Tag: Competencies

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.

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.

Being the first to innovate is rarely the road to riches many presume. Business history is paved with industries dominated by followers.

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.

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.

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.

Core competencies is one of the most used and abused phrases in business strategy. But a proper understanding of the idea behind the jargon is essential