The experts have been debating the use of strategic planning for some time. Already in the mid-1990s, Canadian management professor Henry Mintzberg questioned the use of a formal strategic planning process in his book “The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning”. And in view of fast, partly unforeseeable changes, there are good reasons to doubt … Read more
The video presents selected parts of a keynote speech by Milon Gupta on how to think ahead and succeed. It features the effective use of thought patterns, the importance of imagination, and how to use your intuition. In addition, Milon Gupta shares some thoughts on his approach to speaking, training, and coaching.
Do you remember Swissair? In the 20th century, this airline used to be as economically solid as a Swiss bank, which is why some people called it the “flying bank”. And yet, it was the first airline to collapse in the crisis of 2001. Researchers Aaron Hermann and Hussain G. Rammal from the University of … Read more
Generally, the assumption still prevails that strategy and strategic thinking are an exclusive domain of a company’s executives. This assumption is historically well founded. And it is wrong in today’s business environment. The Greek word “strategos”, of which the term “strategy” is derived, means “general”. And the general in ancient Athens as well as in … Read more
In part 1 of “Success and Failure of Strategic Management in 2015” I had presented three cases of what I consider good strategic management. In part 2, I will now focus on examples of bad strategic management that emerged in 2015. Bad Strategic Management Usually, bad strategic management only becomes visible to the public when … Read more
For many businesses, the year 2015 was challenging. At first glance, the opportunities outweighed the threats. Cheap money and cheap oil stimulated the business of many companies. However, not every company was able to benefit from the opportunities. The year 2015 saw interesting examples of success and failure, which were significantly influenced by the quality … Read more
It happened on Saturday, 14 November 2015: unknown hackers accessed the app store database of VTech, a global supplier of electronic learning products with headquarters in Hong Kong. The hackers captured a significant amount of user profile data of children and their parents, as BBC News reported. The profile data included name, email address, encrypted … Read more
Business complexity has globally increased in the last three decades. Scope and diversity of products, services, processes and stakeholder relationships have significantly grown. The growth of complexity has come at a price: The world’s largest companies are on average losing more than 1 billion dollar each due to unnecessary complexity. At least this is what … Read more
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Storytelling has proven to be an effective leadership tool in business communication. Or like US psychologist Howard Gardner said: “Every great leader is a great storyteller”. Thus, it is not surprising that executives at many major companies, like 3M, Nike, and Procter & Gamble, have embraced storytelling. A number of strategic leaders at these and … Read more
This post complements the blog article “How Strategic Leaders Use Storytelling”. Storytelling Checklist Even if you are a gifted storyteller, considering the following checklist may be useful. Sharing stories in the pub with friends is not the same as sharing stories with other executives and employees for strategic purposes. Thus, a systematic approach to strategic … Read more
Let me start with a question: how frequently do executives and employees ask general, business-related questions in your organization? If your answer is ‘Not too often’, I would recommend to ask yourself ‘Why?’ and ‘How could we change this?’. A tool for strategic leaders Questions are an indispensable tool for strategic thinking. Questions are the … Read more