Poor odds on the takeover lottery
Second hand firms have something important in common with second hand cars. This explains why takeovers have tended to disappoint.
Social life of the markets
Different societies function in different ways, but Britain is really a “high trust” society. We would do well to recognise this.
A question of clarity and certainty
Try formalising a dress code and you will understand the importance of informal, cultural regulation.
Father Christmas does not exist?
Father Christmas does not exist? Tell that to investors who seem unable to ask how much value certain business really add
Threats to Bill Gates and the internet
Can Microsoft maintain its dominance of the world computer market? Is there a long term future for the Internet unless it falls into the hands of a small group of firms?
Learning to define the core business
Ted Levitt’s challenge to “define what business you are in” was based in a fundamental confusion between industries and markets.
Sharing responsibility is to pass the buck
Taking decision making powers without also taking responsibility means that nobody is really responsible at all – as Michael Howard has ably demonstrated.
Privatised utility
A modest proposal for the founding of the “customer corporation” in utility industries.
The Customer Corporation
The stakeholding view of the nature and purposes of corporations applies most forcefully to monopoly public utilities. This essay analyses some of the problems of utility regulation and proposes a stakeholding alternative.
In out of the cold
Economists have walked out into the cold as far as business strategy is concerned. Slowly, they are starting to return.