“Even though managers seek a long-term competitive advantage, they do business as if it doesn’t exist. The famous Intel axiom that ‘only the paranoid survive’ reflects senior management’s belief that at any point in time their competitive advantage will vanish. As a result, strategy focuses on capturing opportunities that create a series of temporary competitive advantages.”
— Bingham et al., ““Which Strategy When.”
“Golborne decided to take control of the meeting, and in doing so, he moved another step along the path to accepting ultimate responsibility for the entire rescue.”
— Useem et al., “How to Lead During a Crisis: Lessons from the Rescue of the Chilean Miners.”
“Many forums are dominated by a small, hardcore group of individuals who may not be representative of the broader customer base that has chosen to remain silent.”
— Moe et al., “What Influences Customers’ Online Comments”
“Our research shows that the way a pilot is selected and implemented can make or break a global initiative. Well-selected and well-conducted pilots create a strong commitment to change in the managers from the country subsidiaries next in line for implementation.”
— Davidson and Büchel, “The Art of Piloting New Initiatives”
“Companies pursuing global strategies need to be attentive to the needs of local customers and the business culture …. Wal-Mart, for example, spent nearly a decade trying to establish itself in Germany before finally selling its German operation in 2006.”
— Carr and Collis, “Should You Have a Global Strategy?.”
“The problem with nearly all major environmental rating schemes, one that threatens their validity in assessing environmental leadership, is that they fail to incorporate advocacy activities that influence environmental regulation …. Apple publicly quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest lobbying group in the U.S., believing its efforts to quash binding climate regulations were an affront to Apple’s corporate values.”
— Schendler and Toffel, “The Factor Environmental Ratings Miss.”
“The success of an analytics project is a function of the user’s acceptance of the model or the application. Our data make a convincing case for the value of continuous exposure to user feedback.”
— Viaene and Van den Bunder, “The Secrets to Managing Business Analytics Projects.”
“Many R&D leaders pursuing open innovation tend to place an undue emphasis only on idea scouting, thereby neglecting how the ideas become meshed with the company’s existing capabilities.”
— Whelan et al. “Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation.”
“Businesses need to think about how to reorganize their product development systems to efficiently accept and build upon prototypes developed by users.”
— Von Hippel et al. “The Age of the Consumer-Innovator.”
(Reprint #:53199)
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to: Schendler and Toffel statement:
Apple publicly quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest lobbying group in the U.S., believing its efforts to quash binding climate regulations were an affront to Apple’s corporate values.”
Since the sun is a variable star with solar output the highest in centuries, and the ice caps are melting on Mars, too (Science News), without the benefit of one CO2 emitting coal-fired energy plant, I’d say Apple might want to do some checking and rethink their corporate values.
Bart Nedelman
TravelBart