acquisition might cause.

Worldwide economic decline, rampant inflation, floating exchange rates and the rise of the Pacific Rim countries mean that businesses in the Western World must adopt a different strategy.

The United States' economic experience has closely paralleled that of Britain. If both countries are to return to controlled prosperity, changes are needed in the business world and in academia. If those changes don't happen, the downward spiral toward depression may well accelerate.

Theoretical development and empirical investigation into the performance of mergers and acquisitions are reviewed. In parallel, recent research which links the performance of organisations to the presence of an appropriate corporate culture is discussed. From these two theoretical platforms, it is argued that the performance of acquisitions is determined by a match of culture and those organisational expectations which avoid post‐acquisition managerial indigestion. Finally, a programme of research is proposed to measure the performance of acquisitions against the criteria laid down by the acquiring management, and to determine the impact of culture clashes on those acquisitions perceived to have failed.