Tipping point for hybrid cars

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In The Coming Boom in Hybrid Cars ‘in strategy+business makes out that sales of hybrid vehicles are following exactly what would be expected from ‘S-curve theory’ [?] – slow initial growth being driven by early adopters until the innovation becomes mainstream. Standard approaches have little to say about the scale or nature of change in such cases.

 Strategy dynamics frameworks capture, quantitatively, the interactions between improved functionality, pricing, marketing, as wellas those amongst different groups of customers. Much of this integrates long-established ...

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Wal-Mart = ‘Environmental Protection Agency’?

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Sloan Mgmt Review highlights a New York Times article on Walmart’s toughening stance on environmental sustainability. It also points out the inherent conflict in this – that W. relies on selling ‘stuff’ in vast quantities. Yet even so, their leverage over suppliers may make them a very effective ‘Environmental Protection Agency’. 

This is an intrisically unsustainable activity, but the headline reminds me of some discussions with the David Bent of Forum for the Future, which is working hard to ...

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‘Backshoring’ no big trend

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When Dell decided some years ago to bring back home much of its customer support after complaints about service quality, it seemed perhaps to indicate limits to the off-shoring era. Other firms have followed, suggesting a new trend of ‘back-shoring’ customer support to the US and Europe. strategy+business, though, in Is Backshoring the New Offshoring? point out that the scale of this reversal is not very significant. In fact, with increasing profit pressures arising from the worsening economic conditions, ...

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More on green consumers

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Following my recent post on Tim Devinney’s great work on the realities of green consumer behaviour, see ‘Helping green products grow‘ in McKinsey quarterly. it seems there are barriers that can be broken down at each stage of the purchasing process. Coping with [or taking advantage of] green pressures is clearly going to be a key skill for strategic business management, so it’s worth checking out suggestions like these.

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