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Companies Need a New Approach to Investing This Election Year

Harvard Business Review

Election years are the time to pursue projects that entail minimal commitments and expenditures but will produce tremendous first-mover advantage and large payoffs if post-election policy turns out to be favorable. This year, however, is different.

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For CVS, Social Good Was Not a Factor

The Idolbuster

First mover advantage by proactively stopping tobacco sales before they need to. Healthcare providers don’t sell products that kill people. The ACA has provided a bolus of people who will need additional health care, and CVS is beginning to provide medical services right in their stores.

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Strategy in a World of Constant Change

Harvard Business Review

In it, he talked about the competitive advantage of Southwest Airlines, Vanguard Group and Progressive Insurance. To be sure, first mover advantages can vaporize quickly, but not all first mover advantages are backed by a real competitive advantage.

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What Groupon and LivingSocial Cannot Offer

Harvard Business Review

But a new study shows that no amount of buzz, excitement or first mover's advantage will lead a product to sustained growth. The costs are clearly high, but companies with products that tend to generate early buzz seem to do very well. At least that is the conventional wisdom.

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Five Myths of a CEO's First 100 Days

Harvard Business Review

An incoming CEO of an entertainment company, eager to secure first-mover advantage, instituted an ambitious growth strategy and set specific targets for managers. A top talent who can't work effectively with colleagues is a liability, not an asset. MYTH #4 : New CEOs must promptly define and communicate performance metrics.

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When to Change a Winning Strategy

Harvard Business Review

Its story starts like many success stories do: An innovative concept coupled with a first-mover advantage, enabling a rapid physical expansion and generating increasing returns to scale. To succeed, therefore, managers have to learn when and how to abandon the strategies they have grown up with.

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Best Practices for Leading via Innovation

Harvard Business Review

Toyota's decade-long investment in its Prius sub-brand ultimately succeeded in strengthening the company's reputation as a respected product innovator while allowing Toyota to capture first-mover advantage in the fast-growing hybrid category. Enable organizational agility.