Astrid Malval-Beharry shares a case study on competitive analysis that was used to support new product development and M&A decision-making. Situation Our client, a leading data and analytics vendor to healthcare organizations, sought to gain a detailed strategic and tactical understanding of eight competitors so that it could effectively develop a competitive positioning strategy. Our client wanted to understand which competitors (in the market now and potential new entrants) might most impact its strategy. They were concerned with how competitors…

Belden Menkus shares an article on strategic response speed and why it is important to measure. Strategic response speed isn’t something most organisations measure, but it is rapidly becoming one of the most important dimensions of organisational effectiveness and performance. Strategic response speed is how fast your business can respond to external change – first detecting it, then adapting and changing accordingly. It’s a new idea.  Of course, businesses have been developing strategies, and implementing them, for years.  And, managers…

Edgar Perez shares an article on quantum computing, what it is and how it works, the challenges faced and future impact on society. What is quantum computing? Quantum computing is a powerful technology that uses quantum mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform computations that are beyond the reach of today’s classical computers. Quantum computers use qubits, which can exist in a combination of two states at the same time, unlike classical bits that can only be either…

In this article, Gerardo Alvarez-Franyutti explores the pros and cons of following the herd when it comes to making business decisions. “When Harvard MBAs flock to an industry, it’s a sign that it’s about to collapse” – Bill Sahlman, 2000 When approaching a toll road station, have you noticed how people tend to queue in the longest line instead of behind the shortest one? There is something that feels instinctively right about doing this. Somehow, our brains seem to infer…

In this article, Barry Horwitz highlights the value of risk and how to track trends that may foreshadow problems. In the early weeks of March, many in the tech sector were surprised and distressed by the sudden collapse of a once-great institution, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Founded in 1983, it was the 16th largest bank in the US and was a very active and positive influence on the technology sector — in Silicon Valley, of course, but also significantly in…

In this article, Cheryl Lim Tan shares six ways to be a savvy wholesale buyer. The Boutique Hub and Tundra have communities of thousands of buyers who are always looking for more ways to confidently grow their business and make smarter buys. Some of the questions we often receive are around retail best practices for tracking metrics as well as tips for sourcing product. So we’re bringing in experts to share their advice with our buyers! Ashley Alderson is the…

In this evergreen article, Anders Corr explores the relationship between China and Canada. Canada is in an uproar. On Saturday, the New York Times called Canadian concerns about China’s election interference a “political firestorm.” The storm is from intelligence leaked to multiple Canadian reporters and authors over the past few years from Canadian security sources. The intelligence indicates that China allegedly sought to keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party in power over the last two elections, albeit…

In this article, Natalie Ceeney identifies a few reasons why transformation efforts fail.  …or why large organisations find transformation so hard Anyone in business knows that ‘change’ is a fact of life. ‘Change management’ is taught on every leadership course, and we all know the essentials of good ‘change management’ (clear vision, over communicate, create a guiding coalition and more). But surely something is going wrong. If we all know how to ‘change’, why are so many organisations struggling to…

Neeraj Monga shares an article on the recent banking news. First Republic Bank (“FRC”, or the “Bank), with a current market capitalization of $4.2B, is still standing with conflicting opinions as to its viability. Although The Federal Reserve (“The Fed”), the U.S. Treasury, and a consortium of the largest U.S. banks agreed to provide deposit support of $30B for 120 days to FRC, the stock closed 32.8% lower for the day at $23.03. It declined an additional 15% after-market hours[1]….

In this article, David A. Fields helps you hone your focus and remember why you’re doing what you do.  Who is the one person your consulting firm needs to serve? Long-time readers (and even short time readers) know that consulting Rule #1 is… Consulting isn’t about YOU, it’s about THEM—your prospects and clients. However, while your consulting firm needs to attract and create value for your clients, it doesn’t serve them. The person your consulting firm needs to serve is……

In this article, Serge Milman explains the high costs of adopting a tail spend category. Unmanaged Spend ≠ Spend Category. Tail Spend is not a spend category, and thus cannot be sourced effectively. Tail Spend – or more accurately, Un-managed Spend – is an aggregation of spend and vendors that typically represent 40%-60% of total spend. Attempting to source Tail Spend as a category makes about as much sense as including Professional Services and Technology Hardware into a single RFP….

