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 »
Thought Sparks
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 »
What a startup can learn about customer needs from a medieval practice
In a recent article over at Fortune, I explore what Transferwise, a fast-growing new startup has rediscovered: an enduring customer need that is currently featuring in the migrant crisis, Hawala. The practice of Hawala originated centuries… Read more »
Implications of the Unicorn Economy
In my most recent newsletter, I suggested that businesses would do well to anticipate the consequences of a valuation bubble bursting in Silicon Valley with so many private companies valued at more than a billion… Read more »
Corporate entrepreneurship’s latest incarnation-the virtual startup
In this insightful blog post, Steve Sokol runs through the pluses and minuses of being part of a startup within a large corporation, what he calls a “virtual startup.” The pluses are many – a… Read more »
Workers of the World…upsides and downsides of the on-demand workforce
In an article that appeared the other day on CNBC, reporter Cadie Thompson mulls over the effects of all these on-demand companies that make their money by connecting people with tasks to be done or… Read more »
Lost that Lovin’ Feeling? Target (and other) CEO’s try to get the love back
In my column over at Fortune, I note that a common pattern for companies who get themselves into trouble is that they somehow ‘lose touch’ with their customers. I attribute this in many ways to… Read more »
What do The Weather Channel, Apple’s iPod and future banking services all have in common?
These players often created entire categories of new consumption – from just-in-time and on demand weather updates, to a transformative way to listen to your own content whenever you felt like it to new kinds… Read more »
Organizational agility: The CEO’s top concern?
Last week at the Managing Partners’ Forum held on March 12 in London, Caspar de Bono of the Financial Times opened this high-level conference for leaders of professional services firms with an observation about the… Read more »
CVS and the decision to drop tobacco sales – savvy strategic repositioning?
CVS’s decision to stop offering tobacco products is an example of a company shifting its resources from cash-flow-generating, but declining businesses into higher growth markets. Tobacco, although a cash cow for many retailers (and a… Read more »
Talk about industries competing with industries: PC’s versus weddings
Heard an interesting story on the radio the other day. An author (wish I wrote down his name) was being interviewed about a project he’s working on that involves understanding the financial lives of Americans. … Read more »