Tag: Strategy
Cutting costs so often leads to cutting corners
Today’s managers are victims of the tyranny of the quarterly earnings report. And that is why yesterday’s cost-savings are so often today’s corporate crisis.
How to stay ahead of the angry brigade
Most people dislike confrontation, and, given time, an aggressive minority will find itself alienated. Meet the reasonable demands, and appear to treat the unreasonable ones with seriousness; always engage in discussion, however futile.
Tailgaters blight markets and motorways
Tailgaters think the view that their behaviour is dumb is based on a purely theoretical analysis, which is refuted by the tailgater’s practical experience. And so the culture of self-confident, self-congratulatory tailgaters perpetuates itself.
Labour’s digital plan gets in the way of real progress
All our experience of the development of information technology starts from what the customer might want rather than what the technology might do.
True survivors do not clutch at straws
Maintain a clear sense of long-term objectives but acknowledge the limits on your day-to-day actions.
Dedicated follower? Or asset allocator?
Three simple rules – pay less, diversify more, and be contrarian – will serve almost everyone well who invests.
Is insurance worth paying for? Probably
Think probabilities and be detached. It’s hard advice to follow. That is why the financial services industry is better off than its customers.
How to stay safe when doing-it-yourself
The return on your portfolio is the aggregate of the returns on individual securities: the risk on your portfolio is not the aggregate of the risk of individual securities. With the aid of diversification you can earn more return with less risk.
Why every 2 per cent makes a difference to your pension
Having seen off the taxman, you must see off the sharks of the financial services industry.
Salutary lessons from the downfall of a carmaker
The decline of GM is as instructive as its rise. The challenge of how to reconcile professional management with a culture of innovation remains for ever a central issue for management thinkers.