Research

Think twice about accepting a job with an organization headed by a renowned industry captain, a technological wunderkind or a visionary philanthropist, warns an expert who's studied the downside of charismatic leadership.

Tools to facilitate the full range of business processes proliferated over the past decade. Some firms base entire business models or product lines on such tools, while other traditional companies are looking for tools as a means to improve operational efficiency or processes.

The first official baby boomer reached age 62 and applied for Social Security benefits recently. Her action set off a ripple of reaction, fueled by a fear that plagues many Americans — that the Social Security system will collapse under the weight of millions of baby boomers entering retirement.

Carly Fiorina was ousted from her role as CEO of Hewlett-Packard after the merger with Compaq, but that doesn't mean that women can't hold their own in the male-dominated corporate world.

The ubiquitous Microsoft Office suite claims an impressive 95 percent market share. Yet since 2000, a free suite of software that includes spreadsheet and word processing programs similar to Excel and Word has evolved.

Computer network problems cost American businesses $100 billion each year.

The tentative contract agreement that assigned a role to the United Auto Workers in managing the healthcare costs of its General Motors members was a turning point in the relationship between business and labor — and a sign of things to come in a global economy.

PetSmart was designed to be a category killer with dominant prices and dominant variety when it was founded in the late 1980s, and the concept worked well for the company's first decade. But by the late 1990s the company was losing steam.

Last week's job growth report indicated that some 89,000 jobs were added to the economy nationally in August, and another 110,000 in September. That means the average monthly job growth for 2007 will hover around 125,000 per month — down from the 160,000 average in 2006 and 175,000 in 2005.

Creating a great product or service is just the first step on a company's road to success. It's also necessary for your potential customers to know about that great product or service. So how does a company go about developing a successful customer focus strategy?