Marketplace (August 31)
“After more than half a century in which the United States boasted a near-lock on being the world’s leading exporter of corn, the distinction has shifted to Brazil…. The reordering of the corn hierarchy follows a similar erosion of U.S. dominance in exports of other staple commodities, like wheat and soybeans, over the last decade or so.”
Tags: Brazil, Corn, Dominance, Erosion, Exporter, Exports, Hierarchy, Reordering, Soybeans, Staple commodities, U.S., Wheat, World’s leading
The Economist (March 19)
“Companies are abandoning functional silos and organising employees into cross-disciplinary teams that focus on particular products, problems or customers. These teams are gaining more power to run their own affairs. They are also spending more time working with each other rather than reporting upwards. But the transition to “a network of teams” in place of conventional hierarchy has hardly been smooth. Managing teams is “hard” and research routinely uncovers lapses. And even when teamwork is well managed, things can be taken too far. “Even in the age of open-plan offices and social networks some work is best left to the individual.”
Tags: Cross-disciplinary teams, Customers, Employees, Functional silos, Hierarchy, Individual, Network, Open-plan offices, Problems, Products, Research, Social networks, Teamwork
Bloomberg (November 28)
“Fierce rivals, Samsung and Sony also face many of the same problems: overstretched businesses, a dearth of game-changing products, hierarchical corporate structures and proud places in their national psyches. But South Korea’s Samsung is proving how nimble even huge legacy names can be. Sony should pay attention.”
Tags: Corporate structures, Game-changing products, Hierarchy, Legacy, Nimble, Overstretched, Rivals, Samsung, Sony, South Korea
