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A Framework for Strategists Assessing Emerging Markets

Harvard Business Review

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.

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Disrupting the Gaming Industry with the Same Old Playbook

Harvard Business Review

With a market size of $8 billion in 2013 Massive Multiplayer Online Gaming (MMOG) is becoming big business. million as of 2013. LoL’s 2013 World Championship garnered online viewership of 32 million on Twitch.tv Stories like LoL and Vans illustrate a profound truth about strategy and business.

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Why Target’s Canadian Expansion Failed

Harvard Business Review

The market exit will stop Target’s continued losses in Canada and help the company focus on its strategic initiatives in the U.S. However, in the end, the market entry seemed rushed and oversized, with 124 stores opening within ten months. As a result of its careful market entry and execution, J. Consider J.

Retail 8
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Google’s Strategy vs. Glass’s Potential

Harvard Business Review

But in the meantime, Google’s choices in marketing and distributing its new product get to the heart of the tension between new opportunities and existing strategy. In March, it announced a major partnership with Luxottica , the world’s largest eyewear company, a move clearly aimed at the mainstream market.

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A Simple Way to Test Your Company’s Strategic Alignment

Harvard Business Review

Strategic alignment, for us, means that all elements of a business — including the market strategy and the way the company itself is organized — are arranged in such a way as to best support the fulfillment of its long-term purpose. Strategy is how the business will achieve it. The fall can come quickly.

Banking 14
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How Boards Can Assess the Health of Their Companies

Harvard Business Review

A company that creates a sustainable competitive advantage, executes well and reinvests to solidify its strategy will find that its share price accurately reflects its value. When CEO Tex Gunning took over in 2013, he spent weeks in depots and on trucks and wrote to every frontline employee asking for input.

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Tinkering with Strategy Can Derail Midsize Companies

Harvard Business Review

Cellairis had tinkered with its core strategy, one that had been working beautifully, and it had turned ugly. System-wide revenue for 2013 was $350 million – seven times revenue for 2005. By mid-2013, the company was chugging along at a $200 million annual revenue rate. Tinkering can kill midsize companies.