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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. And what a viewership!

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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. Our research also found that most major reversals of highly successful companies began because the company lost the very culture responsible for its original success.

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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. Or they could analyze the behaviors of the most successful consultants and train others on their methods. Revenue in 2011 was $59 million.

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A Simple Way to Test Your Company’s Strategic Alignment

Harvard Business Review

There is a simple test you can perform to start an honest conversation about strategy and organizational effectiveness where you work. How well does your business strategy support the fulfillment of your company’s purpose? Superior technical innovation is at the heart of its strategy and its organizational design.

Banking 14
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Why Target’s Canadian Expansion Failed

Harvard Business Review

The Canada expansion was announced in January 2013 when Target bought the 220 leases of Zellers, a declining and now defunct Canadian discount chain, from Hudson’s Bay. Still, there are many globally successful retailers. In the end, Target struggled with the translation of its successful U.S.

Retail 8
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How Microsoft Avoided the Peter Principle with Nadella

Harvard Business Review

In one of the most widely scrutinized CEO successions ever, Microsoft directors selected insider Satya Nadella to run the company, only their third CEO pick in the firm’s nearly 40-year history. For finishers, he will have to change its treads—redirect its strategy—while barreling down a highway with no map for what lies ahead.

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

Harvard Business Review

Glass may yet turn out to be a great consumer success. 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. Should Google revise its strategy to pursue that opportunity?