Geography is still important
Has geography ceased to matter in the age of globalisation, as many people believe? In this article John Kay shows that living standards and patterns of production are still largely determined by geographical factors.
Fine distinctions, big rewards
In business as in sport, the prizes allotted to winners and runners-up are often out of all proportion to the differences between them.
Clusters, connectivity and Kevin Bacon
Building a monopoly on the back of network externalities is possible, but only by ignoring the complex reality of human relations.
Buyers must master art of the particular
If stock-picking fails to beat the index, why should picking companies? It won’t, unless mergers carefully match the firms involved.
Beating the west at its own game
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.
Facing supermarket forces
Is Wal-Mart’s entry into the UK market a sign of global retailing? It’s an interesting move, when Wal-Mart itself is solidly small-town American.
The myth of excellence
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.
Alight here for a business platform
George Westinghouse was a titan of American industry. Like Bill Gates, he made a fortune by controlling a vital standard. He also lost a large one by overextending himself.
Where size is not everything
Concentration in the car industry is increasing as the market goes global: a common story, and an untrue one.
The car that lost its way
BMW has a chequered history, and if the current management had learned lessons from the past they would never have purchased Rover.