1341 Posts Found

As globalization continues to play out over the next 30 years, geographic and regulatory barriers will fall, electronic distribution will start to parallel and even overtake physical distribution, installed capacity will become obsolete before it is depreciated, and focused competitors will attack like piranhas. Companies must restructure or die.

Editor’s Note: a bit topical in places (written in 1999) but still a good read

Content: Article | Authors: Jane Fraser, Lowell Bryan | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: International, Management, Strategy

The pressure to perform is familiar to most CEOs these days. Nobody gets much time to show what he or she can do, and achieving performance targets becomes even harder when economic turbulence hits. Despite the intensity of these pressures, the high expectations and the shorter time frames, a number of CEOs turn in truly exceptional results. Leaders of performance breakthroughs start by systematically determining … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Ashish Singh, Mark Gottfredson | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Management, Strategy

The sky is falling! Batten down the hatches! Cut back on everything. The economy is coming to a complete stop! HOLD IT! Do you really want to throw all of the good things you have been doing out the window because conditions have changed and the economy is slowing down?

Content: Article | Author: Dana Baldwin | Source: Center for Simplified Strategic Planning | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Great companies stumble and fall when they lose it. Highfliers crash when a competitor notices they don’t have it. Start-ups shut down if they can’t develop it.

“It” is a strategy so powerful and an execution-driven mind-set so relentless that companies use it to gain more than just competitive advantage– they achieve an industry dominance that is virtually unassailable and that competitors often try to explain … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Authors: George Stalk Jr., John Butman, Rob Lachenauer | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Wharton’s Michael Useem, director of the school’s Center for Leadership and Change Management, recently spoke with George Stalk, a senior vice president in The Boston Consulting Group’s Toronto office, about why companies that play the toughest often deliver the most value to their shareholders.

Content: Related Content | Authors: George Stalk Jr., Michael Useem | Subjects: Management, Strategy

There is a tendency in our planning to confuse the unfamiliar with the improbable. The contingency we have not considered seriously looks strange; what looks strange is thought improbable; what is improbable need not be considered seriously.

Content: Quotation | Author: Thomas C. Schelling | Source: Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision (Foreword) | Subjects: Decision Making, Planning, Risk Management, Strategy

Companies are vulnerable to misconceptions, biases, and plain old lies. But not hopelessly vulnerable.

Content: Article | Authors: Dan P. Lovallo, Olivier Sibony | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Strategy

Most companies put too little energy into adapting core businesses to changing markets. Indeed, they often unintentionally harvest their core businesses by pushing for short-term performance while neglecting the investments needed to stay ahead of the game. Often, companies move only when competitors start investing aggressively. When these companies do act, they usually make insufficient small-bet investments in diagnosis and design and skip the medium-bet … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Lowell Bryan | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Strategy

Strategic Planning is the process you follow to form a strategy.

Using Sun Tzu’s powerful strategic planning system, you will, determine your position and start creating your own strategy in an enlightened and powerful way.

Content: Article | Source: El-Kadi Counsulting | Subject: Strategy

The steps needed for rapid performance improvement fall into the category of simple to conceive but not easy to do. Leaders of fast turnarounds first systematically diagnose the business’s current condition. This diagnosis, informed by the four fundamental laws of business discussed below, gives them a deep understanding of their point of departure. They next map out a realistic point of arrival, again using … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Mark Gottfredson, Steve Schaubert | Source: Chief Executive | Subjects: Management, Strategy

When we ask, “What works in all companies?” we’re looking for an absolute formula in a field — competition in a marketplace setting — that is inherently relative. The answer is, “There isn’t one formula.” If everybody in the industry follows the same prescription, they won’t all be successful. Once we accept this, we’re in the realm of making judgments under uncertainty that are different … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Phil Rosenzweig | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Best Practices, Competition, Management

The quick, invisible shift from information overload to information assault has created, almost ironically, at least one, significant deficit: In every organization today, attention is a scarce resource. That scarcity has serious implications for leaders, managers and front-line staff. Reflecting on our own experience may be the best indication of how serious this problem is for any business. Do you know anyone who isn’t becoming … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: John C. Beck, Thomas H. Davenport | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Strategy

Companies often manage strategy in fits and starts. Though executives may formulate an excellent strategy, it easily fades from memory as the organization tackles day-to-day operations issues, doing what HBS professor Robert S. Kaplan calls “fighting fires.”

A new book by Kaplan and David P. Norton aims to make strategy a continual process. The Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage shows managers how … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Robert S. Kaplan | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Strategy

With rivals poised to pounce, is there a way for Thales to remain a standalone company?

Content: Case Study | Authors: Ashok Som, Thomas Oberbillig | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subject: Strategy | Industry: Aerospace & Defense | Company: Thales

This content is restricted to site members. Please log in or register

Do you compete against a company? Or against its scale? In today’s ever-consolidating, ever-internationalizing, ever-scaling business environment, your competitors’ greatest strengths may reside in their size just as much as in their people, products and strategies. Choosing the right kind of growth will play a significant role in the quest for long-term profitability.

Content: Article | Authors: Andrej Vizjak, Carsten Seeliger, Thomas Salditt | Source: Kearney | Subject: Strategy

Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in men.

Content: Quotation | Author: David Sarnoff | Source: The Wilson Quarterly | Subject: Competition

Executives say their companies could be a lot more effective at developing a strategy and implementing strategic plans, and they suggest some areas for improvement.

Content: Article | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Best Practices, Strategy

Quality and process improvement programs are like teaching people how to fish. Strategy maps and scorecards teach people where to fish.

Content: Quotation | Author: Robert S. Kaplan | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Execution, Strategy

what are the steps to laying out a competitive business strategy? While there are different methods you can follow, Jeff Schein has laid a series of 6 basic steps to help you.

Content: Member-Contributed Content | Author: Jeff Schein | Subject: Strategy