Better than HBR?
Harvard Business Review may be seen as the gold-standard for leading edge management thinking. But I am increasingly impressed by the quality of other journals. McKinsey Quarterly, of course, has long produced solid content based on work with major clients, or else on serious research from their Global Institute, and other big consulting firms do some of the same. Now, seems to me, Sloan Management Review is also putting out important, well-informed articles reflecting rigorous work, and strategy+business from Booz & Co does the same.
Meanwhile, HBR offers more and more articles featuring glib slogans or ‘X ways to do Y’ and other styles of thin journalism. Some are downright dangerous! There are still some great exceptions of course, but I wonder if their crown is slipping.
Anyone got other favourite sources?
Strategy + falsehood = error
An otherwise great column in HBR It’s Time for the 3-D MBA about improving MBA programs starts well by urging more breadth and depth, then calling for more ‘dynamics’ than static prespectives. [I'd hardly disagree with that!]. But it then asserts that “The vast majority of value created in business comes not from applying existing models, but from creating new models that do not now exist. It comes from creativity; from innovation.” – which is either completely false, or else meaningless, depending on how you take it.
In any year, the vast majority of value is created by companies exploiting business models they have had for years or decades, rather than ones they just invented. On a longer view, though, all value ever created comes from business models that were new at some point in time. The article seems to be taking the first meaning – implying that most value is created by recently-new business models – and urges business schools to focus MBAs on innovation. This may be useful in some cases, but should not take precedence over strategy delivery. If this comment leads to MBAs learning less about how to deliver strategy as a result of focusing on innovation, it will be a great example of how an entirely false premise can lead to fundamentally wrong strategic choices [and this from a business school that is supposed to be teaching the rest of us how to do strategy well!]
So … when reading an article that seems persuasive, do put on your ’skeptical’ hat and just check that it’s built on accurate foundations.
How good leaders make bad decisions
… and right after the McKinsey survey, HBR has an article by Andrew Campbell, Jo Whitehead (Ashridge) and Sydney Finkelstein (Dartmouth) on neuroscience revelations about how leaders’ judgment gets distorted. It seems we have systematic biases, then land on initial conclusions we are reluctant to change, and the article offers a ‘red flag’ process for guarding against the dangers.
Seize Advantage in a Downturn
More (mostly) helpful advice re the downturn from HBR is Seize the advantage in a downturn in which David Rhodes and Daniel Stelter of BCG offer thoughts to stabilize your business and find opportunities … but beware! Read more
Anyone using game theory?
Though I have heard of game theory being used in a few particular and special cases (e.g. the auctioning of 3G cellphone licenses) I have not seen anything of it being used in general strategic management or business planning. The strategy textbooks dismiss it as too uni-dimensional and limited to special cases to be useful, and I can find virtually no articles in e.g. Harvard Business Review or McKinsey Quarterly giving any encouraging cases where it has been helpful. (Though I did see on 12manage reference to a strategy+business article on Barry Nalebuff).
Does anyone know otherwise?
When a new business model is essential
The music industry is a great example of where ‘changing the business model’ – aka ’strategic innovation’ or transformation – has been essential. So although I have poured cold water on this idea for almost all firms at almost all times, it’s worth looking at this case. Read more
Reinventing your business model? Forget it [most of you!]
Whilst I greatly admire Prof Clay Christensen’s work, and this one in Harvard Business review with colleagues Mark Johnson and Henning Kagermann is good guidance in some cases, it is plain dangerous for most organizations right now. Read more
Where was the strategic thinking?
I’ve been posting on strategy in the downturn for a while now, but what makes me really angry is the strategic incompetence that led to this mess [search 'incompetence' for previous posts on this]. But now I’m puzzled – Harvard Business Review, McKinsey Quarterly, Strategy+Business, Economist, etc, etc, are full of advice from strategy experts on how to survive the problem, so I wondered how much they warned folk before that this was likely to happen? .. and how much advice they offered on how to make sure your organization would avoid trouble in the first place? Read more
HBR on managing the downturn
I see Harvard Business Review has got out a section on ‘Unconventional Wisdom in a Downturn‘ from their team of bloggers. It offers some good pointers, but not all, so be careful! Read more