John Kay

A network industry which fundamentally changed the way we live, followed by a speculative bubble: but how much would you have made if you’d got in right at the start with Great Western Railways?

Commercial success with innovation depends less on the innovations themselves than on the other qualities of a firm. Sony’s use of Bell Labs technology is the classic example.

In the black-and-white world of business opinion, Marks and Spencer is now firmly out of fashion. But corporate success depends on establishing and defining one’s own self.

Concentration in the car industry is increasing as the market goes global: a common story, and an untrue one.

BMW has a chequered history, and if the current management had learned lessons from the past they would never have purchased Rover.

What makes a successful retailer? It seems that Marks and Spencer may have forgotten the capabilities that put them on top.

Why does water – essential to life – sell for less than diamonds? Any explanation which doesn’t look both at supply and demand will not get you far.

Returns go where there is scarcity. The land in Champagne is intrinsically scarce. Other factors can be made scarce, or to cease to be scarce, as the history of broadcasting tells us.

Dalglish arrives at Newcastle and Horlick moves to ABN Amro. The common theme: do teams, or individuals, capture the returns to outstanding performance?

What is a brand? Sometimes it is a quality certificate and sometimes, simply part of the product itself. It matters which.