Long Strange Trip: Nike Finally Regains Footing

Nike could not “just do it” when it tried to straighten out a newly installed system for speeding materials through its factories and into the marketplace. In fact, it has taken nearly three years for the shoemaker’s profits and shares to rebound after its 2001 disclosure of difficulties with its

Gotcha! Collaborative Sales Forecasting

Background: New Balance felt a burn in its purse strings, not its hamstrings, when it tried to collect demand forecasts from its 120-member sales force. Forecasts were hard to fill out. Few forms were turned in. Telephone connections discouraged users from even trying. Predictions of sales from the field were

Forest City Stapleton: Air Port

Construction trucks, heavy equipment and hardhat workers have replaced the sound of jet engines in the dusty, noisy and busy confines of what once was Stapleton International Airport. That makes Hank Baker feel right at home. Baker is the ramrod on the biggest and most closely watched urban “infill” project

American Electric Power: Hero or Zero?

Investigators are sifting through clues from a brush fire in southwestern Ohio, a tree branch that should have been trimmed, and three separate power-plant failures on the afternoon of Aug. 14, in their attempts to find the root cause of North America’s largest blackout. In the end, investigators from the

Do Not Contact Me, Ever

It’s hunting season on marketers, thanks to “Do Not Call” regulation and anti-spam legislation, and companies such as Publishers Clearing House are in the line of fire. The 50-year-old marketer of magazine subscriptions believes it has taken every conceivable precaution to protect customers’ privacy. Publishers Clearing House refuses to buy

When Employees Do the Monitoring

Your employees probably expect their e-mail and computer use to be monitored.They’d probably be shocked to find their phone calls on the watch list. And they almost certainly would be offended to know you kept track of each time they went to the bathroom. The bathroom? Yes. This I learned

Ameritrade: Hand in Hand

Since the bursting of the Internet bubble, online brokerages have been buying and selling each other like over-caffeinated day traders. Ameritrade, the largest Internet broker, has been one of the most aggressive. It has picked up National Discount Brokers, mydiscountbroker, and the online accounts of Brokerage America. But its biggest,