Marc Bachs Castan co-wrote this article on the compounding benefits of long-term thinking. To eat or not to eat the marshmallow, that is the question You are 4 years old. Instead of taking you to the playground like any other day, your parents take you to a building you have never been to before. You are in a room with a man who gives you a marshmallow and tells you that you can either eat it now or wait for…

Robbie Kellman Baxter shares more than a few useful resources on business development and partnership strategies in this article. Delivering on a forever promise, and maximizing an organization’s overall business potential, is often a task too big for one company. So they need partners, and new ways of doing things. But who builds out those relationships? Who jumps in to explore, formalize and potentially run a business opportunity pops up that “feels right” but doesn’t fit neatly into business as…

In this article, Joydip Gupta identifies the one thing that consistently separates winners from losers in consumer startups. Most of you know the usual must-have’s in a startup business plan. Market must be big, product should solve a real pain point, scalable idea, strong leadership team, solid execution, and so on. No, these are not the capabilities I am referring to. These are hygiene factors. Don’t start a business unless you have these in place. But 95 out of 100…

Mark Hess shares an article on how to maximize your exit valuation multiple. Successful private equity (“PE”) firms generally execute well in the three commonly accepted phases of portfolio company value creation: 1) Buy right, 2) Grow EBITDA, and 3) Sell that EBITDA at highest multiple possible. In our experience, many PE firms are missing critical low-hanging fruit by not maximizing their exit multiples because they do not have a detailed understanding of all of the different “levers” they can…

In this article on the current inflation, Tobias Baer offers an overview of all contributing factors. Every time #inflation rears its ugly head, the fight central banks fight is different – as an economist by training, I therefore don’t envy decision-makers at the Fed and ECB the least in their current attempt to fight inflation. At the same time, as a psychologist and risk manager, I pay particular attention to cognitive biases that can impede such fights – such as…

Matt Ahlers shares a concise article on a talent strategy for data scientists. It’s not uncommon for firms to face several core challenges recruiting, developing, and retaining data scientists and technical leaders. Below are several reasons why: Hiring teams don’t really understand what they’re looking for. Data science is marketing genius but remains a foggy term when put into practice. For instance, a ‘data scientist’ could be an expert at developing applications that ingest real-time data streams and develops decision…

In this article for the Harvard Business Review, Ben Dattner explains why you should interview people who turn down a job with your company. Successfully competing for top talent involves both selling jobs to the best candidates and retaining the highest performing incumbents. In order to be seen as an employer of choice with a compelling value proposition for employees, many companies measure turnover and conduct exit interviews with departing employees to gather feedback about the experiences people had working…

Nathan Pamart shares his podcast Climate Tech where he discusses what is driving the adoption of solar panels in emerging countries with Martin Baart, Co-founder & CEO of Ecoligo. My guest today is Martin Baart. Martin is the CEO and co-founder of Ecoligo. Ecoligo is a company based out of Berlin, Germany that delivers solar energy solutions to companies in emerging markets, financed by retails investors in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Their solution helps accelerate solar adoption in countries such…

In this article, Dan Markovitz explores what makes a company a healthy one. What is a healthy person? We can argue over specific metrics, but we’d all agree that we have to account for physical as well as mental/emotional health. What is a healthy organization? As with individuals, there will be disagreement over metrics, but clearly we have to consider financial performance, internal stakeholders (employees), and external stakeholders (community). Healthy organizations recognize the importance of all three areas, and while…

In this article, Carlo Palmieri explores what the key drivers are in organizational re-design.  Are “Customers” and “Innovation” the driving forces behind Organisational Re-Design? Here is a short and very interesting case study on this topic. IAG, one of the largest insurance companies in Australia, has recently announced a new organizational structure. The new structure aims at making the business more efficient, profitable, customer and data-centric and more adaptable to a fast changing market (you can view the full IAG…

