A virtual team is a functional team, a collection of individuals who are interdependent in their tasks and share responsibility for outcomes, aver Christina B. Gibson and Susan G. Cohen. In this paper, the authors suggest ways that enable effective virtual teams, bring out the challenges faced by such teams and also highlight the advantages and disadvantages of such teams.

Doing a good job of managing an enterprise inherently requires a good dose of strategic thinking and actions, believes Sougata Ray. Strategy formulation is a reiterative exercise with the strategist having to move back and forth to ensure the logical consistency across different strategy elements, the author suggests.

Chris West discusses the need for Competitive Intelligence for determining competitive strategies for doing business in today’s world of knowledge economy and information blast. Military analogies being common, competition is more conventionally described as ‘gentlemanly,’ ‘fierce’ or ‘cut-throat,’ depending on its intensity and the manner in which it is conducted, insists the author.

Strategic planning is one of the pivots of an organization - the most important activity that ensures that there is convergence between where an organization is today and where it actually wants to be in future, assert Herbert Rubenstein and Tony Grundy. The authors delineate the characteristics of strategic planning that lead to the formulation and implementation of
high-growth strategies.

This paper by Srinivas Ainavolu, Anirban Banerjee, K. Ramakrishnan, and Prof Dr. Ranjan Das, discusses how the increasing importance of strategic management has led to the rise in the quantum of research and publication in this area. The authors put forth the finding of a study of trends and patterns in this research/publication - the strengths as well as the neglected
aspects - for the use of future researchers and managers.

IT outsourcing can deliver benefits to any organization, but these benefits are not inherent in the act of outsourcing. Outsourcing is not a transaction led by a contract but an ongoing commercial relationship supported by a number of governance mechanisms, explain Sara Cullen and Leslie Willcocks.

This case study by Reeta Gupta examines the brand extension decisions of India’s biggest and most successful cooperative movement, Amul. The case also brings up the question of the future of the Milk giant, especially in wake of its tussle with NDDB over ownership of the Mother Dairy trademark.