Editor’s note

Citation

(2006), "Editor’s note", Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 27 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/jbs.2006.28827faa.001

Editor’s note

Some months ago Betty Vandenbosch, Associate Dean of Executive Education Programs and External Relations at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, and several co-authors published a lengthy scholarly article on “Where ideas come from” in an academic journal. Very few business practitioners read these journals and their writing style can be difficult to navigate and dense with references. Of course they serve the needs of the academic community but the ideas within the papers too infrequently make their way to the business world, even though business people might well benefit from the new knowledge. In this issue of the Journal of Business Strategy we have the best of both worlds: an academic article reconfigured to the format of JBS and designed to be eminently readable and interesting to those in the business sector. Vandenbosch and her co-author for the JBS article, Argun Saatcioglu, have extracted from their long paper the five strategies or idea management types among the 49 executives they interviewed and described them in the JBS paper, along with how companies might use the information.

Readers of JBS know that the editor believes corporate communications (including public relations and public affairs) is a vital part of business strategy. In this issue, Paul Argenti, one of the leading thinkers in corporate communications and a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, shares with readers his research on how to measure the link between communications and business value and outcomes. While CEOs routinely state that communicating in various forms constitutes a major part of their jobs, they (and communications executive) often lament the absence of good metrics for the effectiveness of the function. Measuring the link between communications and business outcomes, especially the bottom line, has proved elusive. This is true not only for communications but for a number of other functions as well. How does one know for sure what effect a function or a program or series of programs has on business value, in particular when the programs revolve around intangibles? Argenti proposes a solution that is still in the pilot phase but shows promise as a way to measure intangibles.

From France comes a serious but tongue-in-cheek examination of CEO letters in annual reports. The co-authors, one a professor and one a lecturer at French universities, parse the letters that greet readers of annual reports from French companies. These letters are not very different from CEO letters in other countries: filled with clichés, buzzwords, self-promotion, projections, past history and with a few facts tossed in. The key is knowing how to decipher the letters and what they really say about the company’s performance and prospects. Parts of the paper are genuinely funny, parts are sad because they reflect missed opportunities in the letters to say something worthwhile.

Reading Ajit Kambil’s and Cabrini Pak’s article on the aging consumer made me uncomfortable. I have to admit that when I try to read nutrition labels at the supermarket to find out how fattening foods are, I can’t read the tiny print. If I have my reading glasses with me, I put them on (over my contacts) but I still can’t read the label. Sometimes I stop younger shoppers and tell them I can’t read and ask them to tell me how many calories are in the low-fat chips. Maybe they think I’m an illiterate rather than optically challenged.

I didn’t know whether to be affronted or glad to hear in Kambil’s paper that Ford Motor has for over ten years asked some of its designers and engineers to wear “Third Age Suits” to simulate the restrictions age imposes on driving ability. The suit adds bulk and restricts movement in key body areas such as the knees, elbows, stomach, and back. Special gloves lessen the sense of touch and goggles mimic cataracts. Are the cars designed with these incipient disabilities in mind safer? Maybe, but knowing about the process is humbling.

Gray-haired or not, all those older people are still consumers. They often have considerable disposable income and they buy billions of dollars in products and services, and the amount is increasing as longevity improves. If providers want to take advantage of this growing market segment, they need to bear in mind the needs of the older consumer.

This eclectic issue of JBS contains papers on topics from Asian branding to strategic cheese farming in Finland, as well as those mentioned above. We hope readers will find the mix provocative and engaging.

Even though I’m writing this Editor’s note on a hot August morning, the issue will appear in November. We wish all our readers and their families a very happy holiday season and we would love to hear from you in the new year.