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Category Archives: Strategy

Addicted to Heroes: The Struggle to Improve America’s Schools

Posted on August 20, 2013 by David

I have been reading Diane Ravitch’s 2010 book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. She was an appointee to the Department of Education by both George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and initially a supporter of … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Alan Bersin, American schools, Bill Clinton, community, complex systems, Diane Ravitch, ecocycle, ecological perspective, education system, factory, farmers, George Bush, heroes, Jim Womack, Joel Klein, lean, market, Michelle Rhee, NCLB, No Child Left Behind, rank-and-yank | 1 Comment

T-shaped People: Deduction, Induction, Abduction and Systems Thinking

Posted on July 30, 2013 by David

IDEO, the design and innovation firm, prizes what they call “T-shaped” individuals. These are people with a deep expertise in one field or domain (the vertical stroke of the “T”) and some expertise across several, often dissimilar, domains (the horizontal … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged abduction, analogical, analytical, bottom-up, Charles Sanders Peirce, complex systems, creativity, deduction, ecological perspective, IDEO, induction, innovation, leveraged action, systems, T-shaped, thinking, top-down | Comments Off

Is Conscious Capitalism A Conceptual Mess?

Posted on July 23, 2013 by David

Conscious Capitalism (CC) is featured prominently in the latest issue of the California Management Review (CMR) (Spring 2013, Vol. 55 No. 3.). In an article entitled “Conscious Capitalism Firms: Do They Behave as Their Proponents Say?”, Chong Wang, an Assistant … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Anglo-Saxon capitalism, Aristotle, Chong Wang, complex systems, conscious capitalism, ecological perspective, innovation, Karl Popper, Max Weber, narrative, Raj Sisodia, The New Ecology of Leadership, Whole Foods | 1 Comment

Why Strategy Has Lost Its Mojo

Posted on June 25, 2013 by David

This post appeared last Friday on the Strategic Management Bureau site as a “Strategic Snack“. You can follow the discussion on LinkedIn here The Urban Dictionary gives three definitions for mojo: Self-confidence, self assuredness (especially in sexual advances or battle) … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged change, Cynthia Montgomery, ecological perspective, Kenneth Andrews, leadership, logical empiricist, Michael Porter, narrative, rational choice, Richard Pascale, strategy | 2 Comments

Our Curious Addiction to Corporate Grand Strategy

Posted on June 18, 2013 by David

This week my blog is devoted to republishing (with his permission) Richard T. Pascale’s column from the January 25, 1982 edition of Fortune magazine. It’s an oldie but goodie not available elsewhere online. Much has changed since he wrote the … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Abernathy, Bruce Henderson, change, experience curve, Fortune, Harley-Davidson, Hayes, Honda, Japan, Mazda, McKinsey, piano, portfolio theory, Richard Pascale, strategy, Talon, Timex, Toyopet, Yamaha, YKK | 1 Comment

Principles and Paradigms: The Debate Continues

Posted on June 11, 2013 by David

Steve Denning, with whom I have jousted in the columns of Forbes, about the nature of management paradigms, recent wrote a blog in HBR in the series leading up to the fifth annual Global Peter Drucker Forum on November 2013 … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Anna Karenina, change, community, complex systems, context, discipline, ecological perspective, embodied cognition, equifinality, Fighting Power, freedom, heuristic, implementation, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Mary Parker Follett, obligations, paradigm, Peter Drucker, practical wisdom, principle, rights, self-discipline, Steve Denning, systems, Tolstoy, van Creveld | 1 Comment

Decommoditize Yourself! – Coating Products in Meaning

Posted on June 4, 2013 by David

Last week I travelled to Phoenix, Arizona to attend the annual meeting of Electro-Federation Canada and to deliver the opening keynote address. The association works with the electrical, consumer electronics and telecommunications industries and its membership consists of manufacturers and … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged A.G. Lafely, Anglo-Saxon capitalism, change, commoditization, community, context, cult, David Brooks, Dom Perignon, ecological perspective, ecosystem, Electro-Federation Canada, Ferrari, identity, meaning, narrative, niche, P&G, product life cycle | 1 Comment

Don’t Throw the Past Away

Posted on April 23, 2013 by David

The study of business history in North American business schools has been on the wane for some time now, crowded out by “more practical”, “hard” topics. History is seen as nice, rather than necessary. But if contexts matter in management, … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged anagnorisis, Andreas Kluth, change, context, disaster, German General Staff, Hannibal and Me, history, means and ends, narrative, Rudyard Kipling, staff ride, strategy.competency, The Economist, triumph | Comments Off

Margaret Thatcher: Britain’s Turnaround Guy

Posted on April 16, 2013 by David

The death of Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s Prime Minister from 1979 to1990, and her impending funeral have aroused passions and divisions as fierce as those when she was alive. Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, recalled parliament from its Easter recess to … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Argentina, Arthur Scargill, Britain, change, community, Conservative, David Cameron, ecocycle, ecological perspective, Edward Heath, Falkland Islands, Gorbachev, Gordian knot, Harold Macmillan, Harold Wilson, Iron Lady, James Callaghan, Kahneman, Labour, Margaret Thatcher, narrative, negativity dominance, power, Reagan, Shakespeare, Soviet Union, The New Ecology of Leadership, Tony Blair, turnaround, Tversky | 1 Comment

Can Rome be Renewed? It Will Take a Miracle…

Posted on March 12, 2013 by David

Is there such a thing as a disruptive religion? Two thousand years ago Christianity certainly qualified as such. It disrupted the then-ruling establishment, making a clear distinction between those things that belonged to God and those that belonged to Caesar. … Continue reading →