N2Growth Blog

OCTOBER 25, 2016

Be Innovative and engaging, not flat and uninspired – countless management consultants employ the same old, tired planning processes that generate little interest or energy. By including a Culture By Design perspective in your planning approach you hedge the bet that the organization can succeed in the execution of its plans.

Strategy 150

Strategy Strategic Planning Span of Control Long-term 150

The Horizons Tracker

JUNE 2, 2020

The researchers suggest that the desire for small firms to move could be because they have a smaller order book that doesn’t allow them to hedge their risk in the way larger firms can. Sectors such as chemicals, food and drink, and textiles were among the most enthusiastic shifters.

Supply Chain 91

Supply Chain Hedge Credit Risk Bureaucracy 91

Strategy Driven

MARCH 23, 2020

This can cover situations such as growing a business (which requires ‘growth capital’ for expansion or development); financing operational changes such as restructuring to make the business more profitable; financing acquisitions of other companies; or delisting a public company in order to give it private status.

Real Estate 65

Real Estate Finance Hedge Restructuring 65

Strategy Driven

NOVEMBER 11, 2021

Public companies can have tens, hundreds, or even thousands of individual and institutional shareholders, like mutual fund companies, pension funds, or hedge funds. Now, these shareholders play a crucial role in the business’s financing, operations, governance, and control aspects. You may have the most innovative business idea.

Management 83

Management Hedge Finance Efficiency 83

The Horizons Tracker

JUNE 26, 2022

If automation is restricted to Sun Belt states (including Florida, Texas and Arizona)—because the technology may not initially work well in rough weather—about 10% of the operator hours will be affected,” they explain. The data contained information on trucking shipments and the operator hours required to fulfill those shipments.

Osborne 75

Osborne Transportation Operations Hedge 75

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 28, 2012

Acutely aware of the competitive edges timely data offers sophisticated investors, the company's ever-entrepreneurial cofounder once proposed that Google launch a hedge fund. Google may not have a hedge fund, but it's unlikely that high IQ hedge funds aren't using Google's data to better manage their own situational awareness and risk.

Hedge 15

Hedge Core Competence CFO ROI 15

HR Digest

MAY 2, 2019

I was at a conference recently and one of the speakers remarked that “Culture hedges against the risk of uncertainty.” It can help them innovate. The HR Digest: Can you share with The HR Digest readers some innovative recruiting strategies that allow Mastercard to compete for talent in America and abroad?

Resources 40

Resources Human Resources Learning-by-Doing Leadership Pipeline 40

Strategy Driven

MAY 25, 2011

And when they don’t feel safe, they don’t take risks – and where there is no risk taken, there is less innovation, less ‘going the extra mile,’ and therefore, very little unexpected upside. When they’re punished, you instill a fear of risk-taking in your employees, and with that you stifle creativity and innovation.

Company 62

Company Venture Capitalist Film Reputation 62

Strategy Driven

MAY 25, 2011

And when they don’t feel safe, they don’t take risks – and where there is no risk taken, there is less innovation, less ‘going the extra mile,’ and therefore, very little unexpected upside. When they’re punished, you instill a fear of risk-taking in your employees, and with that you stifle creativity and innovation.

Company 50

Company Venture Capitalist Film Reputation 50

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

This isn't a new challenge, but it's more urgent than ever, not just as an effort to escape reform and regulation from the outside, but to restore the public trust, to repair the moral fabric of the system, and to unleash the innovation required to tackle the world's most pressing and important challenges.

Short-term 17

Short-term Long-term Ethics Incentives 17

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 19, 2012

The book did quite well — it has been translated into 18 languages at this point, become part of the ongoing innovation dialogue, allowed me to present ideas to executives across the world, and to build a unique consulting firm with clients on six continents. So, not surprisingly, I frequently get asked just how I did it.

Succession 21

Succession Diversity Open-book Innovation 21

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 24, 2016

Innovation has the potential to transform the investment industry. Yet the world’s largest funds are closed off from these innovations. Research we have collected in recent months shows that pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and endowments expect imminent breakthrough innovations in investment technology.

