Strategy isn’t “messy”

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… and there are general insights. Just jumped on another claim that strategy is too complex,  subtle and case-specific to understand or learn about. (I hope the link works – it’s a LinkedIn discussion in The Strategy Bureau group under “Should strategy be taught like medicine?”)

The first claim was that “strategic” means, by definition, messy – I don’t see why. An issue, initiative, plan or whatever is strategic if it will likely make a significant difference to the medium- ...

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Limits to growth

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I see that icon of ‘not even the sky is the limit’, Ryanair, is finding gravity still exists. In a curious ‘threat’ to curtail growth, lively CEO O’Leary says it’s not as easy to pick up dirt-cheap aircraft as he did in 2002. He’s not quite so open about the company’s experience of opening hundreds of routes between city-pairs. I’ve tried reconciling their statements of routes opened, operated and closed, and it’s not easy – lots of hype about huge ...

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Big mistake at Starbucks?

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I’ve blogged on Starbucks before, but just seen their results for y/e Sep08, with sales up $9.4>10.4bn but profits down $1.1>0.5bn. A pity, but what are they doing about it?

To see the 6-year path that brought them to this point , see their 07 Annual Report. Store numbers and revenues multiplied by ~2.5 – operating profits and earnings more than tripled ! How do you do that? – by squeezing more margin out, so operating margins up ...

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