Research

The corporate failures of Enron, WorldCom, HealthSouth and Tyco were separate tragedies, but they share a common theme: ethical breakdown that started at the top and permeated the organizations.

Manufacturers have learned to work closely with their suppliers to decrease costs and reduce time to market, but focusing on buyer-supplier relationships may no longer be enough to achieve competitive advantage.

Convenience and cost-savings are powerful incentives for companies to use technology as a way of convening meetings, and they do so knowing that an electronically-mediated session will be different from a face-to-face meeting.

When complicated decisions have to be made — whether about salaries, layoffs or growth strategy — executives often rely on their underlying values to help them sort through possible options.

How do you know which hospitals are doing the best job? Patients, insurers and employers all have a stake in the answer to this question, but up until now factual information on hospital and nursing home performance has been scanty, and what is out there is based on differing criteria.

What is small business? According to the Small Business Administration's size standards, an enterprise may still be considered "small" if it employs as many as 1,500 people with revenues up to $32.5 million.

Entrepreneur magazine recently ranked Arizona as the top hot spot for entrepreneurs. However, it is replicative, not innovative, entrepreneurs who are flourishing in Arizona.

Employee turnover is an expensive process. Human resources experts estimate the cost of turnover to range between 93 percent and 200 percent of an exiting worker's annual salary, depending on the employee's skill level.

When Dell Computer Corp. announced in May that it is opening two retail stores, retail industry observers took note. Dell, with $56 billion in revenue this year, was a pioneer in developing the online model of retailing. Brick-and-mortar retailers have followed, creating their own online stores.

The withdrawal of Bill Gates from his full-time role in the Microsoft empire he created raises the specific question of how — and even whether — an icon can be replaced. Gates' move also highlights the general question of how best to handle management succession.