I know I go on about how strategy professionals should have anticipated the current difficult conditions instead of piling on with unsustainable growth [especially in the banking sector’. But here’s a reminder of the opposite from strategy+business, Read the rest of this entry »
Shame about the housing recession both sides of the pond. Over in the US of course, this was largely created by the strategic imcompetence of banks’ whizzy sub-prime lending initiatives, though doubtless made worse by mindless economic policies. Here in the UK, blame between these two is probably more or less reversed Read the rest of this entry »
PS - You may know that Ryanair features strongly in my book Strategic Management Dynamics for three reasons - its a simple business model, its well-known, and its data is almost entirely public. The case demonstrates cleraly the simple principles that [a] resources drive performance, [b] resources accumulate and [c] they depend on each other to grow.
The focus is very much on internal factors explaining performance. But of course external factors matter too - in this case the rising cost of fuel and the general fall in consumer spending.
Truly fascinating times in the airline industry. Recession brought on by escalating fuel prices coinciding with downturns in consumer spending in both Europe and the US raises the competitive intensity Read the rest of this entry »
I have just come back from the ‘International System Dynamics Conference’ [no, you've probably never heard of it], and seen reported a staggeringly brilliant piece of work done for the World Health Organisation [WHO] on its strategy for eradicating Polio. Read the rest of this entry »
I get to read a lot of reports done by MBAs at the end of their programs, mostly strategy assessments for some opportunity an organisation is facing. There is a pretty standard pattern Read the rest of this entry »
A method, approach, framework or whatever is likely a ‘professional’ tool if two skilled people, given the same problem, would pick the same tool, seek the same information, process that information in the same way, and come out with something like the same answer. Read the rest of this entry »
It is interesting to learn that Chinese companies are finding it increasingly difficult to find the technical, functional and managerial talent they need to sustain their break-neck growth. We have seen the ‘war for talent’ raging amongst organizations in already mature economies for many years, and I guess it was inevitable that China would hit this wall before long. Which raises an intriguing question … Read the rest of this entry »
The Economist reports that the Baltic Capesize index, which measures the cost of chartering huge ocean-going vessels used to transport iron ore and coal, has hit record highs, driven by surging demand for raw materials.
Let’s guess what happens next – construction of these vessels will surge, so new capacity becomes available just in time to overtake a fall in the very demand they hope to exploit, resulting in an equally dramatic collapse in prices. This is a well-known phenomenon in a surprising variety of industries with long capacity-expansion lead times – from office-space to insurance to petrochemicals. Hopefully, firms in these sectors are employing those ‘Chief Strategy Officers’ [see earlier post] and checking what the future might hold.