Anubhav Raina shares one post in a series of three that identifies key tactics to improve your organisation’s ability to negotiate and influence negotiations. If you have a good idea about your counterparty’s personal narrative & a good sense of how you could expand the pie for yourself, it’s time to work through the actual proposal at hand. A proposal will always consist of an “ask” (what the counterparty’s is being asked to do) and a “reward” (what the counterparty…

Sindhu Kutty contributed to this article that shares fifteen best tactics for businesses that want to find a solution to problem areas of running a business. Running a business remains one of the most exhausting and rewarding ventures a person can undertake. As they navigate the challenges and opportunities of entrepreneurship, it’s important for business owners to remain vigilant to the parts of an operation that may not be operating at their full capacity. While most leaders have no problem…

In this article, Tobias Baer identifies the three root causes behind excessive KYC (know your customer) requirements. Unless you run a criminal operation, you would most probably agree with me that financial crimes should be prevented and that KYC is a critical element in preventing the illegal flow of money. Sadly, that doesn’t mean that KYC in today’s shape and form is working well. I’ve written before about the deficiencies of a KYC regimen relying on third-party documents. A bank…

Gina Abudi shares an article designed to help build a plan when planning to build a team. When you have decided to commit to team building on your team, build out your action plan to plan for team building. In this way, you’ll be sure that team building will be more than just some fun for the team (though that is important too!) but will also address the reasons why you are doing team building in the first place. Take…

Stephen Wunker shares an article published in Forbes that explains how a company researching dementia found an innovative approach that yields insightful results. Dementia can be devastating for people and families. One of the most dreaded medical conditions is, sadly, also one of the most common, with more than 10% of US adults over age 65 experiencing it. But can the story be reframed to concentrate on the bright spots? That’s the thesis of Together Senior Health, a company co-founded…

In this article, Mason Adair takes a look at how design culture differs in countries across the globe and shares a link to the raw data supporting his article. Since culture is people, you can arguably draw conclusions about global differences in design culture by looking at the individuals working in design roles around the world. That’s what I did a few months ago while conducting research for this article on service design. The underlying data set, derived from a…

Davide Gronchi shares an article on how to approach risk mitigation. Whilst in the middle of a heavy and unexpected crisis, company leaders are requested to keep looking far ahead and shape the future of their company by (re-)designing the strategy and how to implement it. Current times are full of worries and threads, every day are more negative than positive news that capture our attention. How to concentrate on our business, sailing in calm waters and heading to a…

Andy Sheppard shares an article on the 5 Cs of operations improvement. Workers can often feel that their efforts to change are not being appreciated. This tends to be perpetuated if managers have been tasked with the default priority of reducing costs. Furthermore, mixed track records with such cost-reduction initiatives means people throughout an organisation can start to ask “what has operations improvement ever done for us?” This evokes a classic line in British comedy. In the Life of Brian,…

Aneta Key shares a practical and strategic outline of an IDEAL decision-making process. This article synthesizes what an effective decision-making process looks like — because just having a “process” is not enough — you need an IDEAL process. IDEAL framework While there is no one “right” decision-making process, many processes can lead to the wrong outcome. The IDEAL framework distills decades of managerial experience and lists the characteristics of an effective strategic decision-making process. I developed the framework to use…

Alistair Hodgett shares an article that dives into an ongoing concern: the role of culture in managing national risk.  Public Policy, the independent think tank, have published an important piece of research into the structures and processes that allow countries to identify, analyse and mitigate complex threats and potentially adverse developments. Intended to contribute to the strengthening of Ireland’s national risk management strategy, a summary and a download of the full report are available here.  Largely missing from the scope…

Alessandro Santo shares a report on the slowdown in labour-productivity growth in the United States and Western Europe and outline prospects for future growth. Nine years into the recovery from the Great Recession, labour-productivity-growth rates remain near historic lows across many advanced economies. Productivity growth is crucial to increase wages and living standards and helps raise the purchasing power of consumers to grow demand for goods and services. Therefore, slowing labour productivity growth heightens concerns at a time when ageing…

