… talking about strategy

McKinsey Quarterly is rolling out a helpful series of collections from their archive - like this one on What CFOs do. One thing to add to the list is Read the rest of this entry »

Good to see some thoughtful stuff on innovation amongst the general encouragement to just do it more and better.  Alexander Kandybin in strategy+business looks at the really tough challenge of winning with innovation in consumer products. Read the rest of this entry »

I have sometimes made the point that ‘market forecasts’ are of little value as a start-point for strategy development [ sorry to the folk who make a living feeding the apparently insatiable demand for 'independent market forecasts']. This is because Read the rest of this entry »

Have had a few people ask for more examples of real projects with strategy dynamics delivering value - so did a webinar on that a couple of days ago … view this online here and the slides here.

Interesting to see a McKinsey survey confirming that the HR function is not regarded by management as having much to offer to strategy, which is more than a pity - it’s disastrous! Of all the strategy project I’ve worked on, by far the commonest source of underperformance is Read the rest of this entry »

What a result ! Satellite TV provider Sky has finally realised they can’t beat real-world physics and hit their target of 10 million subscribers by 2010 - as we predicted back in 2004. Read the rest of this entry »

Shame on my friend Eric Beinhocker of McKinsey Global Institute, interviewed in a TV programme The Genius of Darwin with arch-evolutionist Richard Dawkins.  Eric unfortunately likened the emergence of new business models to a coin-flipping competition Read the rest of this entry »

Quite by coincidence I see strategy+business reports efforts by a different industry than power utilities to wrestle with the aging workfoce problem. S&B report that the serious shortage of skilled workers in the oil industry Read the rest of this entry »

I see consumer groups are squealing that even water companies [with no excuse from rising oil prices] are asking for above-inflation price rises. Why? - because they have humbly suggested that if people want water in future, they had better replace the ancient equipment before it fails completely. Read the rest of this entry »

Had a call from a star student now with a major power utility. Seems they are worried about their aging workforce. Think you share this problem? - how about 50% of your staff being within 5-10 years of retiring! Read the rest of this entry »