N2Growth Blog

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010

Mello Here's a link to a post I run each year at this time to make sure that I never forget the tragedy and heroism that took place on September 11, 2001. Join me in THANKS and in prayer for our Patriots, both domestically and abroad, who continue to fight valiently for the Freedoms we all enjoy! I Think Not.

Blog 404

Blog Hotels Follow-up Brand 404

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 20, 2016

You hear a lot about “agile innovation” these days. A more reasonable starting point might be the 1930s, when the physicist and statistician Walter Shewhart of Bell Labs began applying Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles to the improvement of products and processes. They keep customers happier. They enjoy their work more.

Agility 8

Agility Nonaka Takeuchi Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 2, 2015

Many companies start their search for global growth in an alphabet soup of emerging-market groupings such as the BRIC , CIVETS , MINT , Next 11 , and so on. There are several flaws in using such acronyms as the basis for entering overseas markets. Is that smart? Not really, suggests our analysis.

Marketing 8

Marketing Benchmarking Globalization Construction 8

Ask Atma

SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

Using the concept of controlled chaos it is possible to increase efficiency and innovation. Consider this statement of values from the original authors of the agile manifesto (Beedle, et al; 2001): I. We think clearly and adapt quickly to customer/market needs (aka reality). Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.

Agility 71

Agility Project Software Short-term 71

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 27, 2015

What’s more critical to producing a breakthrough innovation – finding creative people or finding creative ideas? Bernard Arnault, for instance, the executive chairman of luxury goods maker LVMH, was clearly in the same frame of mind when we caught up with him in a 2001 HBR interview. This astonished Catmull.

Process 8

Process Innovation Brainstorming Creativity 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

Innovation is widely regarded as important to long-term business performance. However, CEOs often don’t have the career background and education that would equip them to personally lead the process of new product development. For the rest, we found that other factors besides innovation drove strong shareholder returns.

CEO 8

CEO Innovation Pharmaceuticals Merchandising 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 5, 2012

With the Winter holiday shopping season, fashion apparel retailer Zara has been the focus of media attention — the New York Times recently profiled the innovative fast fashion business model pioneered by Zara, while Elizabeth Cline's book on the costs of fast fashion has climbed up the sales charts. Why wasn't it copied immediately?

Business Model 8

Business Model Innovation First-mover Advantage Apparel 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

Over the last fifteen years Apple has made a series of successful market-creating—or blue ocean—moves (think the iMac, iPod, iTunes, the iPhone, the App Store, and the iPad). From the 2001 launch of the iPod to the fiscal year end of 2014, Apple’s market cap surged more than 75-fold as its sales and profits exploded.

Productivity 8

Productivity Products Blue Ocean Strategy Price 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 4, 2015

These have multiple causes including the shift of the economy to services and information-intensive activities, productivity growth, the appearance of new products and services, demographics, and continued offshoring that now includes services ranging from call centers to medical procedures. million, were the largest in U.S.

Technology 8

Technology Offshoring Marketing Health Care 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 8, 2015

The chart may appear to show merely that Cisco’s patent filings lagged its R&D spending by three years, but in fact the decline in spending and the rise in patents were part and parcel of a deliberate strategic shift by the company in 2001. So what was going on?

Innovation 8

Innovation Parcell Wireless Competitive Advantage 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 3, 2016

.” Observers debated whether this was lazy branding or a very deliberate effort to market the iPad as a sibling to the Mac. Like Apple, most consumer-centric companies deal with the dilemma of how to brand the next- generation of an existing product. That’s why Harvard Business School marketing professors John T.

Brand 8

Brand Education Productivity Products 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

In fact, by some measures, the best emerging-market firms are more competitive than firms in advanced economies including the United States and the United Kingdom. Indeed, it is much harder for this plethora of emerging-market firms in the outperforming countries to get to the top and then stay there.

Depreciation 8

Depreciation Long-term Short-term GDP 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

In the past four years, we've witnessed the worst financial market meltdown in decades, the sharpest global slowdown since World War II, an existential crisis in Europe, and a wave of unrest across the Middle East. Any one of these events would send shockwaves through global markets. This trend is by no means a thing of the past.