Evren Ozkaya shares an article that identifies the two most important skills you need to be a consultant. Since my “official” consulting journey started back with McKinsey & Company, and now continues with my own venture at Supply Chain Wizard into the endless and exciting world of challenges and opportunities, I had the privilege to see so many different consulting projects, programs, initiatives in various countries, companies and industries, that I think it is time for me to look back…

Sherif El-Henaoui shares an article on decision-making, why we often make the wrong choice, and why we think it’s the right one.  Often managers mix up tough decision with right ones by thinking them taking a tough decision that this is the right thing to do. Let’s me explain what I mean with an example: If I can’t pay the expenses of my house, I may think that I could decide disconnecting the electricity from my house to save money….

Matt Ahlers shares an article that may resonate with all who have a board to answer to. In this post, he explains why using big data is often the topic on the table.  Don’t they know how hard it is? Maybe, but no one said big data was clean and easy. In fact, most things described as ‘big’ are hard and daunting…except perhaps for Clifford, my daughter’s favorite fictional Big Red Dog. Some describe big data as simply a data…

Nora Ghaoui shares an article on how to keep building your consulting pipeline even when it’s a tough year.  Building a consulting pipeline is tough in any year. In 2020, the uncertainty caused by the pandemic made companies cautious, so it was harder to get projects agreed and started.  I tried out different actions to build my project pipeline, and some worked better than others. Here are the top 3 things that made a difference to building my business as…

Wolfgang Hammes shares his view on the current inflation situation; he provides a historical perspective on inflation rates in the States, and a warning on overconfidence and complacency.  July CPI inflation rate minimally improved to 8.5 %. This marginal improvement was enough to initiate great euphoria among investors, politicians, and business leaders. Are we seeing a reversal? Let me start with my BIGGEST CONCERN. The US Dollar is a very strong currency. There is something wrong if a country with…

Ben Dattner shares an article on how board members should approach assessing the CEO’s performance. As a board member, one of your most important responsibilities is to evaluate the current performance of the CEO, while simultaneously ensuring that he or she receives the right feedback, incentives and support in order to develop in the role over time. While this sounds simple and straightforward in theory, in practice evaluating a CEO can be both fraught and potentially risky. In my experience…

In this article Stephen Redwood explains how to increase the strategic value of the HR department. If there is one thing that has been a constant over my years in HR and decades as a consultant, it has been the sense that the HR function is too often a supplicant to other functions and lacks the confidence to see itself as an equal. So, when clients ask me how they should be thinking about the evolution of their own HR…

Barry Horwitz provides a post that is designed to make you rethink best practices. I often hear about companies that want to use a process of “best practices” in their planning work. This may seem like a logical place to start, however, in my mind, the best practice — especially when it comes to developing strategy for an organization — is to not use “best practices” at all. Consider one now classic example, that of retailing genius Ron Johnson, creator…

Anna Engstromer shares an article on service design with key points to help get it right. Just because it happens all the time, all over, strategy implementation isn’t easy. It may appear so judging from corporate communication, but it is a special type of team effort that needs energy and effort. The trick is to both carry forth with planned changes and pay attention and adapt. Change as Part of Life Change is part of every organization’s life. It is…

Amanda Setili shares an experience and a reminder on the importance of preparing for unseen threats in business. We were kiteboarding last weekend off Sullivan’s Island, near Charleston. The wind was blowing hard, over 20 mph, and I was having a great time. Three hours into my session, I was jumping near a sandbar, because the water was so smooth and beautiful there. In other words, I was intentionally close to the sandbar and thinking that it was safe to…

Zaheera Soomar shares a post that identifies the top factors she learned from her experience in research and while working on her Doctorate.  During my current Doctorate studies, I have been embarking on a number of different research topics and studies, and have taken some time out recently to reflect and document the learnings that have emerged. I am fortunate to have had formal research training and experience through my MBA and DBA degrees, in addition to research forming a…

Koen Veltman shares a company post that uses metaphors to explain Holacracy governance. The Map is Not the Territory Normally, I like my coaching to be concrete — e.g., here’s what you need to ask for, here’s how you need to ask, etc. But this post, I’d like to share several orienting metaphors to help early practitioners grok what governance is all about. I’m taking a shotgun approach by not presenting them in any particular order. I hope at least one helps….

