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Two´s Company in a Cold Climate

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

It may be more difficult than ever for companies to grow, but investors still expect it. So while credit is down and money’s too tight to mention, joint ventures are on the rise. Partnerships are popping up everywhere, with companies from Fiat to Gazprom collaborating with others. A new study on joint ventures conducted by IESE and KPMG looks at how and why firms team up, and advises the best way to go about it.

Shedding Misconceptions About Family Business

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

While it is sometimes true that family businesses do not survive past the first generation, and that most SMEs, in Spain at least, are family-run, it cannot be presumed that all family businesses are SMEs, nor that a family business is, by definition, shorter lived than a non-family one. A new book by IESE Prof. Josep Tàpies redresses these and other common myths.

Creating Winning Partnerships

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

"Dynamic duos" is the focus of the latest IESE Insight magazine, and so, appropriately, we introduce a winning pairing of our own: This quarter, together with the second issue, we launch an associated website, where you can either view the entire magazine, or pick and choose only those articles that interest you, read them, download them and print them off as you please. By using the same log-in details that you registered previously with IESE Insight, you'll be able to search content from the previous edition.

Not Just in It for the Money

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

You would think that the goals of family-owned businesses and other owner-managed enterprises would be perfectly aligned with profit maximization. However, in their paper, Brian T. McCann and Govert Vroom find that the competitive nature of professionally managed firms implies that their interests are better aligned with profit maximization. This, the authors claim, is due to the fact that owner-managers pursue non-pecuniary objectives in addition to profit maximization.

Catalonian Economy Must Boost Productivity

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Catalonia’s economy is diversified and open, with an industrial base. But is it enough to ensure a strong competitive position? IESE professors Pankaj Ghemawat and Xavier Vives analyze the performance of Spain’s leading industrial region and consider its future prospects for competitiveness. Their assessment is clear: the region must boost its productivity.

How to Fight in a Free-for-All

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Imagine you are the publisher of an esteemed local newspaper. Suddenly, Metro is launched in your city, a paper that is free and ad-sponsored. How should you react? When faced with the choice of paying a subscription or getting the same news for free, is it enough to bank on the superior quality of your offer? From media to iTunes to pay TV channels like HBO, ad-sponsored entrants pose unique challenges to high-quality incumbents, who must decide whether – and how – to change their business models to compete in a new ad-sponsored landscape.

To Plan or Not to Plan in the Mittelstand?

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In uncertain times, preparing for the future is more important than ever. That’s why all the biggest companies subscribe to strategic management. But what about the many small and medium enterprises that provide the majority of jobs in Germany? In “Strategic Management in the German Mittelstand: An Empirical Investigation,” Klaus Deimel, Sascha Kraus and Sebastian Reiche address this, along with tackling the reasons why some enterprises prefer to shoot from the hip rather than plan a sensible strategy.

KLM: Gaining Altitude With Alliances

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

When one thinks of alliances, airlines often spring to mind. Though they seem like they have been around forever, global airline alliances such as SkyTeam, OneWorld and Star are relatively recent phenomena, having only really taken off in the late ’90s. KLM was one of the first to give wings to these alliances that have been commonplace ever since.

Offshoring Poses Potential Gains for Japan

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Though Japan has lagged behind other countries for the past 20 years when it comes to offshoring practices, the country is now at a major crossroads. IESE’s Pablo Agnese weighs up the pros and cons of Japan following the worldwide trend of offshoring more of its business processes. He suggests that doing so should see a positive effect on employment and the growth rate of productivity in the long term, helping Japan to break out of the bubble that its economy has been stuck in for quite some time.

Developing Leaders in Practical Wisdom

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

What sets good executives apart? IESE believes it is their capacity to analyze situations and then take action according to a set of criteria. This is the fundamental idea behind Sabiduría práctica. 50 años del IESE (Practical Wisdom: 50 Years of IESE), a story about what distinguishes this business school of the University of Navarra from others, told through the experience of some 400 people.