FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Fortier
Goldberg McDuffie Communications
(212) 446-5103

NEW YORK, NY, February 2004 — As American multinational corporations worry about the impact of recent U.S. foreign policy initiatives on their brands in overseas markets, the Spring 2004 issue of strategy+business magazine (on newsstands March 1) reveals reassuring findings from an exclusive survey. In “The Post-9/11 Resilience of American Brands,” Harvard Business School academics John A. Quelch and Douglas B. Holt surveyed consumers in 11 countries (Egypt, Indonesia,Turkey, U.K., Japan, France, Poland, South Africa, Brazil, China, and India ) about preferences for seven global U.S.-based brands (Nike, Kraft, Motorola, Exxon-Mobil, Ford, Coca-Cola and Pepsi). They found that American global brands are understood foremost as global, not American brands, and that consumer choice does not appear to be impacted by Anti-Americanism. In fact, 2003, the article reports, was Coke's and Pepsi's most successful year ever in the Arab countries.

In “Diversity and Its Discontents,” strategy+business columnist Art Kleiner questions the progress of the corporate diversity movement. He finds that research has failed to prove that diverse teams are more successful than homogenous ones, but evidence does show a correlation between high performance and teams that treat each other with respect. Kleiner suggests that the corporate diversity movement may be on the verge of a turning point, beginning to focus less on awareness training and more on promoting human behaviors that eliminate “rankism” and nourish dignity and diversity.

In the “Smart Customization” cover story, Booz Allen Hamilton consultants Keith Oliver, Leslie H. Moeller and Bill Lakenan find that few companies succeed at managing the tradeoff between customer demand for variety in products and services, and the ballooning costs of customizing to meet this demand. They get to the bottom of this conundrum with a profitable strategy for serving fragmented demand.

In “Japan 's Coming Competitive Renaissance,” strategist Cecilia S.V. Ng and London Business School professor George S. Yip declare that Japan is ready for a comeback. A new generation of Japanese multi-nationals, the authors believe, is inventing new business models that leverage the strengths of ‘Japan Inc.,' while incorporating the best ideas from the New Economy. They explain, “the traditional Japanese business fundamentals – focus on the customer, global mind-set, a more rounded knowledge, teamwork, strong linkages among Japan 's institutions, and operational efficiency, among others – will set Japanese companies apart from their Western rivals and will be instrumental in transforming the country from Japan Inc. to Cyber-Japan.”

Also in the Spring 2004 issue of strategy+business :

• A provocative story on “complexity Management” by Nexus author Mark Buchanan, that shows how the research of physicists is enlightening the peril and potential underlying the modern interdependent enterprise.
  
• A critique of the IT balanced scorecard by scorecard veteran and Booz Allen Hamilton CIO George Tillman.
  
• A timely Thought Leader interview with constitutional scholar and national security expert Philip Bobbitt about the new era of market statehood.
  
• Results of a survey from the Institute of Economic Research that finds that listening is the leadership skill people value most in their leaders.
  
• Findings from a revealing University of Texas study of over 1,000 directors and over 200 CEOs at Forbes 500 companies, that points to elitism among directors as one of the most formidable obstacles to boardroom reform.

About strategy+business

strategy+business is a quarterly thought-leadership magazine for senior business executives and the people who influence them.

Led by Editor-in-Chief Randall Rothenberg, strategy+business bridges the gap between theory and practice in contemporary global business. Alone among major business publications, the magazine draws on journalists, academics, consultants, and corporate strategists to both set the agenda for business leaders and to guide them through its execution. strategy+business is the only management magazine with a unique combination of paid subscribers and advertisers, newsstand sales and non-consultant contributors.

Sponsored by the leading global management and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, strategy+business magazine is part of strategy+business media , a multi-platform communications venture, which also includes strategy+business books, www.strategy-business.com , and ancillary publications.

About Randall Rothenberg

Randall Rothenberg is Editor-in-Chief of strategy+business and Director of Intellectual Capital at Booz Allen Hamilton, as well as an editor-at-large and media/marketing columnist for Advertising Age magazine.

Prior to joining strategy+business , Mr. Rothenberg was a contributing editor of Wired, senior writer, columnist, and editorial director of Esquire, and senior consulting editor at Bloomberg Business News in London . He has contributed articles to The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, Metropolis, The Nation, The New Leader, Inc., Condé Nast Traveler, Diversion, GQ, and New York Magazine .

Mr. Rothenberg is the author of Where the Suckers Moon: An Advertising Story, The Neoliberals: Creating The New American Politics , and co-author with Alan F. Westin and Albert Robbins, of Getting Angry Six Times a Week: A Portfolio of Political Cartoons.

His December 1996 Esquire story, “The Age of Spin,” garnered the Society of Professional Journalists' Deadline Club Award for best magazine feature writing of the year. Mr. Rothenberg has appeared regularly on programs including “Morning Edition” on National Public Radio, “Power Lunch” and “Kudlow & Cramer” on CNBC, “CNN Newsstand” and “CNN DotCom” on CNN, “Business Unusual” and “The Biz” on CNN-FN, “Adam Smith's Money World,” on PBS-TV, and “Oprah.”

For a copy of strategy+business or to request an interview with Editor-in-Chief Randall Rothenberg or a strategy+business writer, please contact Mark Fortier at (212) 446-5103 or mfortier@goldbergmcduffie.com.