N2Growth Blog

MAY 16, 2010

The dumb factor not only applies to talent, capital, and technology, but it also extends throughout the entire value chain. It applies to your branding, marketing, supply chain, and ultimately to your customer base. Here is a simple rule of thumb…the bigger the key man policy the less scalable the company is.

Business Model 320

Business Model Brand Blog Supply Chain 320

N2Growth Blog

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

It has been my experience that whenever methodologies become productized objectivity is removed from the equation. Whenever you are being pitched a product as a solution I suggest you exercise extreme caution. As always, I welcome your comments below… Share and Enjoy: View Comments myersk Agree.

Blog 313

Blog Outsourcing Competitive Advantage Innovation 313

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 21, 2010

To take advantage of this surge in shopping interest, most companies traditionally add to or modify their product offerings at this time of year. The common thread across these views and others is that product proliferation triggers what Princeton philosopher Walter Kaufmann called " decidophobia " (the fear of making a decision).

Productivity 15

Productivity Products Supply Chain Airlines 15

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

For the last two months, global supply chains have been experiencing the first stage of a bullwhip effect triggered by uncertainties about the severity of China’s economic slowdown. In the context of a normal economy with modest demand volatility, the bullwhip effect causes volatility to vary across the tiers of a supply chain.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Retail Crisis Operations 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 9, 2012

For Jeco Plastic Products, 2011 was a landmark year. Jeco Plastic Products won the contract, expanded its staff, and was soon exporting its products. In 2011, NDEMC selected CEO Lary Rosenboom of Rosenboom Machine Tool Inc. In short, business for this small American manufacturer was booming.

Supply Chain 10

Supply Chain Competitive Advantage Tools Innovation 10

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 27, 2012

Tim Cook took over as CEO in 2011. Cook had been running Compaq's supply chain with cutting-edge efficiency when Apple's supply chain was in a shambles. A supply chain expert at heart, he undoubtedly loves to tackle problems that require moving from A to B more efficiently. Fault Line #1: At the Top.

Supply Chain 15

Supply Chain Retail PR Industry 15

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 31, 2012

In the fourth calendar quarter of 2011, Christmas shoppers snapped up 15 million iPads and 37 million iPhone 4Ss. But last week the New York Times also hit us with two powerful articles about Apple's supply chain that revealed some deeply troubling issues for the company's business model. It's time to rethink this assumption.

Supply Chain 15

Supply Chain Apparel Cost Morale 15

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 16, 2015

The reality is that, in a world of rising and volatile input prices, companies need to be more than just flexible in how they react to changes – they also need to proactively develop new products and services that are far less resource-intensive throughout the value chain. In other words, they need to use less stuff.

Constraint 8

Constraint Supply Chain Resources Operations 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 16, 2015

Employers can readily apply market forces and supply-chain tools to improve the performance of both. As part of its effort to use supply-chain methods to obtain the highest quality care for its employees, Intel promptly added procurement specialists to its collaborative. Insight Center. Sponsored by Medtronic.

Health Care 8

Health Care Supply Chain Incentives Quality 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 9, 2014

General Mills’ CEO recently blamed the winter for less-than-expected earnings , saying that “severe winter weather…disrupted plant operations and logistics…We lost 62 days of production…which hasn’t happened in decades. That would be the result of people not being able to get into work safely or not having inputs arrive.”

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Strategy Risk Management Christensen 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 12, 2018

This kind of competition often drives consolidation mergers, in which two firms combine their production and sales. For example, Express Scripts and Anthem were partners in the medical supply chain. The combined firm may benefit from economies of scale in doing so, but increases in market power may also result.

Company 8

Company Supply Chain Cooper Airlines 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 20, 2015

Since 2011, as emerging markets have suffered from slower growth and fresh social unrest, that $30 trillion prize seems more distant. According to estimates from McKinsey, consumers in these markets could be worth $30 trillion by 2025 — a significant step up from the 2010 value of $12 trillion.

