1302 Posts Found

It is a tribute to the durability and universality of the ideas of Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz that his famous work On War has been excerpted in this 2001 book for business readers. The authors have done a fine job of condensing Clausewitz’s massive, unfinished tome and have coupled it with an excellent commentary.

Content: Book | Authors: Bolko von Oetinger, Christopher Bassford, Tiha von Ghyczy | Subject: Strategy

Rather than propose rules for the entire economy, Professors Vijay Mahajan (McCombs) and Jerry Wind (Wharton) focus their proposals on marketing. As contributing editors of the forthcoming book, Digital Marketing: Global Strategies from the World’s Leading Experts, Mahajan and Wind are out to reshape their discipline. What follows are key points paraphrased from Mahajan’s and Wind’s new rules for digital marketing, with selected excerpts from … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: “Texas – The McCombs School of Business Magazine” | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Strategy

The contour of the land is an aid to an army; sizing up opponents to determine victory, assessing dangers and distances, is the proper course of action for military leaders. Those who do battle knowing these will win, those who do battle without knowing these will lose.

Content: Quotation | Subjects: Competition, Competitive Intelligence

In general, the pattern of invasion is that invaders become more intense the farther they enter alien territory, to the point where the native rulership cannot overcome them.

Content: Quotation | Subject: Competition

The Art of War, compiled over two thousand years ago has been a valuable source of insight for leaders and strategists. The ‘nine grounds’ examines the ‘tactical’ issues of a group in relation to its terrain or territory, useful in its application to competitive and market analysis and to the social, political, and more abstract senses.

Content: Article | Sources: “CEO Refresher”, “The Art of War by Sun Tzu” | Subjects: Competitive Intelligence, Strategy

The proper care and feeding of customers is a hot topic these days. Whether the discussion goes under the name customer satisfaction, zero defections, loyalty or intimacy, the customer issue has pushed its way to the top of the agenda for a growing number of C.E.O.’s.Yet despite all that attention, surprisingly little is said about a core problem many a chief executive faces: how do … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Evan R. Hirsh | Source: “strategy+business” | Subjects: Operations, Strategy

“Let’s peel away the business academic interpretations and get at the root of thinking strategically.”

Content: Article | Author: Rick Sidorowicz | Source: “CEO Refresher” | Subject: Strategy

Are e-alliances a fad of the past? Speed and scale remain important in the post-New-Economy world, and alliances are often a faster and less capital-intensive way of gaining access to products, customers, and business capabilities than building them from scratch. But the stakes are now much higher, and the market is less forgiving. How can you raise the odds an alliance will succeed? To answer … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: David Ernst, Hugo Sarrazin, Jean-Hugues J. Monier, Tammy Halevy | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subject: Strategy

Drawing on military wargames to simulate battlefield conditions, commercial wargaming simulates a set of business conditions and challenges executives to design successful strategies that are able to evolve with the changing nature of the environment. In a corporate war game, senior managers play their own company, a select group of their competitors and the marketplace. A control team plays all other entities that affect the … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Amy Asin, George E. Thibault, John E. Treat | Source: “strategy+business” | Subjects: Best Practices, Strategy

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Striving for excellence or building to last is one thing. Sustaining superior performance over the long haul is another matter entirely, as longtime McKinsey & Company executives Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan persuasively point out in Creative Destruction. Based on a concept first advanced some 70 years ago by economist Joseph Alois Schumpeter, Foster and Kaplan propose that corporations can outperform capital markets and maintain … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Authors: Richard Foster, Sarah Kaplan | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Corporate venturing has increased dramatically in recent years as companies seek to grab ever more profitable growth. This has raised two important questions. First, is it a management fad or lasting trend? And second, is it for everyone – or are some companies better positioned to create shareholder value through corporate venturing? Bain’s findings show corporate venturing to be far from a panacea. It’s just … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: “Bain & Company” | Subject: Strategy

The first strategy of war is an armed force that is fully mobilized and consumed with the desire to win. Without that, all other strategies are vain.

Content: Quotation | Source: “CEO Refresher” | Subjects: Competition, Strategy

Article looks at the questions of how and why alliances are formed and the ingredients for their success or failure.

Content: Article | Authors: Dennis C. Rogers, Niren M. Vyas, William L. Shelburn | Source: “ManagementFirst” | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Content: Book | Authors: Chris Zook, James Allen | Subjects: Management, Strategy

The idea that new businesses prosper best when separated from their corporate parents has now become conventional wisdom. Although new ventures do need space to develop, strict separation can prevent them from obtaining invaluable resources and rob their parents of the vitality they can generate. The solution? A balance of partitioning and integration.

Content: Article | Authors: Ansgar Richter, John Roberts, Jonathan D. Day, Paul Y. Mang | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Strategy gets you on the playing field, but execution pays the bills.

Content: Quotation | Source: “Fast Company” | Subjects: Execution, Strategy

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

Content: Quotation | Subjects: Business Rules, Competition, Management, Opportunity

Some time ago the new economy appropriated a term that summed up its irrational exuberance – “first-mover advantage.” E-business first movers, it was thought, could gain valuable advantages over the competition by pioneering technologies, being first-to-market, and building brand loyalty. Hindsight may be 20/20, but it’s still not clear what hindsight will say about the first movers in e-business. Gathered here are … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: J.B. Bird | Source: “Texas – The McCombs School of Business Magazine” | Subject: Strategy

Start with the people who are closest to the customer, then alphabetize, organize, summarize, save time and tempers, finalize, publish, sign and celebrate.

Content: Article | Author: Bernard DeKoven | Source: “CEO Refresher” | Subjects: Best Practices, Strategy