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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 success stories from tough times, simplification in growth strategy, less may be more in product lines, social media, and re-inventing leadership.

From Industry Week: Fighting Through the Worst of Times
"The past year or two has been a bloodbath in the manufacturing world. But amidst the drumbeat of layoffs, losses and bankruptcies, some manufacturers have managed to fend off recessionary forces and keep their companies profitable and healthy."

Wally's Comment: Here are the stories of Ford, Hormel, and General MetalWorks and how they're coming out of the recession stronger and ready to grow. The latter two both benefited from moves they made before the recession. They illustrate the importance of using good times to prepare for the inevitable hard times as well as how tough times can be a crucible of opportunity.

The Ford story is fascinating for two reasons. You can compare Ford to Chrysler or GM. Or you can consider the sheer challenge Alan Mulally faced when he arrived at Ford. He faced an uphill battle even before the tough times hit.

When Mulally took over, I thought he and Ford were doomed. To understand why, check out "Good choice or not, Mulally is probably doomed to failure," which includes pointers to several articles from 2006. By 2008, it looked like things were getting better. Read "Mulally is one of Ford's key advantages" by Jim Buckman. Finally, you might like this NY Times interview with Mulally about his management style.

From Strategy + Business: Growth through Focus: A Blueprint for Driving Profitable Expansion
"A typical “growth through more” strategy diffuses the organization’s efforts. It increases the complexity of the organization and its operations. We have found that “growth through less,” or more precisely “growth through focus,” is the best prescription for growth, regardless of the economic environment. This conclusion is based on our own experience in three well-known companies — Kraft Foods, Unilever, and Fonterra Brands (a dairy products business based in New Zealand) — on three continents over 10 years. In all three cases, a deliberate strategy of focusing on a few markets, brands, and categories produced impressive revenue and profit expansion."

Wally's Comment: There's a great unexamined assumption here. This article and many others simply assume that growth is a key goal for every business. Check out David Maister's excellent critique of that assumption in his post from 2006: "The Size and Growth Impulse."

If growth is the right goal, how do you do it? The strategy outlined here reminds me of Chris Zook's advice to "profit from the core." In the research for our upcoming book, Ruthless Focus, Tom Hall and I found that the details of strategy were less important than a ruthless focus on the few important things.

From the Toronto Globe and Mail: In store aisles, less is more but customers can still be particular
"Retailers find they sell a lot more of nearly everything by reducing the number of brands on offer, but figuring out what should stay and what should go can be a tricky business."

Wally's Comment: I love Ritz crackers. Just plain, old Ritz crackers. Not the ones with basil flavoring or made with ingredients growth by properly chosen peasants in some foreign land or even crackers that would reverse global climate change or that will keep our children slim and teach them to read.

Since I couldn't find plain, old Ritz crackers at my local supermarket without devoting a half day to the search, I switched to Town House crackers. Call me disloyal if you must.

Now it seems like expanding product lines as a way to grow is falling into disfavor. This article says that not only does trimming down the number of brands free up shelf space, storage space, and resources; it also results in increased sales.

From INSEAD: Just a pretty face(book)? Social media tries to come of age
"Emails are old hat; SMSs passe. Tweeting, blogging, and posting on “walls” are no longer the domain of the under-30s. They have become a staple of the way most people in the world communicate today, of the way Fortune 100 companies reach out to customers old and new."

Wally's Comment: OK, maybe there's a little hype here. Despite what the Digerati may think, "most people in the world" do not use social media. A bunch of them have yet to make a phone call. And, frankly, too many people on the planet are more concerned with getting enough to eat than they are with finding the trendiest sushi bar.

Even so, this piece is filled with little insights that will spark some thoughts about social media, where they're going and how we can use them. For a different take from a different faculty, read "Marketing’s New World Order: Consumers Talk Back—and Everyone Hears." Steve Baker also had a fine piece in Business Week titled "Learning, and Profiting, from Online Friendships."

From the Ivey Business Journal: Reinventing Leadership and Management
"Despite valiant efforts to separate leadership from management, the two roles remain entangled. Many refuse to differentiate between them at all. Some ignore management or confine it to a menial maintenance role operating in the engine room, "keeping things ticking over." With such a poor image, it's no wonder that so few want to be managers. Leadership is the glory role on the white charger, inspiring the troops to carry out grand visions."

Wally's Comment: This piece is a good prod to get you thinking about the future and the shape that leadership and management (and supervision) will take there. I like the fact that Mitch McCrimmon talks about "leadership and management" and not "leaders and managers." I've blogged about that in "More Leaders vs. Managers Nonsense."

As for the future of leadership, you may want to read "How Leadership has Changed in the Last Generation" from Psychology Today. I have two relevant posts, "The Workplace of the Future" and "Sea Change Challenges," which includes pointers to other articles and posts on the future of the workplace.

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.