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Here are five choice articles from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms to start off your work week. I'm pointing you to articles about maximizing shareholder value, strategy, Ursula Burns and Xerox, Harley Davidson, and the music business.

From the Economist: A new idolatry
"The economic crisis has revived the old debate about whether firms should focus most on their shareholders, their customers or their workers."

Wally's Comment: Shareholder capitalism has held sway for a while now. The problem is that putting the interests of shareholders above all other stakeholders in all situations can result in some nasty consequences. The stock exchange is not the only scoreboard that matters. For more reading on this, I suggest a superb post by Charles Green titled: "The Purpose of a Company is …"

From Strategy+Business: Putting Strategy into Practice
"Of all the false distinctions that dog business thinking — leadership versus management, profitability versus growth, short term versus long term — the most pernicious is the separation of strategy (where the company should go) from execution (getting there). Strategy without execution is daydreaming. What good is a blue ocean to one who cannot swim? Execution without strategy is pointless, even dangerous. What profit is there in doing the wrong things well?"

Wally's Comment: To quote Jack Welch, who ought to know: "In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. Pick a general direction and implement like hell."

It has a lot to do with attention span. If you're spending time and brainpower on coming up with the latest tweak to your current strategy, you don't have any left for innovation and implementation. When Tom Hall and I were researching for our upcoming book, Ruthless Focus, we saw that companies that are successful for a long time usually have simple strategies that they stay with until they don't work any longer. That allows time and energy and resources to improve operations and marketing and production. It allows the time for a culture to develop that supports the strategy.

From Fortune: Ursula Burns launches Xerox into the future
"Being bold has never been a challenge for Burns, 52, a mechanical engineer who got noticed at Xerox (XRX, Fortune 500) because she often spoke up bluntly in a famously -- and overly -- genteel culture. She becomes the first African-American woman to run a Fortune 500 company and succeeds Mulcahy as chairman in May. Burns finds all that gratifying but is focused on further transforming Xerox; the stock price is barely half of what it was three years ago. She talked recently with Fortune's Geoff Colvin about changing Xerox's culture, what she learned in the recession, America's desperate shortage of engineers, and much else."

Wally's Comment: Geoff Colvin does a great job of interviewing Ursula Burns and culling out the important stuff. Note that she's able to define Xerox' strategy in a sentence.

For more on Ms Burns, you may want to read "Xerox’s New Chief Tries to Redefine Its Culture" from the NY Times.

From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Wandell slashes costs, cuts jobs in effort to save motorcycle firm
"Having climbed aboard an American icon at one of the most difficult points in its history, Keith Wandell has been driven by an overriding thought: Don't let Harley-Davidson become General Motors."

Wally's Comment: Harley's already been hauled back from the brink once. Can it happen again?

From the NY Times: They’re Calling Almost Everyone’s Tune
"Live Nation Entertainment, the combination of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, is a colossus unlike anything the industry has ever seen."

Wally's Comment: This is a fascinating article on a number of levels. There's a well-drawn portrait of a marvelous character, Irving Azoff, and the empire he's built. And there's lots of important, but often un-reviewed, information about the music business. Most of the articles I've seen in the last decade or so have discussed sales of music in physical products versus sales of downloaded music. That's important, but what's been missing is a look at the changing state of live performance. You'll find that here, as well as a knowledgeable discussion of the economics of it all.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.