Reflections on Digital Supply Chains & Platforms
Business is often seen as war and statecraft. Take for example how we describe numerous management terms such as competitive positioning, stick vs. carrot, or war-gamming. If business is war then merger and acquisition, would be analogous to the capture and annexation of new principalities. In both scenarios, the acquirer must manage institutional complexity, cultural… Continue reading The Prince and Insights in M&A Success
Emergency room (ER) physicians constantly make critical decisions with limited information and under extreme time pressure. What separates best-in-class ER physicians from the pack is that they not only “do the right things,” but also “do things right.” Similar to ER physicians, senior executives often find themselves pressured to drive savings under a tight timeline.… Continue reading Sourcing success under time pressure
The term "strategic outsourcing" may sound like an oxymoron. Traditional dogma of outsourcing calls for companies to sequester strategic capabilities in-house and only source non-core or commoditized capabilities from 3rd parties. The situation becomes more complex in a dynamic market context since (i) what may be deemed a core competency today may become peripheral tomorrow… Continue reading Strategic outsourcing is not an oxymoron
Take a look at some of the key shows on CNN and one cannot but notice the network's recent adoption of an explicit "House of Brands" strategy in an effort to better wage the battle for "viewer eyeballs". The collage below shows some of CNN's major shows and their distinct "brands" (e.g. AC360, Fareed Zakaria… Continue reading CNN and the house of brands strategy …
The mortgage CDO initiated market crash of 2008 has surprising similarities with the rail road induced market crash of 1873. Both are driven by greed induced risk taking in a rapidly changing market, with banks issuing mis-priced securities and bonds on top of risky and faulty assets that resulted in defaults and deflation which in turn triggered a multi-year recession. In the following passage from Ron Chernow's House of Morgan,… Continue reading The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same …
Like so many favored incumbents, Hillary Clinton could not escape the Innovator's Dilemma in a competitive bid for the market place (the democratic primary in this case) Coined by Harvard business professor Clayton Christensen, the Innovator's Dilemma states that often it is the very strength and core offering of the established incumbent that ultimately lead… Continue reading Obama, Hillary and a case of Innovator’s Dilemma
Many have characterized the high technology industry, in particular software, as one of rapid change where one must be ever vigilant and paranoid, constantly scanning the horizon for emerging threats from competitors and partners alike. However, this mental model of the high tech industry is too broad in its analysis. If we focused our attention… Continue reading The illusion of fast pace in the high tech industry
In the past decade(s) the pharma industry has experienced an innovation gap crisis characterized by relatively flat growth rate in new drug approval rates and a steady growth of 2.5X in cost. Big pharma has tried to tackle the innovation gap with a series of strategic solutions: throwing money at internal R&D, horizontal consolidation, and… Continue reading Drivers of Pharma R&D Gap and New Models for Success
Michael Hu 