Introducing a new offering into an unripe ecosystem will doom your new venture. Instead, find a mini-ecosystem in which you can build a solution that works and use it as a steppingstone to reach your… Read more »
Strategy Dynamics
We need to talk about five mechanisms to avoid future catastrophe.
Humans are surprisingly adaptive creatures – many of the changes wrought by the pandemic would have been unthinkable in an earlier era. And yet, we’re also remarkably blind to changes happening right under our noses. … Read more »
The Lesson of the Direct to Consumer Revolution: Strategy 101 still matters
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 »
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 »
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 »
This month’s newsletter-All about what’s going on in the #grocery store
It’s ironic – Whole Foods did a great job of teaching all of us that natural and organic are desirable. And for about 30 years, that created a strong, high-margin position for them in the… Read more »
Pressuring customers for profits can be a loser in the long term
I was recently asked by a reporter whether there are times when a company is too generous to its customers. The company in question was JetBlue, and the issue was whether perhaps it was being… Read more »
Sustainable advantage, Transient Advantage and Organizational Change
In an insightful blog that is part of a series HBR is running on the intersection between Strategy and Innovation, editor Sarah Cliffe interviews colleague Don Sull, who argues that you can think of the… 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 »
Disruption visits law firms
Be a doctor or a lawyer – that was once the route to a guaranteed good life. Both professions are seeing an erosion of that premise, with legal work being the most dramatic victim. … Read more »
The importance of critical conversations
Yesterday, I was delighted to be a guest at a World 50 event for very senior executives. The organizations creates a forum in which people can have honest, open dialogues and share best practices. The… Read more »