Left-brained managers, logical and analytical, are ill equipped for marketing, which tends more toward the right-brain qualities of intuition and holistic thinking. This creates the conflict that is the focal point of Al and Laura Ries' new book, War in the Boardroom. While the marketing department may have a better grasp of what will sell and how to sell it, the father and daughter team points out that management always makes the final decisions. That may lead to companies basing marketing strategies on management thinking that, you've probably concluded on your own, sometimes leads to disasters like Miller Clear and …

I had a "duh!' moment reading this story. "A major problem for Starbucks is that, these days, you can get a good cup of coffee at a Chevron station," Dan Mitchell writes. Starbucks growth, he says, was possible because of the dearth of good coffee elsewhere. I never thought of it quite that way and, now that I've thought of it, I still don't. The operative word is "can," is it not? I don't know about you, but I'm not at the point where I'm sure I'm going to get a consistently good cup of joe at every Chevron …

Despite a litany of similar testimonials about its effectiveness, a drug called Vivitrol that reduces the craving for alcohol has largely been a commercial flop. The reasons are varied. Many alcohol treatment programs resist using drugs; some doctors contend Vivitrol doesn't work for most patients; and it's expensive -- $800 a month, writes Todd Wallack. There are about 8 million alcoholics in the U.S., according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, but only a few thousand are using Vivitrol nearly three years after it went on the market. Manufacturer Alkermes recently predicted it would generate no …

Skype plans to announce a version of its Internet-calling software today that connects to corporate phone systems, Geoffrey A. Fowler reports.

In its continuing effort to expand into consumer products and appear to be "less geeky," Cisco Systems yesterday said it will acquire mass-market product marketer Pure Digital Technologies, the maker of the slender and trendy Flip Video digital camcorder, John Boudreau reports. "This is a great opportunity for us to extend beyond the home" and into the broader consumer market, says Charles Carmel, Cisco vp of corporate development. The Flip Video brand will remain, he says, though the company will eventually look at ways to link it to the Cisco name. Pure Digital executives are also expected to …

A new $100 million Miller Lite campaign aimed at grabbing market share from top-selling Bud Light returns to an old theme: "Tastes Great." Although some of the new TV, radio and Internet ads have appeared in recent weeks, MillerCoors offered a first look at the rest of the campaign to more than 3,000 distributors and employees at its national sales conference in Las Vegas yesterday, David Kesmodel reports. Miller Lite has posted steady sales declines in recent years; in the fourth quarter, sales from distributors to retailers were down 7.5% from a year earlier by volume. One problem …

Southwest Airlines yesterday slashed fares across its network for travel up to Aug. 14 but other major airlines -- including American, United and Delta -- quickly matched them on most routes they share, Peter Pae reports. "This is a whopper of an airfare sale," says Tom Parsons, chief executive of air travel Web site Bestfares.com. The latest fare deals are the broadest so far and include travel days that airlines often exempt from the discounts. The offers include deals for travel any day of the week except Fridays and Sundays, giving travelers five days out of the week …