What makes for good, fast decision making? In Decision Insights, we often focus on organizational factors, such as clear decision roles. But another set of variables can be equally important: whether the individuals in an organization can contribute effectively to decisions. If people can't fulfill their role or don't know how to do so, then decisions naturally bog down.So in this article we'll take a different tack. We'll look directly at one of the biggest obstacles to effective individual participation: initiative overload.

When you think of the billions of dollars organizations spend to protect their digital assets, it's amazing that hardly a week goes by without news of a major security breach. We see not only more attacks, but larger, more complex and targeted incursions on organizations for financial gain. Some enterprises face advanced persistent threats (APTs), a highly sophisticated form of malware that permeates the organization, mutates into variants, remains innocuous and undetected for a long time, and stealthily accesses and transmits corporate assets. The sought-after digital assets include intellectual property (IP), trade secrets, and customer and financial data.

Most fast-growing companies aspire to global leadership in their industries. They often start as insurgents: fast, agile and adaptable. They are focused on their customers and their local markets. They hate complexity.But to win in the long term they need the cost advantages and scale of global incumbents.In too many cases, they accept a troubling trade-off: In achieving scale, they lose what we call the Founder's Mentality-the very core strengths and values that helped them succeed.

The slow and uneven emergence from the global economic downturn has left many executives in a bind. They need to grow their businesses at a time when forces inside and outside their organizations make that task much more difficult. Having pinned their hopes on a relatively swift recovery, many global business leaders are coming to recognize they may have been overly optimistic. With more realistic expectations, executives are taking a more focused approach to the management tools they use to guide their businesses-using fewer tools to pursue revenue and profit growth, but using them more strategically.

In short, earning goodwill among your customers is a necessary but insufficient condition for generating revenue growth that outpaces the competition. Leaders must also create the conditions that enable and encourage loyal customers to do what they're inclined to do anyway (see below, "The loyalty-to-financial-results checklist"). They have to offer customers a continuing stream of products or services that stand out from the competition. They have to deliver those goods at the right price, at the right time, through the right channels, using the right messages. And sometimes they have to help customers communicate their experiences to friends, relatives and the world at large.

A superabundance of capital will influence the shape and tempo of global economic growth through the end of the decade. For business leaders, the trick will be avoiding the bubbles and instead uncovering the real growth opportunities in advanced and developing economies.

The big brother problem
What are the consequences of growing public alarm over data security and privacy? As these concerns increase, companies might consider creating privacy boards, conducting annual audits or setting industry standards to protect users.

Most brand plans typically call for tapping into a well-segmented group of shoppers, getting them to try the brand and progressively converting them into avid consumers who buy larger and larger quantities over time. But the evidence shows this doesn't work. The best way to grow brands is to increase household penetration.

Fantastic claims
Claims handling is a key moment of truth that can turn customers into promoters or detractors of a P&C insurer. Superior claims management thus offers a means of competitive differentiation, whether through faster payout, easier filing through digital channels or higher-quality interactions between customers and claims representatives. Leading carriers have improved their performance by focusing on four areas of claims.

The age of curation: From abundance to discovery
As power shifts to consumers-who can program their own content using powerful technology and simple interfaces-curation moves out of the hands of professionals and into communities, platforms and algorithms. Media companies that succeed during this period of changing consumer dynamics and business models will not only deliver content that consumers want, but surprise them with their offerings.

Big Data and advanced analytics may be new to some industries, but not to oil and gas. Now, advances in pervasive computing devices, analytic tools and storage are opening new possibilities-but only for the companies who can build the capabilities necessary to master them

What does it really take for grocers to win in emerging Asia?
Despite the dazzling macro trends that make emerging Asia so attractive to grocery retailers, there are a host of obstacles that also make this region a tricky one. We've identified the nine critical rules any successful company must follow to win in this region, and three important country-specific considerations.

Is your company ready for the Internet of Things?
The rise of machine-to-machine computing and the Internet of Things represents a major architectural shift in computing-and an opportunity for companies in every industry. By 2017, we expect direct spending of $70 billion and related investment could reach $1.4 trillion.

Breaking the back of customer churn
Communications service providers know that churn corrode their business, but many of them are aiming at the wrong target. Churn typically results from a series of episodes, not a "last-straw" event, and the solution requires early intervention in ways that build customers' advocacy. Improving the experience of using products and getting service is far more effective than bribing unhappy customers to stay.

Be right more often: How utilities can make better bets
Energy markets are difficult to predict at the best of times, harder still in a time of supply shocks, declining usage and uncertain regulations. As utility executives look to the future, they can make better investment decisions by building up their scenario planning capabilities and identifying and monitoring signposts that indicate critical market shifts.

Sales executives in business-to-business (B2B) industries have endured tremendous disruption in recent years. Customers have ready access to extensive product information, giving them the advantage before they engage with a sales representative and allowing them to demand more customized products. Upstart competitors, meanwhile, use digital channels to sell direct at ever-lower prices that entice customers to try the product and shift their budget away from traditional competitors. Few companies have fully prepared for the structural changes taking place. Many buyers will have researched a supplier, queried some of its customers and screened the supplier out of consideration before the supplier's rep has an opportunity to contact the prospective buyer. In some industries, the sales process is rapidly migrating online, where a growing share of products is bought without customers and reps interacting.

Why cybersecurity is a strategic issue
Cybersecurity was once an issue that could be delegated to the IT department. But today the ramifications of an attack can threaten the viability of an organization. Even so, hardly a week goes by without news of a major breach at a bank, retailer, security agency or another prominent organization. It's time to take a more strategic approach.

In every merger or acquisition, the business wants to combine the organization quickly while the IT department wants to invest the time to integrate the company's systems effectively. Both need to happen, but in successful IT integrations, executives work quickly to determine which decisions are most important and how to make those decisions quickly.

Conventional business wisdom says all-star teams just don't work. Their egos and disagreements will drive their leaders crazy. In this Harvard Business Review article, we challenge that notion. A company that can foster teamwork among its best people multiplies the productivity and performance advantages of standalone stars.

Choreographing a Full Potential Transformation
Full Potential Transformation can boost a company's performance by an order of magnitude and deliver sustained growth. To realize these benefits, a company must have a clear vision of what it should become, supported by the right choreography for change, a realistic risk assessment and a management structure that can deliver game-changing results.

Again and again as we hear management teams around the world describe their aspirations and challenges, this theme - actually living your strategy day in and day out - resonates as one of the most important business challenges of our times. Strategy is less about the new, new thing than it is about actually delivering on the goals you set. A successful strategy must be translated into front-line activities that are delivered well, everywhere, every day.Simply put, it's about the transformational power of routines.The word "routine" implies an ordinary, everyday occurrence. But if you can make your company's routine behavior mirror your strategy, you can transform your business. So when I work with companies, I'm always looking to see if managers are translating strategies into front line routines.