When consensus does not really mean agreement
Just as universities need to tell people to stop quibbling and work towards a common objective, companies need to realise that clustering around a corporate conventional wisdom that has not been subject to analysis and debate is also not a recipe for success.
Would I rather be Henry VIII?
Am I better off than Henry VIII? Dressing the question up in inflation statistics doesn’t make it any more sensible.
A lost manuscript and the fantasy world of Amer and Eur
Being the fantastical story of the islands of Amer and Eur…
Plenty to read but not much to learn at the business bookstall
Buy a typical business book at the airport and you’ll find nothing with which to disagree. Which is the problem.
Why gurus should cross the bridge into business
Michael Porter’s models were based on a tool for industrial policy, not strategy. Now economists are beginning to understand the workings of firms as well as industries.
Getting to the truth behind the one-stop shop
Doctor’s surgeries, supermarkets, and travel agents are all one-stop shops - which should tell us that there are different justifications for one-stop shopping.
A world of difference
While accounting firms are “going global”, their rationale for doing so does not apply to other industries.
Value judgments
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.
Frontiers of fashion
We overestimate the importance of short-term political change, and underestimate the significance of deep-seated societal difference.