Corporatestrategy
Judging by the recent troubles in Belgium and the article at Valor (in portuguese), the love-hate relationship with InBev in Belgium has gone to hell. And there’s the “socialism vs. capitalism” conflict in Europe again. If it weren’t for the image deterioration risk – and it seems that they’re handling it by going as far as they can, but no further – the union representative’s words would be music to shareholders’ ears.
“If we did not do this already, would we, knowing what we now know, go into it?” Peter Drucker’s question can be applied in both the big picture and small picture – from the broadest strategic moves of your company to its tiniest daily processes. More than that: try substituting “company” in the previous sentence for “department”, “nation”, “regulatory system” and even “life”.
Kraft’s all-out effort to acquire Cadbury involved a “side deal” in which Nestlé bought Kraft’s frozen pizza division. One company had cash on hand and served as “white knight”, the other had a pressing need and none other than Warren Buffett applying pressure. We think it’s safe to assume that Nestlé got a sweet deal…
Continue reading about Nestlé benefits from Kraft’s resolve to buy Cadbury
John Mackey, CEO of high-end grocery chain Whole Foods, was recently profiled in the New Yorker mag. Habits and idiosyncrasies aside – he is known for putting his “personal foot in his professional mouth” – the guy is not what one would expect: he’s a libertarian capitalist at heart and digs Ayn Rand. Very importantly, it goes to show that “doing the right thing” as a corporation and earning profits – the more, the better – are far from incompatible.
We have put together a small collection of links regarding competition and corporate strategy as defined by Harvard’s Michael Porter. As this blog will always remind readers, “take it with a grain of salt”! No matter how famous the expert, how “make-sense” his arguments, always check, search for contradictions and weaknesses and then make up your own mind.
Continue reading about Christmas bonus, part 1: Michael Porter
Booz Allen is offering words of caution on crowdsourcing. It is a new thing, therefore relatively untested, and it certainly has its optimal applications and its limits – which probably haven’t been found yet. It’s just another tool available and should be subject to the same rigorous analysis before the company starts using it.
Part 2 of the excerpts from our Q4 2008 report. In Part 1, we introduced and exemplified the theme of the structural fragility of incentive systems via two texts, “Own Goal” and “Dolus Bonus”. In this text, we present the core of our reflection on the subject in order to highlight the importance of raising our moral critical standards.
Continue reading about IP report excerpts, vol. 4: Moral diligence (part 2)
Facebook is just starting to tap the immense wealth of data generated by its 300mm audience, as reported in their blog and in the New York Times (free registration required) yesterday. This particular study on the “Happiness Index” is more of a teaser, a taste of what is to come. We don’t pretend to know [...]
Netflix is one of the most admirable cases around on corporate strategy AND execution. It shows how you can make billions out of simple things. That said, they have to kill a lion a year to stay ahead. Investment-wise, we never got to the point where we felt we knew enough to invest in them – and don’t regret not doing it.
Continue reading about Netflix doing the right things at the right time
The Netflix Prize has been awarded and it’s a great example of crowdsourcing. But is such “open collaboration” a tool for every situation? How open do you really want to be? Some are looking at his and saying “hold your horses”. That’s always good advice in our book.
Continue reading about Netflix’s smart crowdsourcing initiative