Every so often a new business model, often enabled by technology, takes the world by storm, attracts a lot of hype, eventually proves unable to live up to the headlines and disappears or becomes a… Read more »
Business Strategy
Thought Sparks Wrap Up – June 2021
Dear Colleagues, We’re changing things up a little with the RMG newsletter! I’ll be summarizing my weekly Thought Sparks and pointing you to other useful resources as we go, Not Buying It – When your biggest… Read more »
On the folly of rewarding for business-as-usual when you are hoping for innovation
Even with the best intentions, reward systems in corporate life all too often mean that most of the people you need supporting innovation work flee from it. Here are some ideas for getting a better… 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 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 »
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 »
A New Social Contract? Part 2: Reaching for a Vision
Welcome to part 2 of a three-part series, looking at the likelihood of a fundamental transformation of the basic social contract in the United States, reflecting Roosevelt’s New Deal. The framework combines two uncertainties to… Read more »