Politics 8

Politics Marketing Class Globalization 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 16, 2013

I think it's more a case of their being dissatisfied with their own lives and expecting that Apple's next product will fix everything. The constant refrain is that Apple has not introduced a disruptive product since Steve Jobs passed away. Bad product reviews: One word: Ping. Some investors are dissatisfied with Apple.

Marketing 9

Marketing Stage-Gate Advertising Price 9

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 20, 2016

These misses weren’t in some tangential markets – search, mobile, and the cloud were where Microsoft users were heading. They are hard to do in a company that excels at products. Between 2001 to 2008, Jobs reinvented the company three times. Yet a very smart CEO missed all of these.

CEO 8

CEO Supply Chain Long-term Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 4, 2018

In 2001, a new approach to technology development was created by a daring group of developers. Called Agile, the process put customers at the center of product development, encouraged rapid prototyping, and dramatically increased corporate speed and agility. Maximize engineering productivity. aleksandarvelasevic/Getty Images.

Agility 8

Agility Development Organization Software 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 25, 2012

In 2001, Peter Drucker wrote in The Economist that "businesspeople stand on the threshold of the knowledge society. But why do western business leaders in a knowledge economy, with shrinking average margins in many market categories and weak macroeconomic scenarios, care so little about it? It's a compelling argument.

CEO 14

CEO Drucker Competitive Advantage Strategic Planning 14

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 6, 2012

Entrepreneurs and innovators are supposed to be happily self-directed. Articulate the larger purpose the enterprise serves, and become known for the idea, not just specific products currently offered. Artisans' cooperatives help market products from diverse artists. Recycle-and-reuse strategies work for services too.

Entrepreneur 15

Entrepreneur Cooper Apparel Bureaucracy 15

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 22, 2012

This practice, which is largely the evolution of database marketing, has become a critical driver of business strategy for global organizations in nearly every industry and vertical, because it supports decisions with data. In this way, CI's value extends well beyond the marketing organization. The ability to speak "IT."

Company 14

Company Business Intelligence CRM Marketing 14

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Unlike most rankings, it was based on a systematic analysis of stock-market performance among nearly 2,000 CEOs of the world's largest companies. Market Capitalization increase during tenure: $341.5 It was a period of instilling discipline and launching innovations that started small and gradually were built out to big things (e.g.,

CEO 13

CEO Collins Long-term Analysis 13

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 5, 2013

My consulting firm works with many successful market leaders with amazing market shares — 30%, 50%, 70% and even 90%. One example of a company in this situation is Gillette, which has approximately a 70% share of the shaving market. For decades, the shaving market was men''s facial hair removal.

Price 8

Price Franchising Marketing CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

Some years ago, the then-CEO of Air Products told me that it took his team two months to decide and plan layoffs, two weeks to do them, and two years to recover. Lafley has noted, the best time to gain market share is when your competitors are in retreat. As former Procter & Gamble CEO A. But that's not what goes on.

CEO 13

CEO Benchmarking Long-term Banking 13

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

A market segment can be characterized broadly (women 25-34) or specifically (women in an early career phase who are newly-married and starting a family). An advertising campaign or product launch cannot target a loosely-defined, abstract person. Abstract thinking is useful for early stages of innovation.

Word of Mouth Marketing 13

Word of Mouth Marketing Transportation Market Segmentation Advertising 13

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 11, 2017

The companies that are most vocal about environmental and social issues tend to be big, mass-market brands — well-known retailers , consumer products giants , and tech firms that are telling a new story to consumers who increasingly care about sustainability. I’ll then discuss some of LVMH’s challenges.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Payback Period Brand Energy 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 16, 2011

So it is with most breakthrough innovations and banner financial years. Investors grapple daily in an effort to figure out how to value companies whose accounting assets — things like land, capital, products, and licenses — don't adequately express their true market value.

