There have been many articles published on what a new CEO should do in the first ninety days on the job. What can I possibly add to this discussion? I have only been an ad hoc CEO at one client, but I have counseled six CEOs in this process when the board of directors brought in a new CEO from the outside. I was asked to extend the scope of my strategy work and be a coach for this process.
Author Archive for Adam Newdow
Growth Constellations – An Audit Approach For Your Firm
Recall my definition of a GC is: a key valuable resource or a bundle of valuable resources and a unique capabilities set aimed at a particular opportunity or related set of opportunities in the marketplace. This approach is brand new so I have only initial experience in conducting GC audits. However, I think this audit framework works but I invite your suggestions from your experience on things I w
Growth Constellations – A New Phrase For Strategy Part 2
A growth constellation is a bundle of valuable resources and unique capability-sets aimed at a particular opportunity or related set of opportunities in the marketplace. Configured well, this allows the incumbent firm to enjoy some form of competitive advantage for a while over rivals.
Growth Constellations – A New Phrase For Strategy Part 1
This article will present a new phrase for strategy: “growth constellations” and make some important distinctions, I think, for the field of competitive strategy. I think the phrase growth constellation could be at least a complimentary, if not better way, to describe your firm’s competitive strategy in today’s world of quick change, transient competitive advantage and the need for dynamic capabilities.
What Is The Real Pace of Your Business? Answer: Market Rhythm
Here is a quick question for you: how fast does your business to do anything? But as readers of this series of articles know, this series is about what causes a for-profit firm’s value to increase. So while we will focus on how long it takes your business to complete new strategic initiatives that have been derived from strategic planning, competitive intelligence, innovation or from other sources, this discussion will cover the speed in general of your business as well.
How Should Consultants Be Paid: Fixed Fee or Pay-for-Performance?
The management consulting industry in the United States brought in $228 billion in fees in 2017 according to IBIS World. Yes, that is $billion, not $million. The largest percentage of this figure, 38%, is from corporate strategy consulting. The next largest percentage of the $228 billion is for sales and marketing consulting at 19.5%. In 2017 there were about 707,000 consulting firms in the United States. There are twenty or thirty very large consulting firms like the Big 4 accounting firms, McKinsey, Booz Allen, etc. but most of that 707,000 are very small consulting firms with less than ten people or even sole proprietor shops with just one person.
Innovation Revisited: Still The Hot Topic or Common Denominator Just to Compete?
I wrote this article in two parts five years ago. Then innovation was the hot topic among US publicly traded firms. I have edited the text with some new but conflicting data. But I also end with a question: is innovation still the (or a) hot topic or in the ensuing five years has innovation become like the quality revolution thirty-five years ago where quality became a common denominator just to stay in the competitive ball game? I think it has although some consultants are still trying to sell their version of innovation as the new miracle. In the ensuing five years, there have also been some conflicting newer studies.
A Next Vista for Strategic Management: Continuously Aligning the Inside With the Outside
This article is a brief overview of a Working Paper that I previously published here and perhaps an eventual book. But I think the overview message in this short article is worth your attention.
A Primer on Strategy and Finance: What Any Strategy Professional Needs to Know
In this piece, I want to provide finance principles written in a way that any strategy professional can understand. If my message rings true, please share widely. I do know something about finance. I finished all my coursework during my Ph.D. program thirty-four years ago in finance before switching to strategic management.
What Is Competitive Advantage Re-visited?
How many times have you heard an executive say we have a competitive advantage over our rivals? The business press has written that firms like Amazon and Apple have a competitive advantage. What do these people mean by this?
Operations Excellence Revisited and Observations of the Balanced Scorecard
Speed, Quality, and Cost are three key watchwords of Operations Excellence (OE). Historically a for-profit firm could enjoy best-in-class levels of two of these three watchwords, but not all three at the same time. In today’s business world, the firm needs to have all three at best-in-class levels just to survive. OE is a huge contributor to organization performance and growth the market value of the firm.
How I Use Strategy Frameworks to Pick Stocks
Hopefully, I have your attention on this one. I know this article may seem presumptuous, as I am not known as an investment specialist. But if you have a few minutes and an interest to learn about a process that works for me, please read on. This article is a little longer than usual but I think worth the read.