Caroline Taich shares a useful post with tactics that can help identify unique strengths. In this blog, we have been exploring the McKinsey model for change. Last week I wrote about conviction as a driver of change.  This week I’m thinking about the skills you need for change.  Here is a big one – the ability to see your unique strengths. This came up during the wonderful opportunity I had to learn from Councilman Matt Zone.  Councilman Zone serves Ward…

Jeffery Perry shares an article on the problem of cybersecurity and why everyone must make it a priority. Cybersecurity threats are growing significantly across the business landscape. Not a day goes by without media reports of cyber attacks by bad actors intent on holding businesses hostage to disrupt operations and/or demand major ransom payouts. As such, businesses are increasingly investing in cybersecurity human capital, cybersecurity frameworks, and significant financial capital to wage the cybersecurity battle. Even with these efforts, businesses…

This article from Barry Horwitz explains why in-house resources should not be used to facilitate a business planning retreat.  After more than two years working remotely, hybrid, or cautiously in-person, some organizations are beginning to think about scheduling an offsite or “retreat.” And while many of these tend to take place in the fall, planning for them begins now, during the summer. These off-campus gatherings often bring together senior staff with the purpose of thinking strategically and developing ideas and…

With new COVID strains popping up and a future that holds new and evolving viruses, Martin Pergler’s post on how epidemiologists measure the severity of a pandemic may be useful. We all look at our national and local COVID infection counts. But to really measure the pandemic’s pulse, epidemiologists monitor a number called Rt and do their best to wrest it below 1. What is Rt, how does it work, why do we care, and what are its limitations? What…

Robbie Kellman Baxter explains what went wrong with a subscription company that found shares falling.  Peloton’s stock is down, after quite a ride. Peloton (PTON) is widely expected to deliver a year-over-year decline in earnings even though revenues are up, for the quarter ended December 2021. And the stock has been in a steady decline for the past six months, with a 12 month drop in share price from a high of $157.83 in Feb of 2021 to today’s price…

As the need for change in the energy sector becomes increasingly important, Richard Stuebi provides an article that explains the difference between the microgrid and the minigrid. These days, microgrids are one of the hottest topics in the energy sector.  Capitalizing on the declining costs of many distributed energy resource (DER) options, microgrids are emerging as an increasingly viable business model for augmenting the local electricity grid to improve operational resilience in the wake of emergencies.  “Resilience” is the fundamental…

Nora Ghaoui shares an article that explains how to get business results from managing data science initiatives. Data science can be a valuable tool for solving business problems, but the companies that I work with make little use of data science methods. There is a sense that the discipline is a black box to be left to the experts. That is a missed opportunity for creating business value. Data science initiatives can be managed in the same way as other…

David Burnie shares an article that explains how a regional bank improved customer experience by switching to intelligent automation. The Situation A Canadian regional bank wanted to reduce the back-office operations team’s labour, error, and re-work costs due to manual and paper-based processes. They knew customer satisfaction could improve when they reduced the slow response times and implemented a seamless digital experience. Starting with a proof of concept, the bank decided to automate non-value-added activities to enable team members to…

Gregory Borel shares a company post that highlights the financial and environmental benefits of Net Zero investments. In our previous blog, we recommended a business transformation approach to Net Zero, starting with a clear strategic rationale. The business case is a key foundation of that rationale, and an opportunity to look at Net Zero expenditure not as a cost, but as an investment. A well prioritised Net Zero pathway will start with areas of high value creation: energy savings, and…

