Humor is uniquely human. It builds bonds, defuses tension, boosts innovation, and bolsters resilience. In a bold manifestation of the power of humor, McCarter Theater’s production of “Between Two Knees” offers stories from Native American… Read more »
Seeing Around Corners
A heartwarming customer service story
The state of customer service across most of the economy is dreadful. A recent delightful experience at Patagonia proves that it doesn’t have to be that way. The sad world of customer service As I… Read more »
Rebuilding Ukraine: Huge opportunity, huge risks?
I’ve been asked to offer a public lecture for Ukraine by the DTEK Academy, the learning and development arm of one of the country’s leading energy providers. As we bring 2022 to a close, I… Read more »
Early warnings of a fading competitive advantage
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »