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WSJ.com: Business Insight


How to Get Ahead by Going Backward
When it comes to advancing a career, sometimes the best way to take a step forward is to take a step back. For most people, a promotion is the cure for a stagnating career. But a few pursue a much riskier strategy. We interviewed successful executives who have made contrarian career moves. A few common themes emerged in their stories.

Keys to Spotting a Flawed CEO
It's easy to spot a bad chief executive once the damage is done -- a plunge in company earnings, a failed product line, a corruption scandal. But how do you spot the flaws before it's too late, before that person is given the job of leading the company?

Think Strategically About Technology Licensing
Companies are discovering that internally produced technologies can yield huge profits when licensed to third parties. What many of these companies still lack, however, is the ability to make licensing decisions an integral part of planning and strategy.

Raising Your Market IQ
When it comes to actual market intelligence, too many companies do it all wrong. Some miss the big picture by focusing on just a slice of their market, or by limiting their studies to transactions and other customer data already in their possession.

When Appearances Are Deceiving
Imitation may be a form of flattery, but when it involves the look and feel of a product or package -- a concept known as trade dress -- the repercussions can be serious.

Making the Most of COOs
The COO's position can be a critical component of the top management team and one that should be of great interest to boards of directors. But few companies have developed a strong working relationship between the COO and the board -- a tremendous missed opportunity for all involved.

Q&A: Leading With Customer Service
Ken Thompson, chairman and chief executive of Wachovia Corp., shares what it takes to win customers back and provide them with consistent, top-notch service.

Editor's Note
It's scary to take yourself off a career track that seems to be heading only higher. You have a lot invested in your title, in the number of people reporting to you, in the meetings you go to. But it may be the smartest thing you could do.

A Recipe for Creating New Products
When it comes to brand extension, the conventional wisdom is simple: Don't overextend. But that mind-set has so dominated companies' approach to developing new products that it has led them to ignore a critical alternative: cross-breeding. Instead of using features from many but similar product categories, cross-breeding uses only two dissimilar and even highly remote product categories to spark the conception of a truly new product.

How to Do Business in Russia
Russia has much to attract foreign investors -- a fast rate of growth in gross domestic product, a large population and a substantial expansion in purchasing power. But its unique and sometimes murky business environment has left Russia with a reputation as being a difficult place to set up shop.