Tobias Baer takes a consumer’s approach to mobile phones and offers a solution to simplify owning and operating this now ubiquitous device. … every couple of weeks you would wake up to a software update; … as a result, the sofa will have been moved to the kitchen, and the TV into the bathtub; … the “toast” function of your toaster was discontinued, but it now can record movies; … your living room has a new greenish colour scheme –…

In this article, Mark Hess outlines the principles of strategy, including what makes a strategy a good strategy. In broad strokes, strategy is decision making—but not in the way one might think. The most important part of your strategy is deciding what you’re not going to do. What is Strategy? Strategy, simply stated, is how you get from Point A (where you are now) to Point B (where you want to be). You want your organization to grow from $100M…

Taking a leaf or two from his book Recession Proof, Jason Schenker shares a YouTube post that outlines recession-proof strategies.      Watch the full video, Six Strategies to be Recession-Proof,  on YouTube  …

In this article, Davide Gronchi shares key insights from 10 years of optimizing design of industrial investments.  In my past 10 years spent optimizing the design of industrial investments, I have come across a broad variety of situations with many differences and few commonalities. From 20 to 20,000 mio USD in value, from tiny vaccines molecules to 800t mining excavators, from “one large investment every 10 years” to teams with heavy 1000-pages Capex manuals, from small start-up to super structured…

Tirrell Payton shares an evergreen article on how to avoid common problems in project management.  Our project is to implement a new widget management system”, she stated confidently. “Ok”, I said, “but what is the problem we are trying to solve?” “We need a new system…”, she reiterated. “Yea, but to what end? Whats the business goal? And how will we know when we have reached it? How will we measure success?” “Look”, she said, steeling her glance and locking…

Koen Veltman shares a company blog post that outlines a simple process to ensure virtual meetings are more effective. Meetings can be very chaotic, especially when you don’t see each other, how do you efficiently get to a decision? Use a process! Not only decide on the what you will discuss, but also on the how . Do you have a format that allows you to be fast and inclusive at the same time?  Try our ABC. This works for…

Jessica Lackey shares an article designed to help you find and leverage your talents and strengths. “I never truly considered what I was good at and how those experiences fit together. I just did the next job that I was asked to do.” There are personality tests and strengths assessments galore. And they can be very helpful to put language around our gifts, our strengths, our geniuses. But what they lack? How to use our gifts in context. How to…

Martin Pergler taps into Wordle to illustrate how to apply risk management thinking. Friday’s Wordle (WATCH) provided a great example of applying risk management thinking, alongside strategy and adaptive decision-making. Helping institutions navigate the interplay of these topics is my bread and butter, so I enjoyed seeing it play out so clearly in a game. Of course every Wordler’s path varies, but is seems many of us got most of the end of the word reasonably quickly, but with perilously…

In this concise post, Ximena Jimenez explains the value of having a thought partner. In Spanish there is no expression that captures the power of this concept, which is why we decided to keep its version in English. This term refers to that person who accompanies the leader of an organization in their reflection process, listening, asking the right questions, challenging paradigms, proposing new visions of challenges, offering alternative interpretations to the facts and expanding the space for solutions. All…

Andrew Seay shares an article on the MECE framework and how it makes large inventory problems manageable.  How do you eat an elephant?  The answer, of course, is “one bite at a time.”  The same principle applies to all big problems, including those in the supply chain.  A $50M inventory problem is far too large to solve all at once.  Using the “MECE” framework can help. Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive or, MECE (pronounced mee-see), is a problem-solving framework that forces…

Susan Drumm shares the latest episode from her podcast series, The Enlightened Executive. In this episode, she interviews CEO Ben Lytle on the Fourth Industrial Revolution.  The Fourth Industrial Revolution is coming, bringing technological advancements we can’t imagine. How can you prepare yourself to stay ahead in this ever-changing digital world? Ben Lytle is a successful CEO and serial entrepreneur. He has launched five companies, including two currently on the New York Stock Exchange. His best-known company, Anthem, is number…

