Executive Agenda
Volume XII, Number 2, 2009

Features

When the Trend Is Not Your Friend
While we're reminded to "expect the unexpected," we continue to focus on trends and forecasts. How often are companies overtaken by unforeseen events? Anything from a food scare to a hurricane can cause a profound change in the business environment. Whether such shifts are good or bad, they all offer a lesson.
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Covert Pricing: Expanding Profitable Business Behind Enemy Lines
One way to survive online price wars is to avoid them altogether. Covert pricing skirts the online dust-up by surreptitiously offering short-lived promotional prices to micro-segments of customers. To ensure wins are not one-time events, the promotional prices change constantly—as do the targeted customers.
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The Soap-Holder Effect: Acting on Behalf of Your Customers
It's hard to imagine a product manager proposing a solution that will reduce consumption, revenues, market share and perhaps even negotiating power with retailers. That is, unless you believe we are in a different market where consumers are reevaluating their most basic purchase decisions.
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Management Agenda

Economic Perspectives from the Top: The Global Business Policy Council's CEO Retreat
Each year, members of A.T. Kearney's Global Business Policy Council meet to discuss macroeconomic issues, shifting global politics, emerging technologies and other fundamental issues that will shape the global landscape. A main topic at this year's session: The prospects and timing for recovery from the economic crisis.
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Vertical View

A Whole Lot Less Wealthy
Tens of millions of baby boomers—and their money—will be retiring over the next 20 years. That this demographic trend has collided with the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression is the topic of much discussion and speculation about the lasting impact of the "knock-on" effects.
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Pharmaceutical Markets: The New Price of Admission
Even as healthcare budgets are rising, drug sales in most developed markets are forecast to be flat. With such a thin pipeline, it is essential for pharmaceutical companies to make the best of their current portfolios and pay the new price of admission.
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Private Equity Adapts to Darwinian Forces
The private equity industry is moving into a new era—where more hands-on operational ownership will replace the deal-driven approach that has served the industry so well. Rather than buying a troubled business, fixing it up and selling it quickly, PE companies are taking ownership.
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Research Reports

Leaders in a Changing Landscape
Despite the most severe recession in decades, a select group of companies continues to stand out. Combining long-range strategic planning with nimble execution, 25 companies outperformed the competition and were named A.T. Kearney Global Champions for 2009.
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The Global Real Estate Market
The real estate landscape in emerging markets still looks much the same, despite the global economic crisis. In the second A.T. Kearney Real Estate Opportunity Index, China remains on top, Asia continues to dominate and the Middle East improves in the rankings.
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Six Mandates for IT Innovation
In the 2009 IT Innovation and Effectiveness Study, most business leaders understand the importance of IT innovation in terms of future goals, and are matching that understanding with the tools, strategies and capabilities to drive successful technology innovations.
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Asia Pacific Mobile Observatory
A.T. Kearney and the GSM Association joined forces to study the mobile industry in Asia Pacific, finding that the industry is contributing heavily to the economy, focusing on low-income consumers in developing countries, and making strides toward sustainability.
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Page 70

A Green China or a Gray China?
Taking preemptive measures to build a green nation should no longer be an option but an imperative for China, especially given the serious challenges and opportunities to create a future economic growth engine.
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