With September just ahead of us, in my August newsletter I touch on why disengagement from exhausted advantages is important for renewal, share the story of Target’s transformation from a traditional department store to the “Tar-zhey”… Read more »
Thought Sparks
Why managing an opportunity portfolio leads to surprising investment decisions
There is no shortage of interesting strategic activity going on in the intertwining worlds of content creation, telecommunications and other forms of distribution. The recent sales of AOL and Yahoo! to Verizon are representative of… Read more »
Insight into unintended consequences-anticipating the effects of low oil prices
Over the years, I’ve cited and used some of the work done by the Futures Strategy Group principals in their development of very robust tools that help organizations anticipate (not predict) what might happen in… Read more »
Globalization is like migration, except nobody goes anywhere
This insightful article by my colleague Joseph Stiglitz is short and incredibly thought-provoking. In it, he argues that globalization essentially pits the lower-skilled workers of the world against each other, having the same effect as though lower-paid… Read more »
Advice for corporate innovators from a recent mach49 event
My latest Fortune column addresses the perennial problem that we get ourselves into when we are acting on assumptions, but presume we know what we are doing. You will find the link here.
Nancy McKinstry, Wolters Kluwer CEO, shares her experiences
It was fantastic to have Nancy McKinstry join us on the Barnard College campus for the inaugural run of our Women in Leadership program. You can find an overview of her accomplishments at promoting women… Read more »
Agony and ecstasy for young lawyers
For some time, I’ve suggested that law schools provide a cautionary tale for the rest of us. With many graduates loaded down with big debt and with few prospects for taking jobs that actually require… Read more »
Fun interview in the Australian
While I was in Australia earlier this month, I had the opportunity to join The Australian for a neat video interview. We talked about the end of competitive advantage, the role of power in organizations, and… Read more »
Sounds Like the Return of Ron Johnson
Interesting to read that Land’s End – the middle of the market retailer – is now being led by CEO with upscale fashion aspirations. She prefers New York to the Dodgeville, Wisconsin headquarters, wants to… Read more »
The Time is Ripe to Revisit Women in Leadership
These days, I’m spending a lot of time on matters pertaining to women in leadership. If you’d like to get an overview of some of the research and the remedies that can be offered, check… Read more »
Staring down a disengagement decision at Yahoo!
Yahoo and its CEO of three years, Marissa Mayer, have been in the news a lot lately. While Yahoo’s checkered history and frequent changes in leadership have not done the company’s reputation any favors, it still… Read more »
The perils of an incomplete change process
Some people really do change the world. But all around us, we see evidence of change efforts that began with great promise but ended badly. In a recent New York Times column, Tom Friedman speculated… Read more »