Marketing and Innovation >> Robert Angel writes regularly for the Ivey Business Journal, one of the premier business management publications in North America. 

"Social Networking: The View from the C-Suite" (July/August 2009) explains how corporate social media works - and is changing how marketing works as well.

"Manufacturing's Search for Competitive Differentiation" (September/October 2008) describes how five Canadian manufacturers' marketing strategies are helping to keep them competitive in an industry that has been so unrewarding for many Canadian firms.

 "Linking Strategy with Execution in Support Functions" (March/April 2008) explains how support functions like marketing, HR, IT, and finance need to go beyond execution to consider the value that executing effectively delivers to the organization.

"Putting an Innovation Culture into Practice" - (January/February 2006) addresses innovation as a matter of competitive survival - you cannot expect to manage your way to creativity; however, good management sets some of the preconditions for it.   

"Sustaining Profitable Customer Relationships Requires Real Leadership" (November/December 2004) asks why it is so hard to sustain customer relationships. Poor technology choice or poor project implementation are often blamed; customer service culture transformation is rarely considered.

"A New Dawn for CRM: This Time It's B2B" (July-August 2003) sets out some customer relationship steps that business-to-business managers can apply, drawing on valuable lessons from B2C marketers. 

Robert Angel's Kenneth R. Wilson Canadian Press award-winning article in CAmagazine (October 2008) discusses how a professional firm should manage its marketing strategy and be "Positioned to Win".    "Relationship Results" (January/February 2002) is about how many companies invested substantial technology dollars in customer relationship management, but few investments improved customer relationships as much as expected, and "What the Customer Wants" (December 1999) describes advances in database technology are enabling banks to measure customer value at the root, one account at a time. 

Robert Angel has been the chair of the annual MarcusEvans Travel Industry Marketing Conferences, the leading conference for international travel industry executives, and given the keynote presentation since 2005. "Business and Premium Air Travel" (Madrid, Spain, May 2007) examined how legacy, low cost, and business-class-only airlines are meeting increasing demand for upscale travel.  "Airline Branding" Conference (London, England, November 2006) positioned for improving industry capacity and profits accompanied by clearer differentiation through customer segmentation.  "Travel Industry Customer Demand" (Barcelona, Spain, May 2006) described measuring passenger behaviour and tailoring the offering to individual customers as the prerequisite for a winning sales distribution strategy. "Value-driven Strategy" (Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 2005) discussed convergence of CRM, Marketing and Sales.

Enterprise Performance Strategy >> Robert Angel has written on performance for CAmagazine.  His groundbreaking 2007 performance management research "To Measure or Not to Measure" is featured in the article "Just Do It" (August 2007) on how performance is underperforming and what to do about it. The research was also presented as "Climbing the Maturity Curve" at the Actuate Users Group Conference in Las Vegas (August 2007).  Not much had changed in two years - his initial 2005 research "Do Scorecards Add Up?" (CAmagazine, May 2005) found most Canadian companies used performance management tools but few people thought they worked.

Robert Angel was raporteur from 2005 to 2007 at a series of Round Tables showing 1) the widespread attention that leaders in all industries are giving to enterprise performance as a competitive necessity and 2) how difficult it is to get results.  His White Papers document roundtable comments on collaboration, innovation, and performance culture, viewed as prerequisites for performance that actually does make a difference:  in 2007 "Manufacturing in Canada with a High Dollar"  and  "Manufacturing in the Global Market" (at Ivey School of Business), "Business Process Revitalization in Financial Services" processes, and "Collaboration: How Marketing Can Win the Trust of Customers" (American Marketing Association); in 2006 "Wealth Management: Advisors & Clients", "Innovating the Supply Chain", "The Changing Role of The Law Firm CIO", "Speeding up the Supply Chain",  and "Collaboration in Healthcare"; Edge Magazine  (December 2005) published "Bridging the Gap" based on the November 2005 Manufacturing Roundtable at Ivey School of Business - what is the technology industry doing to bridge the manufacturing gap in productivity and innovation? A group of Ontario manufacturers and vendors gave their answers.

"The Personal Dimension of Leadership"  Report (March 2007) appeared in the Strategic Leadership Forum's Focus on Strategy based on a Thought Leaders presentation on leadership - James McSherry, EVP and Managing Director of Commercial Banking at CIBC draws important conclusions on leadership, innovation and performance.  Perform Magazine, November 2005 >>  While most of Corporate America employs these management tools, how do some obtain greater benefits from them? This article "Making Balanced Scorecards Work for You" was written for performancesoft's balanced scorecard clients.

Robert Angel has written about how support functions must deal with performance culture.  For example, the CFO role is extending from balanced scorecards and budget metric setting into helping to define strategic business actions for continuous improvement - to realize organizational goals, the CFO must also enter the realm of people performance according to this article, "Improving People Performance" (Financial Executive Magazine, October 2005).   The CIO role is discussed in "Staying Alive: Sustainable Business Performance" (Axentia's First Annual Conference, September 2005) as evolving from decisioning to performance management.  "Bringing about Culture Change and Improving Organizational Performance" (Fulcrum Search Sciences, January 2005) linked individual and organization scorecards bridge the performance gap by aligning individual goals and behavior to the goals of the organization, and vice versa. This article is based on a presentation to The Strategic Leadership Forum in Toronto in November 2004.  In "Changing the Culture and Improving Performance" (Peter Heinemann's Newsletter, November 2004), customer-centric culture change is getting increasing recognition in management circles, so much so that linking culture change to desired performance is emerging as one of the leading management topics for the coming year.

Robert Angel is a regular presenter at Federated Press conferences on HR metrics and Balanced Scorecards.  For example,  "Retention Metrics" (May 2009) sets out a program for sustained performance improvement, while "Managing Cultural Change" (2007) described how organizational and individual scorecards make a high performance work, co-presented with Arie Benaich of Bank of Montreal.  At previous conferences, he spoke on such topics as "Linking the Balanced Scorecard to Operational & Corporate Strategy" (2005) on the linkage between the operating departments that carry the goals and HR that needs to support them.  

Robert Angel spoke on ROI in Internal Communications at the IQPC Conference (July 2007) on putting culture change in the context of the business case - and making the benefits actually materialize.  A panellist on Human Capital Institute webcasts, in November 2006 Robert Angel was a featured speaker on the performance aspects of managing and rewarding employees. 

Financial Services Research >> Robert Angel has conducted research for a leading technology research firm  into wealth management in insurance, GIC technology, and credit card lending processes - including "Customer Experience" (January 2008), "Mortgage Lending Processing" (October 2007) ,and "Canadian Life Insurers Go Mining in the Wealth Management Market" (January 2005).  The research was based on interviews with executives in banks, mutual fund companies, brokerage houses, federal regulators, and the wealth management arms of leading life insurers. For further information please contact The Gilford Group.

Other articles and speeches >>

"Getting the Best from Employees" - Interview in Toronto Star by Janis Foord Kirk, October 2006 >> In two consecutive "Career Monitor" articles The Toronto Star's well known careers columnist, Janis Foord Kirk, quotes Robert Angel on the need to get agreement on the job as to what strong performance is.

"Health Care Performance" - SAS Institute Canada (December 2005). At this SAS Health Care Seminar, a distinguished panel addressed some of the most pressing problems facing health care providers, in leadership, performance management, and service delivery outlined in this White Paper, "Best Practices for Ontario's Evolving Health Care System".