It’s ironic – Whole Foods did a great job of teaching all of us that natural and organic are desirable. And for about 30 years, that created a strong, high-margin position for them in the… Read more »
Thought Sparks
Healthcare, Teamwork and more! New newsletter out
For those of you in the healthcare field, or worried about healthcare (and who isn’t these days?), you might want to have a look at my latest newsletter, which summarizes some of the themes that… Read more »
Beyond Innovation Theater with Steve Blank and Brian Murray
If you couldn’t be there in person for our January 10, 2017 Columbia Entrepreneurship event, here is the video reprise. It was an amazing conversation and a standing room only crowd! Have a look and… Read more »
Will we get beyond ‘innovation theater’ in the New Year?
Join Steve Blank, Brian Murray and myself at the kickoff event for Columbia’s Forum for Dynamic Innovation on January 10. If you are responsible for growth, in charge of transforming an organization or just want… Read more »
Innovation and Jobs-to-be-Done discussed in my latest newsletter
My latest newsletter offers observations and ideas that were discussed at two CEO Summits sponsored by Innosight and featuring keynotes by Clayton Christensen and myself. We discussed Clay’s terrific new book, Competing Against Luck, some… Read more »
Clearing the space for growth-on disengagement, transformation and reinvestment
With September just ahead of us, in my August newsletter I touch on why disengagement from exhausted advantages is important for renewal, share the story of Target’s transformation from a traditional department store to the “Tar-zhey”… Read more »
Why managing an opportunity portfolio leads to surprising investment decisions
There is no shortage of interesting strategic activity going on in the intertwining worlds of content creation, telecommunications and other forms of distribution. The recent sales of AOL and Yahoo! to Verizon are representative of… Read more »
Agony and ecstasy for young lawyers
For some time, I’ve suggested that law schools provide a cautionary tale for the rest of us. With many graduates loaded down with big debt and with few prospects for taking jobs that actually require… Read more »
What a startup can learn about customer needs from a medieval practice
In a recent article over at Fortune, I explore what Transferwise, a fast-growing new startup has rediscovered: an enduring customer need that is currently featuring in the migrant crisis, Hawala. The practice of Hawala originated centuries… Read more »
Implications of the Unicorn Economy
In my most recent newsletter, I suggested that businesses would do well to anticipate the consequences of a valuation bubble bursting in Silicon Valley with so many private companies valued at more than a billion… Read more »
Corporate entrepreneurship’s latest incarnation-the virtual startup
In this insightful blog post, Steve Sokol runs through the pluses and minuses of being part of a startup within a large corporation, what he calls a “virtual startup.” The pluses are many – a… Read more »
Workers of the World…upsides and downsides of the on-demand workforce
In an article that appeared the other day on CNBC, reporter Cadie Thompson mulls over the effects of all these on-demand companies that make their money by connecting people with tasks to be done or… Read more »