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Is Your Company Actually Set Up to Support Your Strategy?

Harvard Business Review

How do banks switch customer relationships from branch offices to mobile phone screens? An “operating model” — how a company organizes and manages its resources to achieve its strategic ambitions — is the bridge between strategy and execution. Banks emphasizing products, meanwhile, have turned to partnerships.

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Don’t Play with Dead Snakes, and Other Management Advice

Harvard Business Review

During a long and illustrious career that is far from over (you can read all about one of his most recent ventures — building the most direct fiber-optic connection between Chicago and New York – in Chapter One of Michael Lewis’s new book ), Barksdale has become a big believer in the value of the folksy aphorism as management tool.

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What You Should Know About Dodd-Frank and What Happens If It’s Rolled Back

Harvard Business Review

His bottom line: “For a manager running a nonfinancial business, the proposed reforms to Dodd-Frank are probably a bad trade-off.” The rethink took place in the context of a lot of skepticism (at best) about the banking system, the banking business model, and its contribution to American well-being.