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Why GE’s Jeff Immelt Lost His Job: Disruption and Activist Investors

Harvard Business Review

Innovation at GE was on a roll. Since then Flannery has replaced Immelt’s vice chairs responsible for innovation. So is John Rice, the head of global operations, along with CFO Jeffrey Bornstein. Are lean innovation and the startup way a failure in large companies? Then it wasn’t. Comstock is out.

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The Rising Tide Lifts One Boat Most of All

Harvard Business Review

Everyone is familiar with the primary methods Gillette used to grow: It innovated via technology (with the Sensor, Mach 3, and Fusion razors), and in 2001 it formally expanded into the women''s leg shaving market with a new brand called Venus. For decades, the shaving market was men''s facial hair removal.

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The Market Wants Apple to Unveil a Time Machine

Harvard Business Review

What the naysayers are overlooking or ignoring is that one could have made a list for Steve Jobs that would look remarkably similar: Missed earnings: Apple posted a $247 million quarterly loss ( in 2001 , four years after Jobs took over — and the stock went UP in after-hours trading). Bad quality control: MobileMe, antenna-gate.

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How Amazon Trained Its Investors to Behave

Harvard Business Review

By the fourth quarter of 2001 — that is, within about 21 months — it was turning a profit. Clayton Christensen has long complained that standard financial metrics can be enemies of innovation and growth. In fact, Amazon was only operating at such a high burn rate because it could. Nobody complains.