Operations 8

Operations Intangible Assets Venture Capitalist Hedge 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 3, 2011

There's a beguiling little moment in the financial-crisis documentary Inside Job where hedge fund billionaire George Soros describes the principles of oil tanker design. To mainstream economists the Glass-Steagall Act that separated the banking and securities industries looked like a competition-restricting, innovation-damping anachronism.

Banking 17

Banking Crisis Letter Hedge 17

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 7, 2017

But with the departures of a number of high-level HR leaders in late 2016, head of operations Ryan Graves largely took on the head HR role in addition to his other duties. That is like setting up a finance organization to do exotic risk hedging before putting in place basic reporting and compliance.

Compliance 15

Compliance Hedge Human Capital Finance 15

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 14, 2011

Leaders need to draw up a list of all the bad things that can happen, build cash reserves, hedge, and acquire options, to prepare for the worst. In our HBR article on collaborative leadership , Herminia Ibarra and I argue that leaders need to instill the growth mindset and learning goals in their company to spur innovation.

Hedge 18

Hedge Collins Open-book Teamwork 18

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 1, 2018

The constantly fluctuating number of barrels of crude available from nimble shale operations is a primary driver, but so are the long-term impact of increased fuel efficiency and the fits and starts of the global transition away from fossil fuels on world demand. .—while The soaring U.S.

Offshoring 14

Offshoring Price Transportation Long-term 14

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 31, 2016

It both funds day-to-day operations and generates profits for the future. But as anyone who has ever tried to lead innovation knows, the challenge goes beyond being ambidextrous enough to manage today’s business while creating tomorrow’s. Innovation & Entrepreneurship Book. Excerpted from. The Three-Box Solution.

Innovation 8

Innovation Management Hedge Govindarajan 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 23, 2012

Part of the problem is that the industry is still moving at warp speed, and the company has dwindling resources to deploy against innumerable innovation challenges. These moves require limited investment while providing critical hedges against unexpected changes in the marketplace.

Strategy 16

Strategy CEO Strategic Planning Consensus 16

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 5, 2012

Many innovative customer-service solutions like these are simple and inexpensive, and they have high payback. A scorecard that links financials with learning initiatives and other operations would serve as a cross-check for managers. What If Google Had a Hedge Fund? BIG DATA INSIGHT CENTER. Why Data Will Never Replace Thinking.

CAPEX 15

CAPEX Balanced Scorecard Hedge Software 15

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 11, 2016

Investors from hedge funds to insurance companies are operating in an environment of low yields, near-zero interest rates, and a glut of savings. Innovation in Cities. Social impact bonds could be one of the most innovative and effective. Insight Center.

Finance 8

Finance Bond Innovation Incentives 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 10, 2014

Education is on the brink of rapid change that will create a lot of value for innovators. One representative example: April’s Education Innovation Summit , where more than 2,000 people energetically discussed how technology and markets are charting the future of education globally. But still sitting on the sidelines?

Real Estate 10

Real Estate Education Asset Management Disruptive Innovation 10

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 18, 2013

In terms of sales volume, product line diversity, operating system flexibility, R&D spending, and even customer loyalty , Samsung has emerged as a fierce competitor that has bested former industry champions like Nokia and Apple. How then can a new front-runner better manage market expectations and also strive to be more innovative?

Brand 10

Brand Customer Loyalty Hedge Wilde 10

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 24, 2012

The Kahn Academy, founded by Salman Kahn (a former hedge fund manager), is a not-for-profit, online venture that is currently revolutionizing K-12 education. Hart does not quite do what the Kahn Academy does but she operates in the same space. If you want to know how, here is the obligatory TED video. Want to get a taste?

Video 16

Video Education Christensen Learning-by-Doing 16

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 11, 2014

First, making significant amounts of your own power at zero variable cost is more than nice; it’s a hedge against volatility and smooths out expenses, which makes business planning easier. The problem then is not with the value creation, but with the tool of ROI and how we define it. In this way, Tim Cook is onto something important.

CEO 9

CEO ROI Environment Hedge 9

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 30, 2013

In fact, Amazon was only operating at such a high burn rate because it could. Well, he's a hedge fund veteran who has always taken a skeptical view of Wall Street, treating it more as a loopy rich uncle than the efficient information processor of standard finance theory. How has Bezos done this?

