1341 Posts Found

Managers can do a far better job if they understand how each process they manage adds value. SVA is a tool for gaining that understanding.

Editor’s Note: this article will be most interesting to those who care about the oil & gas industry but the SVA concept seemed to me to be poorly elaborated and more useful as a hindsight analytical tool rather than a … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Alfred Escher, Eric A. Spiegel, John K. Shank | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Industry Specific, Strategy | Industry: Petro / Chemical

If you don’t analyze your value chain first, you may outsource IT functions that are core to your business or base decisions on the wrong metrics.

Content: Article | Authors: Daniel Littmann, Michael E. Raynor | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Strategy

In this intriguing, clearly reasoned book, McKinsey consultant Courtney argues convincingly that managers can approach uncertainty systematically. Most managers, he says, either ignore potential problems or try to map out them out in painful detail. The better approach, Courtney contends, is to classify risk (e.g., a relatively clear future, a range of possibilities or true ambiguity) and hone a strategy based on a checklist he … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Hugh Courtney | Subjects: Risk Management, Strategy

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A new cross-border study suggests that some of Europe’s most established financial institutions are failing to adapt to regulatory and technological change. Top management can choose from four clearly defined options.

Editor’s Note: Unless you have a strong interest in the financial services sector, I would skim/skip most of the article and focus on the good stuff, which is the four idealised journeys of renewal … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Frans van den Bosch, Henk Volberda | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subject: Strategy

Managers know they need growth to survive-but innovation isn’t easy. In this Harvard Management Update article, HBS professor Clayton Christensen and co-authors detail the six keys to creating new-growth businesses.

Content: Article | Authors: Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor, Scott D. Anthony | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Innovation, Strategy

It is an urgent question: How can we increase profits if we can’t raise prices? The answer demands revolutionary thinking — new insights about strategy and human behavior, turbocharged with software, mathematics, and rapid-fire experimentation. Is your company ready to master the new era of pricing? Are you prepared to pay the price of failure?

Content: Article | Author: Charles Fishman | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Pricing, Strategy

It used to be, if you had a good idea, you kept it within the confines of your own company. Today, the fast pace of business development is creating a whole new wave of collaboration, across borders and industry boundaries. In this new Working Paper, Professor Peter Williamson and Sarah Meegan explore alliances.

Content: Article | Authors: Peter Williamson, Sarah Meegan | Source: INSEAD Knowledge | Subjects: Innovation, Strategy

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In just ten years, ARM transformed itself from beleaguered computer company to designer of RISC chips that are today the de facto standard for mobile phones, storage devices, automotive computing, and others. In this Case Study, Eleanor O’Keeffe and Professor Peter Williamson present the company’s innovative business model based on partnerships that give it unrivalled capability to “learn from the world”.

Content: Case Study | Authors: Eleanor O’Keeffe, Peter Williamson | Source: INSEAD | Subjects: Management, Strategy | Industry: Semiconductor | Company: ARM Holdings Plc

Cambridge Group CEO Kash introduces the consulting firm’s latest performance booster – “Demand Strategy,” in which companies are advised to concentrate on producing what customers want and will pay a premium for. The book describes the six “very complete and easy-to-understand steps” to implementing such a strategy.

Content: Book | Author: Rick Kash | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Consultant Slywotzky’s new book describes a series of twenty-three fictional meetings (between a frustrated manager and a guru), each covering a distinctive “profit pattern.” Put yourself in the student’s role — do the homework and the recommended reading — and you’ve got a complete toolbox of strategic models for profit-making.

Editor’s Note: The Art of Profitability is available for immediate download as an ebook. … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Adrian J. Slywotzky | Subjects: Management, Strategy

“Unquestionably the most comprehensive treatment available on the subject. I found this book unique in its capacity to benefit executives, planning staff, and students of strategy alike.”– Robert L. Joss, Dean of the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University

Content: Book | Author: David Aaker | Subject: Strategy

For leaders, setting vision and values is not an appetizer, it’s the main course.

Content: Article | Author: Robert Knowling | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Strategy

Why are a select few service firms better at what they do — year in and year out — than their competitors? For most senior managers, the profusion of anecdotal “service excellence” books fails to address this key question. In this pathbreaking book, world-renowned Harvard Business School service firm experts James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, Jr. and Leonard A. Schlesinger reveal that leading companies … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Authors: James L. Heskett, Leonard A. Schlesinger, W. Earl Sasser | Subjects: Customer Related, Strategy

At a recent executive conference, two Accenture partners shared our latest insights on innovating to achieve success in economic downturns and maximizing the impact of workforce learning on overall business performance. Read about how leading companies outperformed competitors over the last 18 months, and how companies can exploit technology and business process outsourcing to heighten workforce performance.

Editor’s Note: this utilizes a pretty nifty multimedia application … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Accenture | Subject: Strategy

This compendium is drawn from the archives of the now-defunct magazine, The Alliance Analyst. The articles have been updated and edited around four major topics: designing alliances, managing alliances, creating alliance constellations, and developing internal alliance competence.

Content: Book | Authors: Benjamin Gomes-Casseres, James Bamford, Michael Robinson | Subject: Strategy

Based on the idea that strategy is often situational, University of Texas’s McAfee delivers an impressively encyclopedic selection of strategic concepts. The tools cover a wide range of purposes (industry analysis, labor bargaining, pricing, compensation and incentives, product life cycles, etc.), include technical instructions for use, and are illustrated with short case studies.

Content: Book | Author: R. Preston McAfee | Subjects: Consulting / Analytical Tools, Strategy

Brandeis professor Ben Gomes-Casseres, a Harvard Business School alum, has developed a useful Web site on alliance strategy and management. Free content here includes useful presentation slides, forums, and other materials on the topic that he has written for a variety of publications and occasions. Materials range from an op-ed piece on the death of co-opetition to a presentation urging managers to create alliance strategies, … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Author: Benjamin Gomes-Casseres | Subjects: Management, Strategy

It is a bad plan that admits of no modification.

Content: Quotation | Source: CEO Refresher | Subject: Planning