Geoff Wilson compares the pros and cons of framing success as a goal or as a system.  Much is said about whether success is better framed as a goal or as a system…I think it’s both, but at different times. Have you ever had a question posed to you that made you think more than it should have? A team member recently asked me if I was a goal-oriented person.  My response was that I was far more interested in…

In this Change Out Loud podcast, Aneta Key talks about engaging stakeholders.  Thank you to the Change Out Loud team for inviting me as a guest on their awesome podcast! Host Kara Sundar and I covered several topics in this 30-minute episode.  Find it on your favorite podcast platform and play along as you listen!” Want to make the most of your stakeholder engagement? This episode is for you! Aneta shares her best practices for engaging stakeholders. Spoiler alert: it…

Bob Armstrong shares a post on Goodhart’s Law and why statistics are not always a solid foundation to count on. Goodhart’s Law is named for Charles Goodhart, a British economist who in 1975 popularized the idea that Any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once pressure is placed upon it for control purposes. I think it was meant humorously, but the pungent truth of the statement made it stick. The point is sound. Essentially, any statistic that becomes a…

Susan Meier shares an insightful perspective on the benefits of walking the path that’s neither straight nor narrow. I’m captivated by the Olympic figure skating. I’ve always watched, but this year I’ve taken it to another level. I’ve been staying up past my bedtime, getting up at the crack of dawn, watching on my phone while in transit – whatever it takes not to miss a moment.  What it takes to win Yes, the skating is beautiful, and that’s enough…

In this article, Andrew Hone identifies the six common strategy delivery challenges that hinder a successful deployment. Translating a strategy into action is a major challenge Translating a strategy into action is a significant challenge. All too often, the benefits that were promised are delivered late, or fail to materialise at all. Management teams get distracted by the day-to-day challenges of running the business. Cross-functional initiatives fall between operating silos, budgets get reallocated and the initial momentum is lost. If…

Alun Thomas shares ten key thoughts on management and the business of business that are designed to help you relax into managing the work ahead. The practice of management and the business of business are far too complex to be reduced to a list of bullet points. Like any activity involving humans, there are contradictions. There are no “right” solutions for all time and all situations. Nonetheless, long practice, combined with many observations of things done well and of things…

If you wonder why so many large organizations find transformation difficult, Natalie Ceeney’s article offers an explanation. Anyone in business knows that ‘change’ is a fact of life. ‘Change management’ is taught on every leadership course, and we all know the essentials of good ‘change management’ (clear vision, over communicate, create a guiding coalition and more). But surely something is going wrong. If we all know how to ‘change’, why are so many organisations struggling to do so? The degree…

Steven Koltai shares an article that explores the reasoning behind President Biden’s nominee for USAID (United States Agency for International Development) administrator. When a new president taps a former U.N. ambassador, National Security Council member, and Pulitzer Prize winner to lead a battered, uncelebrated agency, something big is expected. With all due respect to her 18 predecessors, Samantha Power, President Biden’s nominee for USAID administrator, is by far the most high-profile executive to ever head America’s international development agency.  What…

Carlos Castelan shares the three key takeaways from the first day of Shoptalk 2022; an event that forecasts what’s hot and what’s not in the world of retail.  Greetings to you all from sunny Las Vegas, Nevada, where we’re back at Shoptalk after a two-year COVID hiatus, along with 10,000 other people just as excited as we are to be back in person. As in prior years – and with Groceryshop last Fall – we aim to provide you with…

In this article, Joydip Gupta identifies the one thing that separates winners from losers in the startup arena.  Most of you know the usual must-have’s in a startup business plan. Market must be big, product should solve a real pain point, scalable idea, strong leadership team, solid execution, and so on. No, these are not the capabilities I am referring to. These are hygiene factors. Don’t start a business unless you have these in place. But 95 out of 100…

In this article, Andrew McKee identifies the top five uncertainties his company tackles when creating revenue forecast models. One of our most sought-after commercial strategy services is the creation of revenue forecasts. As such, we’ve spent numerous projects ruminating on the most influential uncertainties in building revenue forecasts, and how to best converge on a reliable estimate. We’ll share our thoughts below, and hope they are helpful, whether in assisting you in building out your forecast or understanding our approach…

