The United States suffers from a proliferation of bad jobs. Squeezing every nickel out of labor costs might seem efficient, but no one is counting the price in terms of lost competitive advantages. Bad jobs… 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.
Snow Melts from the Edges – Some Lessons from Buffer
Big changes seldom announce themselves conveniently at the conference table at headquarters. They bubble up, instead, at the ‘edges’ of the organization, where things are most exposed. This short story from Buffer illustrates. In Seeing… Read more »
Not Buying It: When your biggest challenge is non-consumption
We’re used to thinking of competition as the biggest challenge for getting customers to buy from us. But a much bigger challenge is non-consumption – especially when the reasons people aren’t buying have more to… Read more »
Focus and the Mission Driven Organization; It Doesn’t Have to be So Hard
Nonprofit organizations are expected to deliver results on multiple fronts. The result can be a nightmare for prioritization. A simple framework that spells out the tradeoffs between mission, resources, advantages and impact can help sort… Read more »
Strategy and the Resource Hostage Problem
The old watchword, “follow the money” will give you great insight into what really matters in any organization. It will also show you where the most significant blockers to transformation are likely to be. If… Read more »
Landing at the end of the road: Verizon’s decision to disengage from its media strategy
The very human tendency to continue to pursue a failing project, strategy or investment just increases the suffering when the inevitable happens. What are some indicators its time to pull the plug? Verizon’s recent decision… Read more »
“Oh, so that’s what you meant!” Using scorecards to simplify strategy
We see it all the time – strategies that are meant to align and energize people distract and confuse them instead. Creating a screening scorecard that anyone can use is a big help. The trouble… Read more »
The BareBones NPV tool: When you need to quantify, but really don’t have the information
Trying to figure out what a new initiative might do for you? A traditional approach is the net present value calculation. This nifty little tool offers an alternative with just 9 input metrics. The net… Read more »
The Inside Baseball of Corporate Transformation
Rita McGrath and Ron Boire Hired to transform a company? The odds are against you A recent McKinsey global survey found that only 26% of executives they questioned considered their efforts to address specific performance… Read more »
Your business is already in trouble, you just haven’t noticed it yet
It’s always astonishing in hindsight, looking at a business that got itself into deep, dark, trouble, how many warning signs there were. ‘Tis the season, it seems for the retail apocalypse to shutter once-beloved brands… Read more »
The better your automated customer service options, the worse your customer service experience
The unintended consequence of so much high-quality customer service automation is that by the time your customers get to a real person, they are already enraged and their problems are mercilessly complicated. Yes, customer service… Read more »
Think you Know Who Your Competition Is? Think Again!
In a world where we’re going from industries to arenas, how you define the competitive playing field can either give you an edge or set you back. If you believe the strategy textbooks, you would… Read more »