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Many managers are failing to understand and exploit their strategic leverage. They often become obsessed with strategic tactics designed to achieve a short‐term gain and lose sight of the competitive dynamics, industrial economics, and long‐term horizon of their business—in short, the fundamentals behind their strategic leverage. Strategic leverage is defined as a company's maneuver (its ability to change its competitive position in a market) multiplied by its return (changes in revenue, market share, or both that result from any maneuver). If a company can change its position and the market rewards it for the change, its strategic leverage is high; if not, it is low.

Has your company identified where to apply its strategic leverage?

“Our market is everyone living North of Main Street and East of Broad”. This sentence graphically describes a common problem: “framing” markets incorrectly, defining them according to our perceptions rather than the realities. Discusses why companies consistently wear blinkers when viewing their markets; describes the dangers of myopia in this important, but overlooked, area of strategy, and highlights typical causes.

In response to questions about how to provide the correct level of after sales service in the face of shifting customer needs and expectations, SLC Consultants, Inc. has developed an after‐sales service framework, which examines the costs customers absorb when their equipment fails. Describes a framework which helps manufacturers identify the most cost‐effective service strategies for different customer segments, and determine how these strategies should influence equipment design. Suggests that the framework can also be used to predict how product and service strategies must change in response to new technologies and evolving customer needs.

Suggests that while businesses have made great efforts to reduce the length of time customers wait for service, little attention has been paid to the actual experience of waiting. Argues that the final service encounter is crucial for reinforcing customers′ performance expectations. Suggests that the expectations and perceptions of customers influence their actual experience of waiting at the point of sale. Offers hints on improving customers′ waiting experiences.

Everybody pays lip service to service quality. A few have invested the level of effort required to make a difference. This article examines the impact that service quality has on corporate performance. The article also summarizes why so many have underestimated the challenge of improving service quality. Finally the article presents some strategies which have helped companies in building or rebuilding the quality of service that customers expect.

Proposes that service quality can be improved by focusing on customer problems. Describes a problem‐centred research program used to establish the types and pervasiveness of customer problems and to evaluate the effect of each on customer satisfaction. Makes it possible to identifycritical problem areas and to establish service priorities accordingly. Offers recommended guidelines for designing and conducting problem‐centred consumer research.

Considers the importance of implementing a market orientation, highlighting the difficulty in focusing on competitors rather than customers. Offers an approach to competitive analysis taking into account the validity of both competitor and customer orientations. Argues that this type of method can help managers to maintain or build their position in relation to competition. Illustrates the stages involved in customer‐based competitive analysis with a case example.

This report on the Fifth Annual Conference of the Association of Strategic Planning (ASP), “Strategy in action: lessons from practice,” was held in Long Beach, California. This report covers the two keynote speakers plus highlights from a selection of the presentations (for more information see the ASP website: www.strategyplus.org). Purpose – The article summarizes the highlights of the Association for Strategic Planning's 2006 Annual Conference held on February 28, 2006 in Long Beach, California, one of the premier strategic‐planning conferences in the US. Design/methodology/approach – This is reportage on the annual ASP conference. Findings – The remarks of the two keynote speakers are summarized: W. Chan Kim's on “blue ocean strategy” that makes the competition irrelevant, and Milind Lele's remarks on situational monopolies that also, for a time, gets rid of competition. Both authors' remarks were based on recently published best selling books. In addition, of 40 other presentations offered in concurrent sessions, the article highlights a select few, enough to give a flavor of the conference theme of “Strategy in action – lessons from practice”. Practical implications – The actual conference (and this report) was targeted both to practitioners and strategic consultants eager to learn about the latest methods and pitfalls in doing strategic planning. Originality/value – Both audiences will benefit from reading this article principally by learning about the experiences, experiments, and successes of other companies' and consultants' efforts in actually doing strategic planning.

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that scholarship is all about challenging the prevailing wisdom by offering an alternative perspective or explanation. Hopefully, the author’s journey of more than 50 years will inspire others to be eclectic and become deep generalists.

It is an autobiographical evaluation of an accidental scholar. It emphasizes that an educator is more than a scientist or a priest or a public servant. It is all of them. Educators are in the business of making ordinary people extraordinary. They are diamond cutters who are entrusted by society with its rough diamonds to get their brilliance out and make them useful to themselves, the society and the community.

Over 50 years, marketing has evolved and adapted to the external environment, including technology revolution, changing demographics, global competition and geopolitics. This provides enormous opportunity for the next generation of scholars to establish their own identity in managerial marketing, consumer behavior or marketing analytics.

While publishing in the top journals is both necessary and desirable in the early stages of an academic career, it is also important to make an impact on practitioners by publishing professional books.

According to Peter Drucker, there are only two functions of business: innovation and marketing. While innovation is admired by everyone, marketing can also become a positive force for a better world.

Lessons learnt over time from different encounters and circumstances in research, teaching and service are important to document. In the end, according to the author, they are all academic entrepreneurs.