David Gronchi shares an article designed to simplify problem solving. Advanced analytics and machine learning are some of the ready-to-use technologies that help discover correlations and drive conclusions out of complex data sets that often describe our business and production processes. This is very helpful to take decisions aiming to prevent something unwanted to happen e.g., set process parameter to X in order to obtain product spec within tolerance. There are many other opportunities to eliminate “waste” out of business…

Sertac Yeltekin provides a think piece on how to generate intentional social and environmental impact as well as financial gain. “How do we make impact investing mainstream while preserving its essence – that is to generate intentional social and environmental impact as well as financial gain?  According to the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), Impact investing has grown into a $715 bn sector over a decade, but compared to traditional finance it is still a nascent and marginal sector. Nonetheless,…

Koen Veltman shares an article from his company’s website that explains how domains work in Holacracy. Domains: The Basics Domains are one of the three elements of a role/circle (the others are purpose and accountabilities). We use them to centralize control because, by default, Holacracy gives everyone authority to take any action or make any decision to fulfill their role/circle’s purpose or accountabilities. Domains are like a piece of property controlled exclusively by a role/circle. But they needn’t be physical…

Mark Hess shares an article he co-authored with Stenning Schueppert on how to increase a firm’s exit valuation multiple.  Successful private equity (“PE”) firms generally execute well in the three commonly accepted phases of portfolio company value creation: 1) Buy right, 2) Grow EBITDA, and 3) Sell that EBITDA at highest multiple possible. In our experience, many PE firms are missing critical low-hanging fruit by not maximizing their exit multiples because they do not have a detailed understanding of all…

What if a futurist could answer questions posed by CSOs? The following article shared by Kaihan Krippendorff reveals the answers to ten questions asked of renowned futurist Faith Popcorn. Earlier this month, The Outthinker Strategy Network hosted futurist Faith Popcorn as a roundtable guest. Faith joined our community of chief strategy officers and executives to talk about trends that will have the biggest impact this year and over the next decade. As each member shared their most critical concerns, the…

Barry Horwitz examines the broad scope of the stakeholder moniker and offers direction on  how to identify and think about them. You’ve probably heard the term “stakeholder analysis.” It’s a tool that is traditionally used for project management, often with an internally focused perspective. But the concept is also relevant for strategic planning work, factoring in external stakeholders as well. So… What is a stakeholder? A number of years ago, companies began to realize that they needed to think beyond…

Nora Ghaoui explains why there are benefits to being on the outside looking in.  When you’re trying to tackle a business challenge, what you can solve and how you can solve it depends on the position that you are in, not on the skills that you have. As I have switched roles between management and consulting, I have learned that when you’re on the inside (as a manager) you can’t use the tools from the outside (of a consultant) and…

Rahul Bhargava shares key tips on how to improve your notetaking and increase the efficacy of your notes. Want to make notes that do not get lost with million others. Start to make smart notes. What is that? Learn all about note-taking for professionals. Opt for a strategy that works and builds a strong knowledge store. Whether we are reading a book, an informational article, or having a client conversation, making notes is vital. It helps in breaking down our…

Kedar Gharpure shares an article that identifies key factors involved in B2B value-based pricing. You have likely read articles about Value-Based Pricing (VBP) – after all, the concept has been around for several decades. However, our review of over 50 VBP articles from the top search results highlight that a) there is very little VBP literature geared towards B2B and b) no single article provides a comprehensive and actionable overview of VBP for B2B.  In this article, we provide a…

Jessica Lackey explains how to use the fear of missing out as part of a strategy for your business. The call to take on everything at once, to maximize our time, to avoid the opportunity cost of time, is deeply ingrained in our society. Our bucket lists are long. Our intentions are big. And we see on the internet or social media constantly what everyone else is doing. Why can’t that be us? And we are not just tempted to…