Management and investors really do need to understand ‘total returns to shareholders’ (TRS), so all such folk would do well know how TRS really works. A better way to understand…

A timely reminder to be disciplined about the businesses in your corporate portfolio – especially now there may be tempting bargains to be picked up at apparently bargain…

I have just come back from an academic mini-conference looking at the resource-based view of strategy [RBV]. Though this has been around for about 20 years, and increasingly…

I see in the Economist that Starbucks will close a further 500 stores in America (in addition to the 100 closures it announced earlier this year), and reduce…

I recently had cause to re-read the Michael Porter classic ‘What is Strategy?’ [Harvard Business Review Nov-Dec 1996, pp. 61-78] – great of course on strategic positioning, which…

I was reminded by a recent conference of the one-time popularity of the idea that strategy is ‘crafted’ by leaders, rather than planned [we can thank Henry Mintzberg…

A few nice articles in the July-August edition of HBR [‘Honing Your Competitive Edge’] including Amy Edmonson on the Competitive Imperative of Learning, and Anita Elberse asking Should…

Good to see Peter Senge et al arguing that it’s both important and possible to tackle climate change [though I’m not sure how happy people may be taking…

I have pointed out before that management’s key purpose is to drive improved absolute performance [growing free cash flows in business cases], not hitting target ratios or benchmarks.…

Great collection of articles on the causes of poor decision-making in McK-Q. Even executives, who of all people we might expect to be economically rational, seem to fall…