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The Challenges GM Is Facing, and the Reasoning Behind Its Plant Closures

Harvard Business Review

For example, the Lordstown, Ohio, factory that makes the Chevy Cruze is running one shift a day, down from three a few years ago, and last year produced 180,000 vehicles, down from 248,000 in 2013. Capital-intensive factories have a high-fixed-cost, low-variable-cost operating model.

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Why Tesco’s Strengths Are No Longer Good Enough

Harvard Business Review

If round after round of profit warnings was not enough – group operating profits fell 20% between 2011 and 2013 and are likely to fall another 30% in 2014 — the company recently announced it had overstated its first-half profit by about $400 million. billion in 2013, and operating profits increased 65% to $422 million. billion to $8.6

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How Drucker Thought About Complexity

Harvard Business Review

As the effects began to play out in the ''70s and ''80s, Drucker wrote extensively about the need for management practices to change. The widespread erosion of ROA confirms that our management practices and institutions are struggling to respond to the relentless pressure. The Mongrel Discipline of Management , by David K.

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Aligning Your Organization with an Agile Workforce

Harvard Business Review

Managers in these companies understand that agile, fast, and lean strategies require that they think in new ways about accessing and leveraging key strategic talent and filling critical gaps in strategic capabilities. ” Most managers would never dream of treating externals like internals. Internal-external competition.

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4 Types of Activist Investors and How to Spot Them

Harvard Business Review

According to Schulte, Roth & Zabel’s Activist Investing 2015 Annual Review, a total of 344 companies worldwide were subjected to activist demands in 2014, up 18% from the 291 recorded in 2013. And they are usually not apprehensive about replacing the current management team to boost efficiency and performance.

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The U.S. Media’s Problems Are Much Bigger than Fake News and Filter Bubbles

Harvard Business Review

The media’s bias toward big events stems from three features of its economics: Fixed costs. The cost of covering a golf tournament doesn’t depend on whether Tiger Woods plays. Fixed costs have always been central to the economics of media. But if he does, ratings — and revenue — double.

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