Leading Blog

MARCH 12, 2021

T O THRIVE in a new, more tumultuous era of social tension, economic nationalism, and technological revolution, you need to go beyond great. And third is “a technological revolution fueled by the exponential growth of global data and digital technologies.”. Strategy #1: Do Good, Grow Beyond.

Strategy 415

Strategy Supply Chain Globalization Bureaucracy 415

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 18, 2012

Executing this strategy required seamless integration of IBM's product capabilities with its geographic reach. This meant abandoning IBM's existing organization, in which product silos and geographic entities operated independently and frequently were more competitive than collaborative. Directness. He's personable, but blunt.

Globalization 18

Globalization Golden Parachute Short-term Long-term 18

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 6, 2017

The strategic underpinnings of most companies’ workforce plans should change dramatically as a result of technological innovation. ” Beyond the skills required to perform specific jobs, technology will also determine which jobs matter most in the years to come. Take insurance, for example.

Company 16

Company Insurance Engineering Software 16

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 29, 2012

For years, companies have been pouring money into people, processes, and technology that can help them manage risk. At a Global 50 consumer products company, management has developed a governance structure that allows it think about risk proactively, and has aligned its risk profile and exposures more closely with its strategy.

Risk Management 15

Risk Management Maturity EBITDA Management 15

Harvard Business Review

MAY 28, 2014

As Quartz reported last year: Members of the Glass operations team have been on the road showing it off to companies and organizations, and they told Quartz that some of the most enthusiastic responses have come from manufacturers, teachers, medical companies, and hospitals. Should Google revise its strategy to pursue that opportunity?

Strategy 14

Strategy Early Adopters Proposal Innovation 14

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 21, 2013

In order to see the future more clearly, it''s almost always helpful to look back — and this certainly goes for IT and its ever-increasing impact on operations, and ultimately on competitive advantage. Information Technology Changes the Way You Compete" was a trailblazing HBR article by Warren McFarlan back in the early 1980s.

Competitive Advantage 9

Competitive Advantage Management Information Technology Airlines 9

Harvard Business Review

MAY 18, 2011

While the technology giant's second-quarter revenue increased by 3%, its relatively new CEO, Leo Apotheker, was forced to lower the forecast for revenue for the fiscal year. The technology market is the epitome of creative destruction. HP's strategy for decades has been to not have a single approach to solving customer problems.

Software 14

Software Technology Intellectual Capital Marketing 14

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 17, 2017

For decades, we’ve often thought of leadership profiles in unique buckets—two popular varieties were the “visionaries”, who embrace strategy and think about amazing things to do, and the “operators”, who get stuff done. Next, they ensure that the company is investing behind the change.

Execution 16

Execution Strategy How To Budgeting 16

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

It's an important move, more for what it tells us about Google and the evolution of its strategy than it does about the restaurant rating game. Using mobile technology, users could scan the Google logo to find out more. Today, Google announced that it had acquired Zagat , the popular restaurant ratings provider.

Real Estate 15

Real Estate Review Comparison Quality 15

Harvard Business Review

MAY 16, 2016

The current mantra is “Move fast with stable infrastructure”, which speaks to the organizational design challenge of operating at scale in a fickle and volatile world. There is a simple test you can perform to start an honest conversation about strategy and organizational effectiveness where you work.

Banking 15

Banking Strategy Film Operations 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 27, 2013

We set people up to use their area of expertise, be it strategy, accounting, operations, technology, finance, or human resources. They need help with financial management, marketing, product development, service delivery, and technology. A skills-based, or pro bono, approach is about donating skills, not just money.

Skills 11

Skills Real Estate Human Capital Project 11

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 26, 2013

Carr predicted that an organization''s ability to compete through investing in information technology was about to change dramatically. The IT boom of the 1980s and early ''90s had brought information technology to the corporate masses, unleashing the first full-scale technology revolution in the enterprise.

Supply Chain 10

Supply Chain Competitive Advantage Information Technology How To 10

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 14, 2014

Almost 80% of the more than 1,200 senior executives recently surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers believe that their organizations have the right strategic intent — but only 54% think they’re executing that strategy well. Distracted by pet initiatives that have little to do with the new strategy, they revert to old habits.

Strategy 10

Strategy Restructuring Committee Short-term 10

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 10, 2017

Tactical performance is how effectively your organization sticks to its strategy. In Precision’s case, good tactical performance required developing rules, checklists, and standard operating procedures and then following them closely. We made a number of operational changes to the call center.

