Strategy formulation

Diversify your product line. Stick to your knitting. Hire a professional manager. Watch fixed costs. Those are some of the suggestions that entrepreneurs...

Today's dynamic markets and technologies have called into question the sustainability of competitive advantage. Under pressure to improve productivity,...

A well-conceived business plan is essential to the success of an enterprise. Whether you are starting up a venture, seeking additional capital for an...

It’s become a trendy managerial acronym: VUCA, short for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, and a catchall for “Hey, it’s crazy out there!” It’s also misleading: VUCA conflates four distinct types of challenges that demand four distinct types of responses. That makes it difficult to know how to approach a challenging situation and easy to […]

Risk management is too often treated as a compliance issue that can be solved by drawing up lots of rules and making sure that all employees follow them....

This package begins with "What the West Gets Wrong About China," by Rana Mitter and Elsbeth Johnson, which discusses three fundamental misconceptions:...

How some large companies infuse their planning process with new entrepreneurial vigor, maintaining market leadership over the long haul.

The storied British banker and financier Nathan Rothschild noted that great fortunes are made when cannonballs fall in the harbor, not when violins play in the ballroom. Rothschild understood that the more unpredictable the environment, the greater the opportunity—if you have the leadership skills to capitalize on it. Through research at the Wharton School and […]

It’s the only way to make sound trade-off decisions and choose the right practices.

To convert a tantalizing concept into a managerial instrument of competitive power…

Here’s how to avoid reactive dealmaking

Awareness of these forces can help a company stake out a position in its industry that is less vulnerable to attack.

Strategy at many companies is almost completely disconnected from execution. Establishing a dedicated unit to orchestrate both will help to bridge the divide.

Traditional approaches to strategy assume that the world is relatively stable and predictable. But globalization, new technologies, and greater transparency...

Some start-up founders follow a business plan; others operate by the seat of their pants. This package looks at how entrepreneurs can carefully craft...

A data-driven approach to design, measurement, and implementation

Strategy making forces executives to confront a future they can only guess at. It's not surprising, then, that they try to make the task less daunting...

What makes for a good strategy in highly uncertain business environments? Some executives seek to shape the future with high-stakes bets. Eastman Kodak Company, for example, is spending $500 million per year to develop an array of digital photography products that it hopes will fundamentally change the way people create, store, and view pictures. Meanwhile, […]

Companies profess devotion to shareholder value but rarely follow the practices that maximize it. What will it take to make your company a level 10 value creator?

Most companies feel compelled to give to charity. Few have figured out how to do it well.