Goal 8

Goal Supply Chain Development Globalization 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 21, 2016

Sustainable businesses are redefining the corporate ecosystem by designing models that create value for all stakeholders, including employees, shareholders, supply chains, civil society, and the planet. Supply chains today extend around the world, and are vulnerable to natural disasters and civil conflict.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Price Loyalty Efficiency 8

Strategy Driven

MARCH 18, 2011

PL and CM: Coherent companies – those that possess a capabilities system that aligns their strategy with their product/service portfolio – generate superior performance over time, which is what we call the coherence premium. SD : What is the ‘coherence premium?’. SD : What does it mean to have a ‘right to win?’.

Resources 52

Resources Industry System Strategy 52

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 20, 2015

Challenged by other entrepreneurs in Scale Up Milwaukee’s Scalerator program to come up with a plan for rapidly ramping up his business, Cronce wondered: “What if I redefined Raphael as a strategic link in the global medical imaging supply chain, rather than as a paint shop?”

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Collins Golden Handcuff Pharmaceuticals 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 24, 2012

It would be unrealistic to imagine a return to low-value-add, low-skill, low-wage production in the commodity industries that employed millions of Americans a century ago. Trouble is, two recessions in 10 years have cut the capital fuel supply to the tech-company-creation engine. Where did all that money go? based labor.

Finance 10

Finance Due Diligence Contract Manufacturing Supply Chain 10

Harvard Business Review

MAY 31, 2011

So far, 2011 has been a remarkable year. With events like those that have changed the power dynamics throughout the Arab world, or the tsunami in Japan that disrupted many global supply chains, it's easy to think that the world is becoming ever more connected and interdependent.

Globalization 15

Globalization Supply Chain GDP Audience 15

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 2, 2017

Consumers will get easier access to new products and fewer limits on those they already own. As a result, companies of all sizes are increasingly hindered in efforts to bring new products and services to market by patent holders claiming infringement of even trivial features. .” In Impression Products v.

Innovation 8

Innovation Supply Chain Software Productivity 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

"Off the charts" is both figuratively and literally accurate: the data for the last 100 years shows a tight regression of temperature and water availability in Texas.except for the 2011 drought, which is far off the line (three degrees hotter with an inch less rainfall than any previous year). billion in agricultural production alone.

Supply Chain 14

Supply Chain Long-term Short-term Porter 14

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 1, 2016

Consider the iPad, first released in March 2010; at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, close to a dozen tablets were on display. Second, technology “platforms” undergird new products more than in the past. No ideas are local, and increasingly few are secret.

Incubator 8

Incubator Supply Chain Real Estate Technology 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 1, 2018

In November, United States’ crude oil production exceeded 10 million barrels per day for the first time since 1970, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). oil production, up from a mere 10% just seven years ago in 2011. hbr staff/bettmann/Getty Images. Analysts have predicted that U.S.

Offshoring 10

Offshoring Price Transportation Long-term 10

Harvard Business Review

JULY 17, 2013

These companies can help change the conversation — they have significant clout and reach, not just in Washington, but also through their extensive employee networks (millions of people), supply chains (hundreds of billions of purchasing), and marketing and social media machines (millions of tweeters).

Policies 8

Policies NGO Supply Chain Globalization 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

It will help us decide what we make, how much we make, and how we finance that production. Let's think about the way that changes our modes of production. But when the capital requirements to enter markets have declined, the marginal cost of reaching consumers is effectively zero, and one-off production is not hard to do.

Porter 16

Porter Mass Marketing Supply Chain Retail 16

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 4, 2014

In early 2014, American cosmetics and skincare products powerhouse Revlon announced that it would pull out of China completely. Despite entering the world’s largest personal care products market in 1996, Revlon was able to generate just 2% of sales from China 17 years later. It therefore decided that it was time to rethink strategy.

Supply Chain 9

Supply Chain Retail Chemicals Marketing 9

Strategy Driven

DECEMBER 3, 2019

These new capabilities connect to the work we’ve done over the past several decades inside our enterprises to automate processes with tools — such as accounting systems, supply chain, call center, and such. His latest book is People Over Process: Leadership for Agility (Productivity Press, September 30, 2019).

