Also in Sloan Mgt Review, good to see a warning from Boris Groysberg and friends about the risks of hiring outside stars. Getting your hands on scarce talent

Neat article on this in Sloan Management Review

Good to know that, as in earlier tough times, applications at business schools are running at record rates [+20% on last year in one case I heard of] . Let’s hope - really hope! - they get taught some solid, professional strategic management skills while doing their MBAs, so they don’t repeat the awful errors of [...]

Just come back from a great talk by Brian Levy, HP’s Chief Technology Office for Communications & Media. Amongst many useful insights he offered were

After seeing that business school applications are up, following the release of professional staff from banking etc, I see the consulting sector is suffering a down-turn [Economist, 20-26 Sep]. They should have anticipated this,

You would expect knowledge in a professional field to accumulate - what we use today being built on what was known and used in the past. Strategy often doesn’t feel like that - a new fad gets promoted, then falls away as the next one comes along. So it’s a good reminder that one such [...]

I’ve gone on about this before, but it’s gone way, way worse since I last brought it up, so let’s not forget

Seeing the sector is anticipated to lose $5bn this year, and more in 09, who managed strategy well over the last 5 years? .. which of course would include anticipating and planning for the inevitable down-turn? Competent strategic management for most firms would imply

Just come back from the British Academy of Management conference in Harrogate - the get-together where many Business School faculty exchange latest thinking. The theme was ‘the Academy goes relevant!’ .. if only that were true !

An interesting article in on this topic, which is probably front of mind for quite a few organisations right now, in strategy+business. The article comes up with ’the frugal growth triangle’, on the working relationships between business units, corporate and shared functions. Unfortunately,