1341 Posts Found

Business schools are invaluable for laying the foundations for the practice of management. This is especially true for marketing, finance, or human resources, but far less so for strategy. The problem with the current system is that it forces strategy into the direct and narrow approach to teaching. If the shortest distance between two points in geometry is a straight line, then the shortest distance … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: MBA Related, Strategy

Now is a good time to take a fresh look at your sources of capability building, according to the new book The Only Sustainable Edge. Book excerpt plus Q&A with coauthors John Hagel III and John Seely Brown.

Content: Article | Authors: John Hagel III, John Seely Brown | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Strategy

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How to turn someone else’s idea into a big business.

Content: Article | Authors: Costas Markides, Paul Geroski | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Innovation, Strategy

Many strategic planning processes devolve into sterile budgeting exercises focused on yearly or even quarterly financial minutiae rather than looking at the broader market landscape. This is like driving while looking at the speedometer and odometer, not the road ahead; come the next curve, a crash is inevitable. The company fails to anticipate changes in customer priorities and the competitive landscape, and it ends up … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Mercer Management Journal | Subject: Strategy

Profit Patterns opens with a series of chaotic paintings by Pablo Picasso. Each piece is increasingly difficult to recognize; the final portrait is little more than a jumble of shapes and colors. But what does Picasso have to do with profitability? By recognizing industry patterns–by seeing the order beneath the surface chaos–managers, investors, and entrepreneurs can prepare for change before it even occurs. And while … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Authors: Adrian J. Slywotzky, James A. Quella, Kevin Mundt, Ted Moser | Subject: Strategy

The New Economy liberated competencies from the core. The technologies of Silicon Valley (to take one of the purest examples) belong largely to the community, not to any individual firm. Personal networks, fluid labor markets, and sophisticated venture capital communities transplant much of that knowhow from one firm to another, despite the efforts of every constituent firm to prevent it. But in the New Economy … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Sources: Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Journal of Business Strategy | Subject: Strategy

Perhaps a lot of traditional insights can still be exploited if we are willing simply to abandon the idea of a solution, an endgame. Not because it does not exist or does not matter, but simply because it is unknowable, at least for now. Perhaps we need to redefine strategy as the art of surviving rapid transition, something like log-rolling or surfing. Strategy as direction … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Sources: Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Journal of Business Strategy | Subject: Strategy

The Internet undermines the premises of competitive analysis. Porter’s “five forces” framework presumed that the definitions of the firm, industry, suppliers, customers, and new entrants were given and obvious. But the Internet destroys these neat categories. The definition of the business, competitors, suppliers, etc. is now the essence of the question, not a premise of the answer. Compound this with the well-known prevalence of increasing … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Sources: Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Journal of Business Strategy | Subject: Strategy

‘Keystone’ business strategists share information across industry networks to assure revenue growth for all partners.

Content: Article | Author: Marco Iansiti | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Strategy

When the performance of two or more competing products has improved beyond what the market demands, customers can no longer base their choice on which is the higher performing product. The basis of product choice often evolves from functionality to reliability, then to convenience, and, ultimately, to price.

Content: Quotation | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: Competition

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Although an organization can have only one overarching strategy, there are five distinct views that stakeholders might have when reviewing a strategy and its associated performance:
* Valuation,
* Navigation,
* Compensation,
* Benchmarking, and
* Evaluation.

Understanding all of these views – their implications and how to implement them – will greatly simplify the development and use of your scorecard … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Brett Knowles | Source: BetterManagement.com | Subjects: Management, Strategy

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There is a slightly odd notion in business today that things are moving so fast that strategy becomes an obsolete idea. That all you need is to be flexible or adaptable. Or as the current vocabulary puts it, “agile.” This is a mistake. You cannot substitute agility for strategy. If you do not develop a strategy of your own, you become a part of someone … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Business 2.0 | Subject: Strategy

Formulating strategy is one thing. Executing it throughout the entire organization… well, that’s the really hard part. Without effective execution, no business strategy can succeed. Unfortunately, most managers know far more about developing strategy than about executing it-and overcoming the difficult political and organizational obstacles that stand in their way. In this book, Larry Hrebiniak offers a comprehensive, disciplined process model for making strategy work … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Lawrence G. Hrebiniak | Subjects: Management, Strategy

In a company that functions as an internal market economy, every part of the corporation that has at least one internal and one external customer operates as a profit center. All other parts operate as cost centers, each of which is part of a profit center. (This does not mean profit centers must be profitable. Most corporations maintain unprofitable units for various reasons, such as … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subjects: Management, Strategy

While Business Plans For Dummies covers the strategy of putting a business plan together, Business Plans Kit For Dummies covers how to put a business plan to work! This kit covers business plans for every stage (and every type) of business: e-business, sole proprietorships, small businesses, service companies, high-tech companies, non-profits — even business plans for middle managers and restructuring a company. It emphasizes methods … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Authors: Peter E. Jaret, Steven D. Peterson | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Strategy

The challenge for companies is not achieving a single point of focus. It is harmonizing multiple points of focus. No company is immune from the new customer mantra: “I want what I want.” In industry after industry, customers are demanding ever-higher levels of customization – products and services tailored to their needs. And they’re confident that, in an economy characterized by greater and greater information … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Bill Lakenan, Keith Oliver, Leslie H. Moeller | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Strategy

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