… 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 (more…)

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. (more…)

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 (more…)

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 (more…)

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. (more…)

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 (more…)

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 (more…)

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. (more…)

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! (more…)