I have just come back from the ‘International System Dynamics Conference’ [no, you've probably never heard of it], and seen reported a staggeringly brilliant piece of work done for the World Health Organisation [WHO] on its strategy for eradicating Polio. [OK you star MBAs + MIchael Porter - tell us how your 5 forces and value curve analysis would tackle that one !! ]

Polio prevalence has been cut very substantially by vaccination programs, but is still common in parts of the Indian sub-continent and ...

I get to read a lot of reports done by MBAs at the end of their programs, mostly strategy assessments for some opportunity an organisation is facing. There is a pretty standard pattern - they [a] assess the competitive forces involved [no numbers of course!], concluding that the situation is ‘attractive’ to some degree [b] carry out some qualitative assessment of the organisation’s capabilities, then – if you’re lucky – [c] conclude that the opportunity is a good idea.

Nowhere do ...

A method, approach, framework or whatever is likely a ‘professional’ tool if two skilled people, given the same problem, would pick the same tool, seek the same information, process that information in the same way, and come out with something like the same answer.

DCF analysis, for example, is likely to be used in the same way and produce rather similar results if two good finance professionals were to appraise the same new project. We’d never get 100% matching for most cases, because ...

It is interesting to learn that Chinese companies are finding it increasingly difficult to find the technical, functional and managerial talent they need to sustain their break-neck growth. We have seen the ‘war for talent’ raging amongst organizations in already mature economies for many years, and I guess it was inevitable that China would hit this wall before long. Which raises an intriguing question …

Organizations’ growth rates are in principle limited by their ability to win and retain key resources, ...