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.
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.
Happy combination
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
A quest for truth
Management, like medicine, can be taught. Sadly, the state of the art is a couple of centuries off the pace.
Down-payment required to curb bid fever
We would be better off if executives involved spent more time minding the store, rather than negotiating to buy each other's stores - so here is a proposal to put sand in the wheels of the takeover machine.
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.
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.