Features

Departments

Making Better Decisions
By Gary Klein and Karl E. Weick
There are two standard schools of advice on how to make decisions under pressure: Use your head, or go with your gut. A third option-the experiential approach-combines the best of the rational and the intuitive.
Mismatches
By Arthur F. Miller Jr. and Marlys Hanson
One of the prevailing myths of our society is that people can be whatever they want to be. The unfortunate consequence of that myth is that many employees wind up sour and embittered, in jobs they're unsuited for.
Workers Are Not Assets
By Thomas O. Davenport
Annual reports and press releases tout employees as assets, but this viewpoint ignores a basic economic principle: Assets are passive objects that a business can own; employees most emphatically are not.
The Ivory Chateau
By Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove
As business goes global, business schools must follow. Here, a look at INSEAD. Is it the ultimate global B-school?
Avoiding the Complexity Trap
By Alan Brache and Peter M. Tobia
No company can be all things to all people. What businesses need to learn is to just say no-to expansion that doesn't complement their strategy, and to low-volume products that don't contribute to profitability.

Openers
By A.J. Vogl
The Best Teacher.
Fast Forward
By Randall Poe and Carol Lee Courter
Which formidable brands are in decline; why you should look closely at that business-to-business startup; how a hoax left people begging for free cars; and more.
Your Turn
Letters from our readers.
Executive Intelligence
By John Wareham
Adventures in Cyberspace
By E.J. Heresniak
Could your flashy e-commerce Website actually be a drain on your business?
Dispatches From the Front
By John Guaspari
What hand-dipped chicken wings have to teach you about your approach to customer service.
Research Roundup
By Gail Fosler and Thomas D. Higgins
Predictions for the next year's North American economy.
Reviews
By Robert A. Brawer
Two new books that claim to extract management lessons from the works of Shakespeare take a simplistic view of the Bard.
Reviews
By Allan J. Magrath
David A. Aaker and Erich Joachimsthaler offer a definitive guide to brand management.
Manager's Tool Kit
By Melissa Master
Sightings
By Christy Eidson
In the Zone.

Soundings

You Are Where You Sit
By Paco Underhill
How to Brainstorm
By Ethan M. Rasiel
Personal Branding
By Mark Dery
Meet the New Company Town
By Joanne B. Ciulla
Playing to Tie
By Thomas Christo
And more, from Wayne Muller and John MacIntyre