Can you predict your organization’s future with certainty? Can this prediction then enable your firm to move to that future with supremacy and advantage? When strategic planning was popularized right after World War II, it promised to do just this. We now know, though, that nothing can do this short of an organization enjoying a lasting monopoly.
Author Archive for Adam Newdow
Enterprise Wide Risk Management
Serious employee accidents, information technology melt down, white-collar crime (valued at billions of dollars globally), supply chain shortfalls, board governance issues, external/internal audit strife, competitive encroachment or leapfrog, patent/trade secrets leakage, changes in the White House….
The Process Revolution and Profitable Revenue Growth
What do you think is the root cause of why some firms can enjoy year after year profitable revenue growth and other cannot? My answer: blow up your functional organization structure to become a Process Driven Company. Wow – you might be saying, “what about marketing and selling? customer service? new product development? human resources? Firms like Hewlett Packard, Siemens Lighting, Danaher and others have been honing Process Driven Skills for a long time.
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The Strategy of Multiple Business Units
This article will discuss the evolving views behind why a single product business should diversify into more different kinds of businesses. As I look at our great businesses here in the Northwest Louisiana region, I notice that most are single product or a bundle of tightly related products. Perhaps this article can stimulate thought about whether or not they should consider diversifying. The payoff is high in terms of increasing firm valuation but so are the risks.
The Leadership of Strategy
One of the best CEOs I have been honored to work for was Clarke Johnson, then CEO of McGregor Sports. He told me while discussing strategy in 1990 that the hardest part of his job was to tell his people “no”. I was perplexed and asked for more insight. That insight and those of others are the topic of this article.
keyword planner
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Market Research – a Key Component of Business Strategy
Market research is the field to better understand your current and possible new customers’ needs and wants for your current products, services and their levels of satisfaction with your current offerings. Understanding customers for innovative and radically new products and services comes from the new field of innovation, and market research does not have a good track record here. There are two major kinds of market research – primary and secondary. This article will discuss primary only.
The Rise and Fall of Gucci part 2
Last month we discussed the fall of one of the most respected brands in the style/fashion industry – Gucci – in the mid-1970s. Our aim in these classic strategy stories is to bring to life the other articles in this series over the last fifteen months. We chronicled Gucci family struggles and intrigue as the founder’s sons tried several strategies to turn the company around after some disastrous strategic moves.
The Fall and Rise of Gucci Part 1
This article and some others for the rest of the year will provide some quintessential company examples of putting the elements into practice. There is no better place to start than with the Fall and Rise of Gucci. Gucci is the firm that embodied high fashion and inspired design of leather goods and accessories and almost went bankrupt not heeding some of the key principles highlighted in this article series.
Thinking You Can Do Anything: The Case Of Masco Corporation
In 1986 Masco Corporation was considering a $1.5 billion move into the furniture manufacturing industry in the United States. Prior to this, the company had re-invented the faucet industry. Its portfolio included kitchen and bathroom cabinets, locks and building hardware and many other household products. These were “sleepy” industries before Masco entered, and Masco shook them up by “professionalizing” them and it extracted nice growth and profits.
The Story of Keen Footwear: Dynamic Capabilities – Part 2
Recall from Part 1 last month there are eight skills that are required for Dynamic Capabilities. Keen Footwear embodies all of them and in May 2003 started perfecting them like almost no other firm had done before. It is a fascinating story of how inexpensive shoe design tools and part time designers, offshore factories, and free buzz marketing helped Keen go from idea to a $30 million hit virtually overnight. I will paraphrase from an article in Business 2.0 Magazine by Michael Copeland and present my own research into Keen.
Dynamic Capabilities – A New Approach to Strategy – Part 1
Up to now, the strategy field has provided many valuable tools, frameworks, and knowledge. The emphasis for the current tools and frameworks is around “positioning”. I have discussed many aspects of positioning over the last twenty-two months. Positioning seeks to have a firm develop a great strategy and business model and then “defend” that position. Defending comes from marketing your current offerings and brand frequently to keep you visible to current customers.