Organization 15

Organization Tactics Call Center Metrics 15

Harvard Business Review

JULY 17, 2013

Be strategic and operational. Adopt emerging technologies, while weighed down by the past. Today, however, technology innovation is creating a drastic change — across all major industries — in the way customers want to interact with their suppliers. Stay secure and boost innovation. Grow blended executives.

CIO 9

CIO Technology Storytelling Short-term 9

Harvard Business Review

MAY 6, 2013

Increasingly, the CIO and IT must be seen less as merely developing and deploying technology, and more as a source of innovation and transformation that delivers business value, leveraging technology instead of directly delivering it. Define Your Strategy. To that end, the role of the CIO must be strategic instead of tactical.

CIO 9

CIO Hamel Technology Tactics 9

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 9, 2011

The best companies are able to distinguish between these consumers by precisely valuing their operating profit potential, not just gross margin or volume. Deal Chasers: These consumers seem attractive because they buy a lot of volume, but they are less engaged and turn getting the best price into a game.

P&L 15

P&L Supply Chain Retail Price 15

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 2, 2017

Before the iPhone was introduced, in 2007, Nokia was the dominant mobile phone maker with a clearly stated purpose — “Connecting people” — and an aggressive strategy for sustaining market dominance. Nokia was so immersed in executing its strategy that it lost sight of its purpose.

Strategy 15

Strategy Company How To Supply Chain 15

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 22, 2017

For every company wrestling with evolutions in its strategy, success depends as much on matching the operating model to those evolutions as it does on the soundness of the strategy itself. But exactly how do today’s companies create or update an operating model to match adaptations or wholesale changes in strategy?

Strategy 8

Strategy Company Banking Apparel 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 30, 2014

For over 50 years, Wal-Mart has pursued essentially the same strategy of “offering the lowest price so its customer can live better.” Wells Fargo has become the most valuable bank in the world by sticking to its strategy of building a value proposition around selling more products per customer than anyone else. Or consider U.S.

Company 10

Company Supply Chain Airlines Health Care 10

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 10, 2014

Yet, its strategy for almost three decades has largely been that of a sustainer, not a disruptor. Its fortunes have been built upon its successes in pushing the technological frontier of the microprocessor. How has this strategy worked? Its microprocessor fundamentally altered the structure of the personal computer industry.

Innovation 11

Innovation Disruptive Innovation Venture Capitalist Depreciation 11

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 12, 2014

The company’s twenty years of entrepreneurial success had positioned the company to reap greater financial rewards using a more disciplined operational focus. However, by the middle of the decade, Google was growing, YouTube was forming, and “operational excellence” wasn’t a differentiating strategy in technology.

Strategic Fit 9

Strategic Fit Rogers CEO Strategy 9

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 13, 2016

Capacity, not strategy, was determining which projects launched and when. Prioritization at a strategic and operational level is often the difference between success and failure. What is the best use of the organization’s existing and future financial and operational capacities? If not, it stalled or was killed.

Project 8

Project How To Objective Efficiency 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 10, 2018

Capitec gets many things right in terms of its strategy, including its market positioning, internal operations, and organizational culture. This does not just mean adding things to their company’s portfolio and value proposition; it also requires ceasing some of the old parts of the original strategy.

Banking 8

Banking Industry Bottom-up Resistance 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 30, 2017

So is John Rice, the head of global operations, along with CFO Jeffrey Bornstein. Increase operating margins to 18% (by cutting expenses). GE’s gross margin was 21% last year, compared with 28% for United Technologies and 30% for Siemens. Comstock is out.

Long-term 8

Long-term Ries Short-term Price 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 27, 2015

In an economy where traditional manufacturing jobs have gone offshore, and globalization and technology have put pressure on U.S. The type of capital required and its source depends on the type of business, its stage of life, and its strategy for the future. This research shows that the market for middle skills operates very poorly.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Policies Banking Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 7, 2013

Better Place''s most visible and best-publicized innovation was its switchable battery technology, a novel way to overcome the short-range limits and long recharge times dictated by existing battery technology. EV advocates are quick to note that technology improvements in batteries will one day eliminate the range problem.

Mass Marketing 10

Mass Marketing Transportation Depreciation Short-term 10

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 2, 2011

They may have done a swell $2 million strategy study for a client, but then have to watch from the sidelines as a more broadly based firm swoops in to do the $15 million project — a total systems redesign, say, or a corporate reorganization — entailed in implementing the strategy. Monitor & Co.,

Consultative 16

Consultative Strategy McKinsey Porter 16

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 17, 2017

PFK is now working on expanding its strategy to address the health needs of children with disabilities. Health information and other technology. Technologies hold promise for remote monitoring and intervention. whether someone is employed and his or her earnings over time).

Health Care 14

Health Care Metrics Efficiency Absenteeism 14