Estamos entrando en una nueva fase en el uso corporativo y profesional de las nuevas tecnologías. Según la Encuesta de uso de TIC del Instituto Nacional de Estadística, más de un 97% de las PYMEs tienen ordenador y conexión a internet. Esto es, prácticamente todas.

Los clientes actuales pueden comprar en todo el mundo, conocer mejor que nunca las organizaciones con las que interaccionan y compartir sus opiniones con cientos de miles, si no millones, de clientes. Sus expectativas - sean consumidores, ciudadanos o clientes de empresa - aumentan. Y en un sólo día pueden crear o destruir marcas comerciales.

This survey about sustainable purchasing was conducted among 305 European purchasing directors, coming from France, UK, Ireland, Germany and the Nordics. 

The global volume of mergers and acquisitions in the first half of 2011 was put at around EUR 900 billion. Yet the failure rate seems almost as high as the takeover rate. The biggest stumbling block is going about integration and synergy management the wrong way. Google ingests Motorola Mobility. Beer giant SABMiller launches a hostile takeover bid for Australia's number one beer brand Foster's. Fiat acquires a majority stake in Chrysler. US pharmaceuticals service provider Express Scripts swallows rival Medco Health Solutions. Microsoft buys Skype. And Volkswagen seeks to make a big splash on the international commercial vehicle market by snapping up MAN. Browse through the business press and it seems companies are acquiring and merging like there is no tomorrow.

Finance organizations are more focused on finance function cost control than on growth opportunities, according to a new study by Accenture, and the majority of finance executives do not believe their finance organizations are using leading practices to deliver value to their enterprises. The study, "Delivering Value: The Next Battleground for the Finance Organization," which included surveys of top finance executives and their C-suite colleagues (CXOs), found that only 34 percent of finance executives say their finance functions are identifying growth opportunities. This is despite the fact that 79 percent of them believe that preparing for growth is "important or very important."

Risk management is outgrowing its origins as a tactical, operational discipline and becoming more tightly embedded with the strategy-setting process. At a majority of firms in a recent Economist Intelligence Unit survey, the risk function now plays a formal role in strategy-setting and in evaluating new market investments. Most risk managers in the survey also say their organisation is effective at linking risk management with strategy.  There is a long way to go, however, before senior management fully take on board the analysis of long-term risks when charting the organisation's long-term strategy. Scenario planning, for example, is used widely in long-term risk analysis, but at few companies (no more than 20% in the survey) do such risk scenarios figure in long-term strategic planning. And risks tend to be considered over a shorter period of time than strategic objectives-a clear indication of misalignment.

Many companies and institutions focus on the investment side of the business case as they assess their information technology (IT) investments. In some cases, IT investments are even treated as costs. The return, i.e. IT enabling business benefits in line with the strategic agenda, is seldom understood as well as the correlating IT expenditures. Nor is it assessed to a similar level of detail. Hence, significant imbalances between IT spend and return are built into the business case.

As boardrooms lead corporations in challenging economic times, more than ever, directors are pressured by internal and external stakeholders to deliver results. Indeed, with continued turmoil in the markets and increasing scrutiny of governance, board accountability remains top-of-mind in the business and financial communities. One front-line question on those observing boards today is the role of diversity, not just in the United States, but globally.

Astrong organizational culture is a business advantage that helps generate and maintain top-level performance. This is an obvious, intuitive statement that all business leaders understand and discuss. Yet, while many try to create a high-performing culture, few succeed. Why? Is it that difficult? Not really. The key to culture is understanding that the perceptions of the workforce are as significant in shaping behaviors as the formal mechanisms.

Part of what makes big data so compelling to companies large and small is the competitive gap between those that manage data effectively and those that do not. In June 2011 the Economist Intelligence Unit conducted a global survey of 586 senior executives, sponsored by SAS, to assess big data strategies, as well as to explore the organisational characteristics of companies that are adept at extracting value from data.

El creciente escepticismo con que el consumidor evalúa las actividades de venta es un importante problema que reduce, e incluso puede anular, la efectividad de las estrategias dirigidas a fomentar su confianza y, por ende, su satisfacción e intenciones de lealtad hacia la empresa.

Empresas de infinidad de sectores están descubriendo que un uso avanzado de la información con la que ya cuentan en sus propias organizaciones resulta fundamental para lograr el alto rendimiento. Este artículo presenta un modelo en cinco etapas que pondrá el análisis de datos en el centro de sus decisiones.

La expatriación ha pasado en muchos casos de ser una oportunidad de promoción a convertirse casi en una obligación a causa de la crisis. Ante las posibles consecuencias negativas de un rechazo, una parte de los afectados aceptan el traslado sin estar plenamente de acuerdo con las condiciones y sin conocer qué sucederá con su carrera tras la repatriación.

DBK presenta la quinta edición de su Informe Especial Project Management, en el cual se analizan en profundidad la estructura del sector, la evolución reciente y prevista del mercado, y el posicionamiento y los resultados competitivos de las 35 principales empresas que operan en el mismo.

Following up on The New World for Insurance - Business perspectives on Phase II, which looked at the potential business impact on the insurance industry from the IASB's and FASB's insurance accounting proposals. We give you an overview and update on how far the Boards have progressed in addressing technical concerns. We also help you inform your clients about what they should be doing now to prepare for these changes as well as providing a view of what lies ahead.

Many companies struggle to achieve benefits from lean-even after many years of trying. In many cases, lean approaches aren't consistently applied across plant networks. Some efforts lose momentum and results aren't sustained over time. To achieve true lean expertise, companies must pass through three different levels of maturity.

Welcome to the second-quarter 2011 edition of Intersections, PwC's quarterly analysis of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the global transportation and logistics (T&L) industry. In addition to a detailed summary of M&A activity in the second quarter, this edition features a special report on the challenges companies are facing as they expand into regions around the world where corruption is pervasive.

El Departamento de Investigación Económica de Rabobank Nederland acaba de hacer público un interesante informe titulado "Four Future Scenarios for Business in 2030". Si bien este estudio recoge un análisis sobre cuatro posibles escenarios para las empresas holandesas, pueden tomarse algunas referencias que puedan ser de interés a nivel más global.

Contrariamente a la creencia común, los malos resultados no son la causa principal del relevo de los directores generales. Así lo pone de manifiesto el "Estudio sobre la rotación del CEO en las grandes sociedades cotizadas españolas (2001-2010)", realizado por el profesor del IESE Guido Stein, con la colaboración de Salvador Plaza y Lourdes Susaeta. Además de aportar evidencias sobre cuáles son las razones más frecuentes para la sustitución del primer ejecutivo de la empresa, la investigación también permite conocer la duración media del CEO en el cargo, el promedio de edad con la que empieza y termina su mandato y las diferencias sectoriales.