Agility 65

Agility Banking Supply Chain CTO 65

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 25, 2014

But this creates havoc for their production and distribution functions. They don’t have the budgets of Fortune 500 companies, which can customize products and delivery for each customer who requests special treatment. As his firm grew, he undervalued and underpaid the executives who ran the supply chain and finance departments.

Operations 8

Operations Company Supply Chain Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 10, 2014

Entrepreneurship can displace loyal legacy suppliers or products, along the way putting good people out of work, disorganizing and reorganizing supply chains and on the way down, depleting the wealth of the shareholders of deposed market leaders. So is inequality, when it is directly created by entrepreneurs, good or bad?

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Supply Chain Real Estate Entrepreneur 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 16, 2016

The initial breakthrough came in 1987, but the first drug wasn’t approved until 2011. The private sector spends three times that , mostly on translational research intended to transform basic discoveries into new products. There is a wide chasm that separates an initial discovery and a viable product idea.

Technology 8

Technology Venture Capitalist Supply Chain Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 4, 2011

After all, he has asserted since 2004 that global oil production was nothing to worry about, and that there would be few effects on the economy. We know that the economy fell on its face at $147 per barrel in 2008, and brought growth to a halt in 2011 at $120. We found Mr. Yergin's dismissal of these risks premature and repetitive.

Price 9

Price GDP Supply Chain Maturity 9

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 14, 2012

How many companies have figured out how to shift from supply chain management to integrating customer feedback directly into their product design, distribution, and delivery? The social object that unites people isn't a company or a product; the social object that most unites people is a shared value or purpose.

Banking 15

Banking Business Model Supply Chain Mass Marketing 15

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 20, 2011

The greening of the supply chain. These drivers underpin a number of stories from 2011, but a few new themes came out as well. Coca-Cola was not alone in facing increasing costs in 2011; one of my clients, Kimberly-Clark, took an earnings hit from record pulp prices. Was a year like 2011 likely ? But please.

Supply Chain 15

Supply Chain Apparel P&L Long-term 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Disruption to supply chains will mean reduced output and shortages will send prices soaring. Here's an example to clarify how to read the table: Suppose a foreign subsidiary in Egypt sees all of its 2011 profits eliminated by the current political turmoil. Tunisia and Egypt are cases in point.

NPV 13

NPV Short-term Discount Politics 13

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 20, 2014

While marketing budgets have been steadily rising as a percentage of firm budgets since 2011, many CMOs still lack real authority over decisions that most affect the customer, since most are delivered through touch points not owned by marketing. This will probably happen if you don’t do that.’ That was very helpful.”.

CEO 8

CEO Marketing Hotels Long-term 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 16, 2010

They'll increasingly be a source of, and resource for, innovation differentiation in 2011, if not for your organization, then for the firm you most dread competing against. Where professionals once wrote memos to be read, 2011 begins an era in which documents are written with touch both in mind and on fingertips. That's right.

Innovation 15

Innovation Supply Chain Business Simulation Advertising 15

Harvard Business Review

MAY 13, 2013

Last week Apple''s Tim Cook made fleeting reference to "new product categories." Now that we''re done, or nearly done, disintermediating old media like the newspaper, and supply chains like the book store, it''s time to solve that vexing problem of having to get ourselves from one place to another. It may even change the city.

Disintermediation 8

Disintermediation Hotels Airlines Travel 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 15, 2016

As globalization has created longer and increasingly complex food supply chains, there has been a concomitant surge in demand for locally-sourced food. But after the chain was linked to outbreaks of E. But after the chain was linked to outbreaks of E. Some companies have ridden this wave.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Price Globalization Outsourcing 8

Strategy Driven

SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

Under the rules of supply chain dynamics, one must study your supplier relationships, formalize a plan of outsourcing and develop collaborations. Readily measurable values: Time and cost of product development-service delivery cycles. Product-service movement at business-to-business levels. Productivity gained.

Budgeting 50

Budgeting Planning Strategic Planning Competitive Advantage 50