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

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Neat article on this in Sloan Management Review

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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

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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,

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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

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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

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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 !

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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,

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