Journal Reviews

In their research paper by the same title, the authors argue that goal setting has its context and place. When used indiscriminately with little attention to the type of task and conflicts that might arise, it leads to irreversible damage, as in the case of Enron or even death as in the case of the Ford Pinto performance.  

In the author’s expert opinion, during these tough times of a bad economy, as a Boss one needs to rethink his responsibility and address the four deficit areas of his staff: Predictability, Understanding, Control, and Compassion. The entire article focuses on these four key principles.                                      

Daniel Goleman, the famous author of the best selling book, Emotional Intelligence, takes the mystery out of leadership in this article. Taking consulting firm Hay/McBer’s research as the basis, he defines 6 distinct leadership styles, each springing from different components of emotional intelligence. Emotional Intelligence is the ability to manage ourselves and our relationships effectively and consists of 4 fundamental capabilities, Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness and Social Skill.   

In this well-researched article, the authors (Consultants, the Boston Consulting Group) opine that the most effective ways to seize advantage in a downturn are the stabilization of the current business as well as the identification of the ways to capitalize on the downturn.

Authors, Alan G. Sanfey and Luke J.Chang, show how the decisions we make do not happen by a single process, but by both automatic and controlled processes. While these processes usually interact seamlessly, they may compete at times. This has its implications in behavioral economics and hence with real-business scenarios. By implication, this gives us the basics of how to understand customer decision processes.   

The authors describe the key elements of managing virtual teams to attain the best results, far outweighing those by teams in the same location. While asserting that the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages, they offer dos and don’ts to creating processes, making hiring choices and ways of managing virtual teams. These guidelines apply to teams that are separated by very short distances too.   

Major sale, which is a non-repetitive or infrequent sale, typically a B2B phenomenon with businesses selling to other businesses, has become numerous and significant. In this article, the authors explain the basic approach to take for a major sale and offer 8 steps to ensure a more successful and long-lasting sale. Further, they provide organizational guidelines to help companies incorporate this approach into their overall activities. It is a good guide to small organizations who are involved in large deals with multi-million or billion dollar companies too.  

Author David Rotman explains the differences between individual technologies and domains while exploring why it takes technology so long to commercialize. This understanding can help enterprises evaluate their product choices, the investments they need to make and the timeline for successful adoption of the new technology. This can show them what to focus on in their development efforts.                                          

The authors point out the need for a scientific approach to sales, moving away from rainmakers who rely on gut feel and native sales talent to one that is based on systems – data, analysis, processes and tools. The goal is to narrow the gap between the top 15-20% and the rest of the sales force. Using the new approach, companies find that while the top sellers do better, the lower quartiles of sales reps show dramatic improvement with productivity jumps of 200%. This takes one to the realm where “the future of business is to do things by design, not by chance”.