Business Strategy Archives - Page 9 of 22

27 Jul 2010

How Companies Advance: Marginal Gains, Breakthroughs and Strategic Positioning

Business Strategy

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article about efforts to win the Tour de France (subscription content, I think). They quote a support person for one team who has the title "head of marginal gains." …

26 Jul 2010

How to Manage Your Business in a World With Hard-to-Forecast Sales

Business Strategy Economy

I'll be speaking on this topic to the National Fluid Power Association, and I'm soliciting help. I have plenty of tips in my toobox, many that were included in my book about the economy and …

23 Jul 2010

Technical Debt, or “Technical Naked Call Option” ?

Business Strategy

Last year I wrote about technical debt, which is a term that start-up companies use when they have finished some software, but not yet cleaned up all the bugs and scalability issues. I mentioned that …

15 Jun 2010

Austrian Economics: What Business Executives Should Know

Business Strategy Economy

This recession has brought out a great deal of talk about the Austrian approach to economics, a subject I studied intensely in my student years. This post is a brief primer for the mainstream business …

13 Jun 2010

Bank Lending to Franchisees

Business Strategy Economy

Lending to would-be franchisees is difficult now, leading some franchisers to arrange credit for their franchisees, as reported in the New York Times. This is going to lead some banks to re-think their stance toward …

5 May 2010

Bankers and Problem Credits

Business Strategy Economy

Here's a thought for bankers, courtesy of an FDIC regional supervisor: Go ahead and blame us if it makes you feel better, but in the morning your problem credits are your problem credits.

3 May 2010

Economy in Recovery: Will Vendor Performance Limit Your Rebound?

Business Strategy Economy

The latest news is the more and more purchasing managers are reporting slower delivery times from their vendors. The spike is quite pronounced, matching many of the historic peaks. This is a critical time for …

19 Apr 2010

Federal Budget Deficit: How Big a Problem?

Business Strategy Economy

Many of my friends are losing sleep over our federal budget deficit and accumulating debt burden. The level of discourse is usually simple: "We're going bankrupt!" In a short series of posts I want to …

9 Apr 2010

Human Resources Management in the Economic Recovery

Business Strategy Economy Labor Markets

Sometimes I say something that seems obvious to me, and people in the audience start taking notes. "Aha!" I say to myself, "maybe that wasn't so obvious." This week I was in Las Vegas presenting …

7 Apr 2010

Your Vendors and Your Payment Terms in Economic Recovery

Business Strategy Economy

As the economy improves, some businesses will find their working capital is tight. (See this working capital article, this article about Caterpillar, and the classic Business Strategy for the Economic Recovery.) As orders come in, …

5 Apr 2010

Working Capital and the Economy: What Copper & Brass Executives Can Teach Other Business Leaders

Business Strategy Economy

Last week I went to Florida to speak to executives from Copper and Brass Servicenters (which are like distributors, but they also will do some cutting and trimming of their merchandise). One of my themes …

11 Mar 2010

Analog Brain in a Digital World

Business Strategy

A frustrating day in the global headquarters of Conerly Consulting LLC, as I tried to get a blue tooth headset to talk to my computer's Magic Jack phone, while Pandora played on speakers. I became …