McK gives useful short videos in its ‘enduring ideas’ series. The latest I’ve viewed on the business system is a helpful reminder of the old value-chain concept, though it is disappointingly qualitative, even in the ‘How to conduct a good analysis’ section. In fact, value-chain is a better term for what the video describes.If the term ‘system’ [as dictionaries suggest] means a group of interacting, interdependent elements forming a complex whole that behaves in some way, then an adequate system description of ...
Continue Reading → ShareMcKinsey ‘business system’
Posted by: Kim Warren
Sovereign Wealth Funds impact
Posted by: Kim Warren
Have noted before the major role that Sovereign Wealth Funds may play as the global economy recovers, in particular those engaged in active management, not just passive investment, e.g. Mubadala Development Co from UAE. Reports from Monitor have much to say on this – Weathering the Storm and Testing Time. As I have urged before, strategy requires asking how the future might develop, so if you are in an industry where these ...
Continue Reading → Share2 new strategy dynamics books
Posted by: Kim Warren
Now available are republished editions of two short books, aimed at upper-level strategy and HR execs, and useful in short courses. Business Expert Press has done a fine job editing and producing them:
- Building Strategy and Performance through Time: The Critical Path outlines the key ideas and frameworks of strategy dynamics.
- Developing Employee Talent to Perform: People Power explains the big contribution that strategy dynamics thinking has for HR professionals.
Thriving under adversity
Posted by: Kim Warren
Some useful tips in this article from BCG, some simple, some complex [and some over-complicated by trying to force them into a 'evolution' analogy]. Especially good to see its focus on exploiting opportunity, and good not to see some of the bad or dangerous ideas I have mentioned previously.
Do take care, though – few are universally applicable, so you will need to assess how appropriate each is to your specific situation.
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Anger at business schools
Posted by: Kim Warren
Fired up by some stinging criticism from a former student, Joel M. Podolny once at HBS and Yale, shows admirable contrition for the failure of MBA programs to equip executives and their consultant advisors to run firms well. In The Buck Stops (and Starts) at Business School he vents the anger on this he shares with those outside business schools, and blames the carving up of management challenges by function that leaves academics without a holistic appreciation of ...
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