Michael Porter's innovative research in the 1980's changed managers' perceptions of their own industry's importance as a factor for their company's strategy. Business unit managers would now have to study their industry's characteristics since an industry's structure determines its relative economic attractiveness and hence, the profit potential of all companies...

The z-score model was developed to predict firm bankruptcy and provide a basis for safer investment decisions and better assessment of supplier and customer credit worthiness. Edward I. Altman first published the model in 1968. Altman holds a PhD in finance from the University of California and authored many articles and books on bankruptcy....

At the turn of the 20th century, the American engineer, Frederick Winslow Taylor, proposed scientific methodologies to improve the productivity of shop floors at large plants. He argued that labour problems such as low productivity, high turnover, soldiering, and a conflict-driven relationship between management and staff were caused by improper production...

The Canadian academic, Henry Mintzberg, distinguished six coordination mechanisms from organisational design literature. Any group of individuals that needs to accomplish a complex task faces two opposing requirements: the division of labour of the task into subtasks to support specialisation, and the coordination of these subtasks to accomplish the overall...