Training 13

Training Bond Christensen Long-term 13

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 26, 2017

By comparison, online lenders face capital costs that can be higher than 10%, sourced from potentially fickle institutional investors like hedge funds. This amounts to putting a toe in the water, while keeping current operations relatively separate and pristine.

Banking 15

Banking Credit Scoring Stage-Gate Competitive Advantage 15

Harvard Business Review

MAY 10, 2013

It is far more likely that the hard work of restructuring will be the task of private equity firms, leveraged buyout firms or hedge funds, all of whom have a financial motivation to make whatever disengagement decisions are necessary to profit from the eventual re-sale of a healthier company. Competition Disruptive innovation Strategy'

Venture Capitalist 10

Venture Capitalist Competitive Advantage Restructuring Short-term 10

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 4, 2014

for 10+ years; deployment of design as an integrated function across the entire enterprise; evidence that design investments and influence are increasing; clear reporting structure and operating model for design; experienced design executives at the helm directing design activities; and tangible senior leadership-level commitment for design.

Venture Capitalist 9

Venture Capitalist Fashion B2B Hedge 9

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 24, 2017

What traditional investors don’t like about any of this is the regulatory uncertainty; the high valuations and over-capitalization; the lack of control over financials, strategy, and operations; and the lack of business use-cases. These “bitcoin whales” are currently the ones who make or break many of the ICOs.

Venture Capitalist 15

Venture Capitalist Due Diligence Finance Long-term 15

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 27, 2018

Apple and Google, for example, each control a popular mobile phone operating system platform (and key apps on that platform), Amazon controls the largest online merchant platform, and Facebook controls the largest social network platform. Less innovation in markets dominated by data-opolies. Significant costs on third parties.

Company 15

Company Advertising Incentives Price 15

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 5, 2013

While there's much chatter in the management world about the need to be adaptable, only a few creative companies and innovative managers have probed the natural world for its adaptability secrets. Adaptable systems make multiple copies of everything and modify the copies to hedge against uncertainty. Redundancy.

Decentralization 12

Decentralization Real Estate Brand Uncertainty 12

Harvard Business Review

JULY 17, 2018

For example, the original Google car found it hard to compute the context within which it was operating. This problem of extending the automatic reasoning of AI systems to understand the context of their decisions is highly complex, and creative innovation, like the one at Google, is usually needed to push the effort forward.

Skills 15

Skills Morale Ethics Learning-by-Doing 15

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 11, 2015

But that will not in any way deter hedge-fund activists from demanding that companies do stock buybacks so that they can time their stock sales to take advantage of short-term, buyback-induced, stock-price boosts. Yet Icahn has never invested in Apple’s value-creating capabilities that increase innovation and productivity.

Proposal 8

Proposal Hedge Safe Harbor Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 20, 2016

The reason we wanted to do it separate is because, you have to realize that we needed to give them the flexibility and the operating structure to be able to be competitive with other technology and mobility services companies that move really fast. They are supply-side architectural innovations. You want it separate but connected.

Christensen 8

Christensen Hedge Bureaucracy Film 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 26, 2015

It’s common sense, but it bears repeating, given how many companies don’t operate that way. When Paul Polman became the CEO of Unilever, for example, he stopped giving analysts earnings guidance, dispensed with quarterly profit reports, and said there’d be no special treatment for hedge funds.

Metrics 8

Metrics Long-term Short-term Hedge 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 30, 2017

Innovation at GE was on a roll. Since then Flannery has replaced Immelt’s vice chairs responsible for innovation. So is John Rice, the head of global operations, along with CFO Jeffrey Bornstein. Are lean innovation and the startup way a failure in large companies? Then it wasn’t. Comstock is out.

Long-term 8

Long-term Ries Short-term Price 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 26, 2017

To set this in context, it’s important to first understand the fundamental challenge of building contemporary (and future) workspaces, especially for technology companies: Software and buildings operate on entirely different timescales. Innovation in structural systems. Innovation in mechanical and electrical systems.

Real Estate 8

Real Estate Technology Hedge Project 8