This conversation with Andrew Blau was recorded on Thursday, October 11th, 2012. It is the history of how the book came into formation, and a discussion of the key ideas within it, to guide where should business and organizations go next in their evolution. I wanted to share it with you in case some of [...]
Tag Archives | strategy
Our Obsession with Scale is Failing Us
Bank of America just announced they will cut 16,000 jobs by year-end, an acceleration of a previously announced “efficiency effort.” After this, they’ll no longer be the largest banking employer. Now, it’s easy to think that Bank of America is failing, that it’s yet another bad situation related to a down economy. But there’s something [...]
Traditional Strategy Is Dead. Welcome to the #SocialEra
When I say, “Social is and can be more than media,” people resist. It’s as if the two words (social and media) are now permanently fused together. But they shouldn’t be. The fact that they are joined at the hip in so many people’s minds means that marketing agencies are thriving — but that the [...]
Culture Trumps Strategy, Every Time
Trust, fights, and child care. When I’m advising start-up teams nowadays, I ask a lot of questions around those three areas. Which makes it sounds more like a marriage counselor’s office, rather than a boardroom, right? Quite often, the teams I’m talking with think culture is some woo-woo stuff that doesn’t make any difference in [...]
Solving Tough Problems
That big-ass problem that’s been keeping you up from 2-4:00 am? It hasn’t been solved for a while right? Perhaps it’s been a month, a year, or seemingly forever … Have you really thought about it? (And no, those adult witching hours of 2:00 am to 4:00 don’t count; they just torment.) It is easy [...]
Be a Better CEO
Dear Leader, You say you want all of us within the company to innovate. But you haven’t enabled us to do so. You need to work with us so we all get a shared understanding of what matters. This sets the stage for a meritocracy of ideas and also enables us to adapt quickly when [...]
Toyota’s Dysfunction
When you go slow, it could be you’re being thoughtful or considered, but more often than not, you are waiting for some one else to make a decision. In the case of Toyota’s recent and public failure, it took years for this issue to come to bear and get decided. The company knew the problem [...]
Competing With Adobe, Apple
When a company like Apple launches a sexy new product (iPad), one can react (Amazon) or get caught flat-footed (Adobe). It’s easy to look at today’s market situation and say who’s winning or losing. The more interesting conversation is to determine what someone can do to compete or take advantage of this changed topography. That’s [...]
The New How: Business Solutions Through Collaborative Strategy
For years now, our clients have let us build a different kind of strategy with them. They’ve let us not only catalyze and define the big idea, but they let us work with them to translate that big idea into a plan and approach that everyone buys into and ultimately makes real.
Za Book Title
Many people have helped me pick the title of my new book in contributing ideas or reviewing options. It seemed only fair to update you now that we’ve made the decision. (in this case, we means the great team at O’Reilly and myself). The book is about a way to do collaborative strategy within firms. [...]