Archive for 2012
Mapping a Business Strategy in a Broken Economy
The troubled economy of the past several years has challenged – and weakened – many businesses around the world. Although business leaders can’t manage the myriad external factors that impact their organization, they can take advantage of wounded competition through solid strategies.
Read MoreTop 6 – October 2012
Fine. Life sucks and then you die. Get over it. Be happy. Do your work. Any executive can blame a bad market environment for poor performance. Leaders don’t. Words are nice. Action is better. Either achieve or sit on the sidelines. The field of competitive battle is no place to just wait. Target charged forward.…
Read MoreA Case Study on Sears versus Target and Divergent Responses – Blame the Market Environment or Command Your Performance
Charting a winning corporate strategy is rarely an easy task, and 2012 has been particularly difficult for executive decision-making. Yet difficult times do not get executives off the hook for poor performance. A case in point: Sears is floundering while Target is advancing. What is driving the significant divergence in performance between these two competitors? Is a role reversal possible in the next 18 months?
Read MoreDon’t Look for Nissan’s new “World Car” to be Seen on U.S. Roads
Theodore Levitt in his monumental “Globalization of Markets” treatise predicted the future of international marketing will be the truly “global product.” He envisioned products that everybody in the world could use and not worry about such products being customized to any nationality or culture. Everybody would understand how to work the product and not even have to worry about language and directions. Well, the future is now!
Read MoreWhat will drive Mobile Payments Adoption?
All over the world, existing and new players are working to make point-of-sale mobile payments a reality. The two key challenges in realizing this are building partner ecosystem, and changing consumer behavior to adopt mobile device as a payment instrument. To change consumer behavior, providing a compelling yet secure consumer experience is a critical factor. This paper contends that having the right balance between consumer experience and security is a must to drive adoption.
Read MoreTop 6 – September 2012
How do you know you have a bad (unprofitable) customer (also known as a leech)? Look for one of these known telltale signs: They make excessive demands for customer service. The have higher rates of returns and credit defaults. Most of their relevant wallet share goes to a competitor. They lack the purchasing power to…
Read MoreLaunching LeBron X Nike Plus at a $300 + Price Target: An Evolving Case in Price Communication and Public Relations
This fall, Nike is rumored to be launching the above $300 LeBron X Nike Plus basketball shoes. What was expected to be a highly promising product launch has morphed into a management and political quagmire regarding its high price, potential violence, and target market abuse. What should Nike do?
Read More10 Strategic Insights from Michael Porter
Joan Magretta has written a book on Harvard Business School’s Prof. Michael Porter entitled: Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy. What should readers expect?
Read MoreAvoiding Price Wars
The negative impact on industry profit due to price compression from firms engaging in price wars can possibly be avoided by a better understanding of strategic games. Observing competing firm’s historical behavior and current price announcements offers valuable indications of future actions. Modeling such strategies in a game theoretical scope allows for more informed pricing decisions and possible profit saving maneuvers.
Read MoreRedefining and Rediscovering Market Segments in the Wireless Telecom Industry
Theodore Levitt claimed that the primary reason for the growth of any industry to be threatened, slowed or stopped is not because the market is saturated. Rather, it happens when the industry leaders define their markets by focusing primarily on their products/services and not on their customers’ underlying needs. How does this apply to telecom?
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