Intangible Assets 15

Intangible Assets Analysis Pharmaceuticals Innovation 15

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 26, 2016

Box 3: Generate breakthrough ideas and convert them into new products and businesses. Our industry does not respect tradition—it only respects innovation.” ” Nadella was sending a clear message to look past the “sacred cows” of the organization and pursue an agenda of innovation over orthodoxy.

Company 8

Company Welch Bureaucracy Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 19, 2015

Apple fanboys and Samsung’s “Next Big Thing”ers would hoot with derisive laughter if The Wall Street Journal or Financial Times reported that GM or Ford planned to rewrite the rules of smartphone innovation. ” when Ron Johnson began rolling out Apple Stores in 2001. They should. Don’t bet against him.

Automotive 8

Automotive Supply Chain Disruptive Innovation Retail 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

For many companies, a shrinking middle class means a shrinking top line, as their traditional consumer base migrates to the lower end of the market. Smucker's has grown over the past decade largely by taking on cast-off food brands from Procter & Gamble, its Ohio consumer products neighbor, and finding ways to grow them again.

Brand 13

Brand Strategic Fit Retail McKinsey 13

Harvard Business Review

MAY 20, 2016

” In 2001 Schillinger landed a position in France at the vaccine maker. To date, she has occupied positions in human resources, product development, and stakeholder engagement. She moved to Boston in 2015 to focus on quality innovation. . “I will not fall into complacency. Purpose mindset.

Career 11

Career Short-term Human Resources Long-term 11

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 30, 2016

Ideally, these warnings provide requisite risk information, allowing people to decide for themselves whether an activity or a product’s benefits outweigh its risks, whether to take those risks, and, if so, with what precautions. Warnings on widely used consumer products are a relatively new phenomenon. How did we get here?

Chemicals 8

Chemicals Mass Marketing System Policies 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 22, 2011

The innovation research identifies the tyranny of large numbers as a common (and vexing) problem for leaders as companies grow, well documented by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen in The Innovators Solution , Jim Collins in How the Mighty Fall , and by Scott Anthony on this blog.

Ries 11

Ries Agility Market Segmentation Christensen 11

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 30, 2017

GE made a $4 billion bet on connecting industrial equipment through the internet of things and analytical software with a suite of products called Predix Cloud. Innovation at GE was on a roll. Since then Flannery has replaced Immelt’s vice chairs responsible for innovation. Then it wasn’t. Comstock is out.

Ries 8

Ries Long-term Short-term Price 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 9, 2013

He was able to remove the exterior, revealing a shiny prototype for the new iPhone 4 – a product Apple wasn’t intending to announce for months. Like clockwork, it would wait until just before unveiling a new product design to file a corresponding design patent application. Spy photos and lost prototypes are only the tip of the iceberg.

Magazine 8

Magazine Engineering Productivity Products 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 17, 2011

In 2001, Bill Gates stood up at Comdex and introduced Microsoft's first attempt at a Tablet PC to the world. But they just couldn't get it right — the company has rarely been able to bring innovations to market without seeing someone else do it first, and this instance was no different. Intel has the exact same issue.

Cost 15

Cost Operations System Marketing 15

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 12, 2012

In my four decades as a senior manager, CEO, and corporate director of American high-tech companies, I have never seen the state of innovation in the U.S. Yet at no time in American history has it been so important to come up with innovative solutions. Innovation is the use of creativity to solve real customer problems.

Senge 8

Senge Engineering Innovation Learning-by-Doing 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 16, 2013

Most of the executives I meet with, regardless of their industry, now promote UX as key to their product strategy. For a designer like myself, it''s easy to recognize which executives know their products intimately, and which manage from a spreadsheet. The CEO as Lead Product Designer. They use their products on a daily basis.

Leadership 9

Leadership Ries CEO Productivity 9

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 16, 2014

One of the basic principles behind Clayton Christensen’s famous conception of disruptive innovation is that the fundamental things people try to do in their lives actually change relatively slowly. Market disruptions typically combine a simplifying technology with a business model that runs counter to the industry norm.

Business Model 8

Business Model Wireless Disruptive Innovation Innovation 8