No surprise I suppose that many companies took the shock of the down-turn to focus on cost-cutting. In What worked in cost cutting—and what’s next? McKinsey’s report of…

Some great material from MIT on this issue – IT has recently had less attention in strategy discussions than it once had, but that’s a big mistake, and these…

We’ve noted before that strategy is about delivering earnings growth, not hitting ROIC ratios, but it seems that’s not easy. In Profit from the Core: A Return to Growth…

Good advice from McKinsey on handling the behavioral issues of strategic decision-making. Important though this is, McK themselves have shown the strategy field offers little rigorous method for…

I strongly recommend a McKinsey article on using knowledge brokering to improve business processes, with some simple but powerful points. E.g. effective business processes are key to performance throughout a…

Bain & Co offer good reviews of strategic imperatives in chemicals, retail banking, consumer packaged goods, engineered products and services, oil and gas, and technology – with supporting reports…

Nice to see confirmation that good strategic management is more likely if the complexities of the job are handled by people with experience. HBSP’s Daily Stat reports an academic study…

The angst of business schools continues about what the MBA actually achieves. What looks likely to be an important conference, The MBA Under Siege, plans to discuss ‘reimagining’ management education.…

Monitor reports further growth in activity by SWFs. Transactions throughout Q309 found transactions more than doubling in number from 11 in Q2 to 25 in Q3, plus a…

The Global Advantage Diamond from BCG looks useful to diagnose competitive advantage in rapidly developing economies (RDEs). It maps four issues – market access, resource access, local adaptation and…