My colleague, Gray Hammond, drew attention to this year’s installment of the fascinating study of innovation conducted annually by Booz Allen and Hamilton. To access the study click here Synopsis: Booz Allen Hamilton’s annual study… Read more »
Thought Sparks
Overcoming resistance – Monsanto’s stealth strategy
In the book MarketBusters, we strongly encourage would-be growth companies to give some careful thought to the forces that might lead to delay or resistance as the new initiatives are rolled out. One of our… Read more »
Here’s a scary statistic – consumer debt on revolving credit
For years, it has bugged me that there seems to be no political will to set up rules that would keep people from getting in over their heads on credit card debt, or that would… Read more »
Incredible shrinking economies
My colleague, Michael Schrage of MIT sent along a fascinating editorial story from the New York Times in which an observer notes that projections for the size, wealth and growth rates of emerging economies –… Read more »
Real Leading Indicators in Retail
When it comes to information that is used to make managerial decisions, it’s useful to think of it in terms of three timeframes: Lagging indicators (which are the bulk of those in use) reflect past… Read more »
Business Model Change as an industry sector evolves
Both Clayton Christensen and Geoffrey Moore have noted that players exploiting different business models are advantaged in different stages of a categories’ evolution. I’ve build on their thinking to argue the following: Stage I categories: … Read more »
Is your company unintentionally creating executive blind spots?
One of the nice things about being a very senior executive with a multinational company is that the job comes with perks. Sometimes, however, these perks can have the unintended effect of isolating key decision-makers… Read more »
HBR Brief—Key ideas from the article by Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian C. MacMillan
Excerpt from HBR Brief: “You are weighing a major strategic venture–a first-time alliance, a new market, an innovative product. Beware: business history is littered with stories about smart companies that hemorrhaged multiple millions from ventures… Read more »
HBR Brief—Key ideas from the article by Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian C. MacMillan
Excerpt from HBR Brief: “You are weighing a major strategic venture–a first-time alliance, a new market, an innovative product. Beware: business history is littered with stories about smart companies that hemorrhaged multiple millions from ventures… Read more »
Entrepreneurial Mindset: Recommended Reading in WSJ Article
In an article entitled Recommended Reading: Managing IT for Nontechies, Therese Flaherty, professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Wharton Small Business Development Center in Philadelphia, recommends Entrepreneural… Read more »
Consumption Chain – customers value a complete experience, but companies organize otherwise
A short recent piece in Fast Company highlights a point that I make over and over again in our executive programs and with clients: customers value a complete experience, while companies organize themselves by a… Read more »
Critical Success Factors for Corporate Ventures
This week, I’m directing the Columbia Business School Executive Education course Leading Strategic Growth and Change. The course is designed to help companies learn to better manage opportunities for growth through innovation, new product development… Read more »