Nov.-Dec. 2004

Posted on December 15, 2004 at 2:45 PM
Filed under: Acquisitions | Corporate Strategy | Cover Story | Nov.-Dec. 2004 | People | The Magazine
Tagged: acquisitions , Best Buy , Bradbury Anderson , corporate development , Darren Jackson , George Lopuch , Kal Patel , Richard Schulze , Ryan Robinson

The giant consumer electronics retailer is thriving, but it can't afford to stand pat--especially in the way it runs finance, strategy and corporate development.  Continue reading

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Posted on December 15, 2004 at 2:20 PM
Filed under: Integration | Nov.-Dec. 2004 | People | The Magazine
Tagged: ADP , Automatic Data Processing , corporate development , deals , Harry Durity , M&A , PMI

Like many corporate dealmakers, Harry Durity isn't directly responsible for what happens post-deal - but he sure has a big stake in making deals successful.  Continue reading

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Posted on December 15, 2004 at 2:00 PM
Filed under: Acquisitions | Information Technology | Nov.-Dec. 2004 | People | The Magazine
Tagged: CIO , HSBC , information technology , integration , Ken Harvey , merge , technology

Imagine the information technology issues that arise when two giant banks merge. Each has a huge IT infrastructure, created over many years to serve millions of customers and operate the institution's complex financial plumbing. Melding the two must be a major technical challenge, right? Actually, no. "It's not a...  Continue reading

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Posted on December 15, 2004 at 11:48 AM
Filed under: Job Description | Nov.-Dec. 2004 | People | The Magazine
Tagged: books , deals , job description , John Wiley & Sons , Timothy King

Quietly, steadily, Tim King has done the deals that have kept the 197-year-old publisher more than up to date.  Continue reading

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Posted on December 15, 2004 at 11:41 AM
Filed under: Acquisitions | Corporate Strategy | Nov.-Dec. 2004 | The Magazine
Tagged: M&A , strategic planning , strategy

For the past couple of months, thousands of major corporations have been engaged in the yearly rite of planning strategy. When done well, strategic planning provides a center of gravity and a common language that energizes employees. Unfortunately, most companies will spend an enormous amount of energy doing it...  Continue reading

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Posted on December 15, 2004 at 11:35 AM
Filed under: Acquisitions | Corporate Strategy | Integration | Nov.-Dec. 2004 | The Magazine
Tagged: acquire , culture , decision-making , human resources , M&A , performance management , Pritchett

I love you, you're perfect; now change. For as long as big companies have bought small ones, this approach to post-merger integration has been nearly as common as it is self-defeating. When a deal is coming together, commercial logic is emphasized and cultural differences are often overlooked. Later, when the...  Continue reading

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Posted on December 15, 2004 at 11:28 AM
Filed under: Nov.-Dec. 2004 | Outsourcing | The Magazine | Trends
Tagged: John Halvey , legal brief , Milbank , outsourcing , Tweed

Structuring outsourcing transactions in a changing regulatory environment will be a key topic over the next decade.  Continue reading

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Posted on December 15, 2004 at 10:59 AM
Filed under: Corporate Venture Capital | Nov.-Dec. 2004 | The Magazine
Tagged: ChevronTexaco , corporate venture capital , Greg Vesey , oil , technology

ChevronTexaco Technology Ventures ponders its investing scheme amidst other plans for efficiency in the oil business.  Continue reading

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Posted on December 15, 2004 at 10:49 AM
Filed under: Acquisitions | Corporate Strategy | Cover Story | Nov.-Dec. 2004 | The Magazine
Tagged: acquire , acquisition , Best Buy , Geek Squad , Ryaqn Robinson

Big companies like to buy small ones with good ideas and hook them up to their powerful distribution channels. The payoffs can be big, but when the target's a service provider, the challenges often are too. Yet as Best Buy Co. is proving with its purchase and buildup of...  Continue reading

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Posted on December 15, 2004 at 10:30 AM
Filed under: CD Community | Corporate Strategy | Intellectual property | Nov.-Dec. 2004 | Research and development | The Magazine
Tagged: Caltech , Columbia , intellectual property , R&D , schools , Stanford

At a growing number of companies, the search for innovation now leads beyond their own R&D departments and past the labs over at the competition, or in startup companies. Instead, they're looking to an old source that's gotten newly aggressive in pitching its intellectual property: academia. It would seem...  Continue reading

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Posted on December 15, 2004 at 10:20 AM
Filed under: Joint Ventures and Alliances | Nov.-Dec. 2004 | The Magazine
Tagged: alliances , Centre for Global Corporate Positioning , consulting , joint venture

Ard-Pieter de Man is a mapmaker - not of geographies but of business networks. A professor of organization science at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, he argues that corporate alliances have become vital tools in nearly every sector of the global economy. Those arguments - supported by...  Continue reading

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Posted on December 15, 2004 at 10:13 AM
Filed under: Acquisitions | Nov.-Dec. 2004 | People | The Magazine
Tagged: movers , Olivier Jacquesson , pharma , Sanofi-Aventis

One of the year's major mergers was officially consummated in August, and the first big development was the naming of a new head of business development. Olivier Jacquesson now has that job at Sanofi-Aventis, serving on the management committee and reporting to CEO Jean-François Dehecq. The manner of Jacquesson's...  Continue reading

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Posted on December 15, 2004 at 10:05 AM
Filed under: Integration | Nov.-Dec. 2004 | People | The Magazine
Tagged: Alcan , movers , Rhod Harries

Rhod Harries was ready to move to South Korea last spring when a recruiter called with a different idea. The upshot is that instead of becoming CFO at GM-Daewoo, the former assistant treasurer for General Motors Corp. joined Alcan Inc., the world's second-largest aluminum company, in August as vice...  Continue reading

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Posted on December 15, 2004 at 9:54 AM
Filed under: Integration | Nov.-Dec. 2004 | People | The Magazine
Tagged: acquisitions , Anne Madden , Association for Corporate Growth , business development , Honeywell , integration , PMI

Heard the one about the division president who put his secretary in charge of integrating an acquisition? You would have if you'd been at the New Jersey Association for Corporate Growth meeting last month. The speaker was Anne Madden, vice president for corporate planning and development at Honeywell International...  Continue reading

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Posted on December 15, 2004 at 9:49 AM
Filed under: From Ken | Nov.-Dec. 2004 | The Magazine
Tagged: corporate dealmaker , editor , Klee

Central control versus local autonomy. Hierarchy versus networks. Whether you favor the old formulation or the new, the theme is a recurring one in business stories. Indeed, the quest for balance between these opposing, complementary forces is probably as old as the human habit of forming organizations - and maybe...  Continue reading

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