We want it personal, digital, flexible, and eco-friendly, and we’re starting to turn away from plastics, but none of this is easy. We’re Asking a Lot More of Packaging Than We Used To—and Suppliers Are Responding As e-commerce continues its penetration into every corner of our commercial lives, the packages that land on our doorstep have a lot more work to do than ever. The massive amounts…
Insights and ideas
The Fast Changing, But Fickle, Competition in Consumer Packaged Goods
Digital has made a whole new kind of business model possible—and incumbents are reeling. Born-Digital Companies Are Going Direct They’re new, they’re nimble, and they’re communicating with your customers right under your nose, causing decades-long assumptions about retail success to become obsolete. It Used to Require Lots of Access and Huge Marketing Budgets—No More FMCG. …
Venture Capital 2.0: This Time, It’s Different?
Venture capitalists are partying as if it’s 1999—and we know how that went. Entrepreneurship 101 says startups should conserve cash, keep costs flexible, and operate with parsimony. Way too many founders in the 90’s laughed at that—the same way they’re laughing today. The Money Keeps Pouring In, But It Keeps Pouring Out, Too Investment in…
The Trouble With Consulting
Predicting the end of traditional management consulting has become something of a cottage industry, but so far the market leaders have retained their allure despite a world which has shifted underneath them. The Management Consulting Business: A Rich Target for Disruption? Back in 2013, Clayton Christensen and colleagues published an alarmist article regarding the consulting business, entitled “Consulting On the Cusp…
Business Scholars Should Write for Practitioners, Not Just for Each Other
There is a large chasm between what academics study and write about in business academia and what practitioners are eager and hungry to learn about. Interestingly, however, both sides are curious about what motivates and animates the other. At this year’s Academy of Management meetings held in Boston in August, I was invited to participate…
Staying Ahead of the Curve: How Mobility Clubs Are Driving Innovation
I was thrilled to attend the 2019 FIA Conference in South Africa earlier this year, where I shared insights into how clubs can forge a new path to success by quickly seizing opportunities, exploiting them decisively, and moving on to the next opportunity quickly. My keynote was followed by a panel discussion with leaders from FIA mobility…
The Effect of Disruption on Hiring and Reskilling
When Amazon is prepared to invest $700 million to retrain its workers for more demanding jobs in technology, you know that something big is afoot. I would argue that this is a looming inflection point in how human capital — today one of the few sources of lasting advantage — is managed. The digital revolution,…
Digitization and Disruption in the Construction Business
$12.7 trillion! That’s the projected size of the global construction industry in 2022, according to one recent analysis. In the US alone, construction employs some 10 million workers. And while it’s a relatively slow-growth sector, it’s been remarkably stable in many of its elements for hundreds of years. That may begin to change. Construction…
The Changing Business of People
HR has always wanted a seat at the table. That day may finally be here. Be careful what you wish for! HR Challenges in a Tour of Duty Context HR used to be pretty straightforward. People “ended up” in HR after starting in other careers, which I’ve always thought was a bit of an oddity—I…
Big Food and the Revolution in the Ingredients Business
The rules of the game used to be pretty simple for large food companies: Make massive quantities of tasty and inexpensive (if not particularly nutritious) food products, create memorable brands around them, and use their market clout to get them within arms’ reach of the everyday consumer. For my mother’s generation, the germ-free, safe, and…