As the world begins to open up and I’m back on the speaking circuit, a question I get asked again and again is how one can tell when a once-robust competitive advantage is starting to… Read more »
Thought Sparks
Thought Sparks, the brainchild of Rita McGrath, are insightful actions, strategic ideas, actionable suggestions and innovative approaches that help organizations and leaders master the future with less fear and more confidence. New episodes of the Thought Sparks Podcast are released every other Tuesday at 11am Eastern. Prior to 2025, episodes of the Thought Sparks Podcast were known as Fireside Chats.
A few reflections from the Global Peter Drucker Forum
I’ve always had an affection for the writing of the late Peter Drucker. His legacy is honored by the annual gathering of the Global Peter Drucker Forum, and there are always some nuggets of wisdom… Read more »
Lying – or at least not telling the whole truth – as a business model comes to haunt Meta
When a major inflection point passes through, institutions and the environment take a long time to catch up. But when they do, the consequences can be swift. Facebook’s current troubles illustrate this principle. Source: https://thewire.in/film/the-social-dilemma-netflix-media-review… Read more »
We had the Jetsons in 1962 – and autonomous driving is still out of reach
Gradually, then suddenly. That’s the line that I borrowed from Ernest Hemingway to describe the progress of strategic inflection points. They brew along for a long time – sometimes decades – before finally breaking through…. Read more »
What does Ford’s decision to drop Argo AI Mean for autonomous driving?
Big flashy billion-dollar investments. Leaders optimistically pronouncing totally unrealistic launch dates. Geeky engineers becoming the darlings of the moment. Yes, the story of Ford’s foray into autonomous cars has it all! The autonomous driving bubble… Read more »
Simultaneous discovery – or the sincerest form of flattery? Board Committee research
Two topics here – how to get Boards focused on science and technology for the long term, and how good ideas can get … um … discovered? Image Source The difference a special Board committee… Read more »
The skills we aren’t taught, and how you can expand your leadership through leveraging them
Our leadership models are changing – from command and control to questioning and discovery. You can learn to develop these skills and improve your capability as a leader. How do you sustain your competitive advantage… Read more »
When The Mothership Doesn’t Want It
You would think that after funding and supporting people to develop innovative new ideas, that the parent corporation would want to take advantage of launching them. Nope. Markets are full of concepts that didn’t fit… Read more »
Taking a discovery driven approach to internal projects
The first step of discovery driven planning lies in specifying what success looks like. For for-profit projects, this usually takes the form of a level of growth or enhanced profitability. But there are many kinds… Read more »
What’s the difference between a methodology and a terrorist?
We took the Valize team on the road to attend this exclusive, high-level event. Here are a few snippets. You can negotiate with a terrorist! Ivar Jacobson was referring to the tendency for… Read more »
When Business Cases Teach the Wrong Lessons
Jeffrey Pfeffer, in his great book “The 7 Rules of Power” declares that “success excuses (almost) everything.” Success also determines which stories about the origins of that success get told and which headlines are buried. … Read more »
The Strategic Management Society’s CK Prahalad Award for Scholarly Impact on Practice
In a delightful – and unexpected – turn of events, I’m going to be traveling to London to receive the Strategic Management Society’s CK Prahalad Award for scholarly impact on practice on September 17. These… Read more »