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The Strategic Leader’s Roadmap

Strategy Driven

It had earlier set an ambitious target of taking a quarter of Japan’s auto market, but to achieve that, the chief executive had said that the old way of making and selling cars would no longer suffice. Nissan’s market share in Japan had stalled at just 16 percent, it was faring little better abroad, and losses were mounting everywhere.

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Why Innovators Should Study the Rise and Fall of the Venetian Empire

Harvard Business Review

From 697 to 1797 AD, Venice’s technological acumen, geographic position, and unconventionality were interlocking advantages that allowed the Most Serene Republic to flourish. And its position at the top of the Adriatic Sea allowed it to become a vital trading hub, connecting the East with the West via the Mediterranean.

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How to Know If a Spin-Off Will Succeed

Harvard Business Review

But a study from 1999 found that long-run performance of both the former parent company and the divested unit is strongly positive, provided that the spin-off increases the company’s focus. The diverging fortunes of two recent spin-offs in the energy industry illustrate how financial markets value autonomy from the parent.

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The Right Kind of Conflict Leads to Better Products

Harvard Business Review

” Members from each partner organization rate the alliance in areas related to strategic fit, operational fit, and cultural fit. Eli Lilly and Company measures the health of its alliances with a “Voice of the Alliance Survey.”

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Deciding to Fix or Kill a Problem Product

Harvard Business Review

The result: Market success for the product and the company was purchased by Google for $3.2 Situation Three: It Does Not Have Good Strategic Fit. Corporate indecision and misalignment of strategic objectives let promising products fall by the wayside. billion in 2014. Fix or kill? What happened? Fix or kill?