Global Business

The Enemy of the Good
To call author Jim Collins a perfectionist is to put it mildly. "Good is the enemy of great," says Collins in his comprehensive new book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't. For five years, Collins, the best-selling author of Built to Last, and his 21 researchers obsessively studied how a good company can become a great one. The companies Collins defined as great--for example, Walgreens--generated cumulative stock returns about seven times as large as those of the S&P; 500 over a 15-year period. Collins concluded that it's not necessarily celebrity leaders, rich executive pay, pricey technology or splashy mergers that lead to greatness. Rather, it's "Level 5 leadership." Such leaders often are "self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy." They put people in the right roles, confront unpleasant facts and transcend mere competence. "I like to think of our work as a search for timeless principles," writes Collins.

Data At Light Speed
Most companies happily depend on underground fiber-optic lines for the high-speed transmission of voluminous data. So providers of wireless technologies have had a hard time gaining market share. But the World Trade Center tragedy has unexpectedly given them a chance to show off their wares. Because the fiber-optic lines in lower Manhattan were damaged, Merrill Lynch turned to Seattle-based Terabeam, which provides laser transmitters (like the one below) that connect individual offices to the data network. The devices, trained on each other through windows, can send a gigabit of information per second--600 times faster than the T-1 lines used in many offices. Service starts at about $2,500 per month.

Alibis For Sale
Married executives who travel a lot have ample opportunities to cheat on a spouse. But if they want to sneak off with a paramour and can't find a convention to attend, they can call an alibi agency. For a membership fee that is usually less than $100, plus $30 to $50 per lie, services like the Alibi Agency, based in Lytham St. Annes, England, will extend fictitious invitations to business conferences. It will receive your calls and patch them through from "the hotel front desk." The agency will even return, say, a necktie "forgotten at the conference." The alibi companies--originally established in Britain but now franchised in the U.S. and Canada--say they're legally bound to keep the secrets from everyone except the authorities, but there is obviously some risk involved. Britain's Ace Alibi Agency curbed memberships at 1,200. A California branch was so successful it has now gone national.

Bad News for Tide?
Two months ago, Sanyo introduced a washing machine that it says can clean clothes using only water, ultrasonic waves and electrolysis. No detergent necessary. The machine is environmentally friendly, and gadget-happy Japanese have snapped up more than 30,000 units. But now Sanyo's pitch is being refuted by the Japan Soap and Detergent Association, which says the machine doesn't clean well and can damage clothes. Sanyo says it has no immediate plans to market the product--which has an optional detergent cycle--in the U.S. But Brian Sansoni, a spokesman for the $8.5 billion soap industry, is taking no chances. He says only detergent has a "proven track record" against tough dirt.

Radio News
A lot more americans are traveling by car these days, and the trip is always more pleasant with a great station on the radio. Two new companies are hoping drivers will be willing to pay a fee to make sure the music never fades. For $10 to $13 per month, satellite radio providers XM Radio and Sirius are each offering 100 channels of music, news, talk and sports that can be accessed anywhere in the country. "You can drive from New York to Seattle and never change the channel," says XM's spokesman Charles Robbins. "We are doing for radio what cable and Direct TV did for television." Most of the programming is original, but the companies also simulcast the sound from TV news channels so business travelers can tune into CNN's Lou Dobbs or Maria Bartiromo of CNBC, shown above. Several car brands--including Mercedes, BMW and Cadillac--will offer factory-installed satellite radio receivers by the end of next year.

Bankruptcy 101
With so many U.S. companies seeking Chapter 11 protection, their overseas subsidiaries are getting a crash course in American bankruptcy laws. Whereas bankruptcy in most countries means a company must liquidate its assets, U.S. laws allow the company to continue to operate. But in this age of instant communication, companies sometimes have a problem getting the right message to their employees--and customers and suppliers--abroad. Employees "hear about a filing being made and think, 'Oh, my God, I'll lose my job,'" says Michael Sitrick, CEO of Sitrick & Co., a communications firm that specializes in crisis management. "You have to make sure that overseas managers understand the filing beforehand so they can explain it."