Insights and ideas

I’m sitting in a panel entitled “Cool ideas from older industries”.  Among the participants is Brad Anderson, the CEO of Best Buy. Great phrase:  The huge disadvantage established organization have is habits.  Many organizations choose… Read more »

Only the blink of an eye ago, it seems, you couldn’t open a paper or read a magazine without someone talking about how ‘green’ their businesses were and how environmentalism has become a top-line concern. … Read more »

As I often say in class, information that we use to make decisions falls into three categories: 1)  Lagging indicators:  Often highly accurate and precise, but give us data only about the past; 2)  Current… Read more »

Here I am in Switzerland, working with one of Columbia’s best clients, Swiss Reinsurance.  We run a program called “Creating Breakthrough Strategies” for their most senior executives, and it’s always a highlight. I was struck… Read more »

Today I was teaching in Columbia Business School’s “Emerging Leader Development Program,” which as the name suggests is an executive education program focused on developing the leadership skills of younger, high-potential managers.  We were chatting… Read more »

One thing we can predict about the new ways that people will interact with television is that the new uses will surprise us. As has been the case with the way many new technologies have… Read more »

Quick, do you believe that smaller, leaner corporate headquarters are associated with higher performance? A recent study published in the Strategic Management Journal suggests that such a taken for granted belief may not make sense…. Read more »

I was recently asked to comment on whether Web 2.0 is a ‘bubble’ – here’s what I think. Both web 2.0 and the dot.com surge are/were driven by a common human bias: this is to… Read more »

Our colleague, Walter Derzko gives some interesting insights into why good ideas don’t get results – see his blog at – http://smarteconomy.typepad.com/smart_economy/2007/02/why_good_ideas_.html With respect to innovation, one study suggests that you need 3,000 ideas to… Read more »

I heard a fascinating statistic the other day that really should give all of us pause. It seems that 2/3 of all jobs in America require a college education, yet only 1/3 of the potentially… Read more »

So XM and Sirius satellite radio have announced that they are finally going to merge. We called that one years ago! What the two have been doing is engaging in a competitive war of attrition… Read more »