1341 Posts Found

In an effort to cover all the bases in an uncertain, changing world companies are trying to give themselves as many strategic and organizational options as possible. In doing so, however, they are making themselves unconsciously more complex organizations. It is a trend that’s slowly and silently killing them. Complexity turns people inward and distorts information flow, slowing the pace of decision-making down and making … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Chris Zook | Source: Bain & Company | Subject: Strategy

For many leaders, there’s an immense gap between intellectually understanding the theory of strategy and being able to apply it in their own businesses. It’s only by directly engaging in strategy themselves that most leaders internalize the important questions and get a clear sense of what’s involved—the trade-offs, choices, commitments, and actions—in bringing a strategy to life.

Content: Quotation | Author: Cynthia A. Montgomery | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Strategy

Certainly the commander in chief will keep his great objective continuously in mind, undisturbed by the vicissitudes of events. But the path on which he hopes to reach it can never be firmly established in advance. Throughout the campaign he must make a series of decisions on the basis of situations that cannot be foreseen… Everything depends on penetrating the uncertainty of veiled situations to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Strategy

I’m trying to get people excited about being strategists and to see why it’s a distinctive way that they as leaders can add value to their businesses. I’m also trying to help them understand that strategy is far more than an idea. There’s a conundrum you sometimes hear in business school: “Would you rather have a brilliant, fully worked-out strategy and poor execution, or a … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Cynthia A. Montgomery | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Strategy

The more unpredictable business becomes, the more companies could use a dependable way to identify opportunities, formulate scenarios and avoid pitfalls without relying disproportionately on hindsight. Scenario-based enterprise performance management, a forward-looking, analytics-based capability, is designed to help organizations build strategies, forecasts, plans and budgets.

Content: Article | Authors: David Axson, Natalia Timofeeva, Robert Bergström | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Companies operating in dissimilar environments should be developing their strategies in markedly different ways. But all too often, they are not. Research featured in Harvard Business Review shows how companies can gain an edge by matching their strategic style to the conditions of their industry, business function, or geographic market.

Content: Article | Authors: Claire Love, Martin Reeves, Philipp Tillmanns | Sources: Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Harvard Business Review | Subject: Strategy

Unless you have truly fundamental inventions that no one else can copy, you need both [intellectual property rights and dynamic capabilities]. Strong intellectual property protection, in itself, will only help you on the first round of innovation. During that time, you can rent other people’s complementary capabilities. But sooner or later, you’re going to get copied, so you’ve got to move quickly to build the … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: David J. Teece | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Innovation, Intellectual Property, Management, Strategy

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How to avoid the cognitive biases that undermine market entry decisions.

Content: Article | Authors: Dan P. Lovallo, John T. Horn, S. Patrick Viguerie | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Planning and performance management systems can be designed to reinforce your most distinctive capabilities—not undermine them.

Content: Article | Author: Matthew Siegel | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Strategy

An effective strategy framework must include the level of industry predictability as a main dimension.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Michael Broquist, Thomas Kratzert | Source: Kearney | Subject: Strategy

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Getting the right mix of strategy and culture creates a formula for business success. Pursuing a strategy of innovation in a dynamic market can only succeed within an inquisitive culture where the workforce pushes boundaries and management encourages new ideas and constructive risk-taking. Similarly, pursuing a strategy of high-volume, low-cost processes can only succeed within a disciplined culture where the workforce operates in an efficient, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Ira Gaberman, Marieke Witjes | Source: Kearney | Subjects: Culture, Management, Organizational Behavior, Strategy

Success in the software industry has long been influenced, and often driven, by the ecosystem of developers, plug-ins, software-development kits and application-programming interfaces (APIs), and add-ons that drive added value and increase stickiness for products. Similarly, companies in other industries need to think expansively and include upstream suppliers as well as downstream vendors or consumers, and focus on how each part of the value chain … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Hugo Sarrazin, Johnson Sikes | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Business Rules, Strategy

A Harvard Business School professor reflects on what she has learned from senior executives about the unique value that strategic leaders can bring to their companies.

Content: Article | Author: Cynthia A. Montgomery | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Strategy

Strategy is defined by the trade-offs you exploit, while innovation is defined by the trade-offs you break.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Heather A. Gray, Michael E. Raynor | Source: Deloitte Review | Subjects: Innovation, Strategy

The Korean automaker’s explosive growth in the last few years—achieved through better quality, stylish design, and clever marketing—has made it a dynamic player in the U.S. auto industry.

Content: Case Study | Author: William J. Holstein | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Strategy | Industry: Automotive | Company: Hyundai

Changes in absolute performance can be misleading: Declines might not signal that anything needs fixing, just as increases might not mean you’re doing anything right. Instead, the key to long-term survival seems to lie in knowing when material change is required in order to preserve one’s relative performance position.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Michael E. Raynor, Mumtaz Ahmed | Source: Deloitte Review | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Professor Michael Porter’s work was very powerful and influential in the ‘80s and the ‘90s about strategy. It was really a model, you could say, of closed innovation where you figure out what your key strategic assets were and you either went low cost or went for differentiation or you found a niche. You were constantly looking for ways to compete against the other guy. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Henry Chesbrough | Source: Deloitte Review | Subjects: Innovation, Strategy

Stanford’s William Barnett says “people and companies often lose by playing the wrong game.”

Content: Article | Author: William Barnett | Subject: Strategy