Open Vs Closed systems scorecard.
The world is full of paradoxes. Apple, the ultimate closed system is now again, the worlds most valuable company, but was started by two blokes, one of whom was, and remains an advocate of open systems, Steve Wozniak, and the other, Steve Jobs, a passionate and...
Porters strategy do and don’t list.
Following up the post yesterday commenting on the changes the net has wrought in relation to Michael Porters ideas about substitutes. It seemed useful to add links to two useful articles by Joan Magretta, who has written a book on Porters work. The first is the...
Porter’s analysis revisited.
Michael Porter transformed strategy development 30 years ago by asking two simple questions: What are the drivers of industry profitability? What are the drivers of profitability of an individual firm in an industry? He then provided a framework to analyse both, his...
Social media code of conduct.
The risks, as well as the benefits of social media Social media are now slowly becoming recognised, particularly as the list of companies who "should know better" gets longer. Given the potential for social media to trash a brand built over decades almost overnight,...
Operational design paradox.
It seems paradoxical to me that the most successful company on the face of the earth over the last decade, one that has been successful because of their astonishingly good product design, have not leveraged that innovative capacity into their operational design. I...
Brand promiscuity
The net has changed everything. In the "old days" consumers brand choices were made from a small pool of acceptable brands that was defined by experience, limited access to detailed information, and advertising. Once a brand had been purchased, the well understood...
4 Brand qualities for the future.
Brand-building is an infinitely more difficult exercise in the current environment. Gone are the days when you could throw a bunch of money at mass media, and use it to drive distribution and consumer trial, and if the thing was any good at all, gain some measure of...
The Kodak brand story.
So Kodak is broke, chapter 11 which protects a company from its creditors whilst it radically restructures in order to survive and pay back creditors. It is only a few years ago Kodak was one of the most valuable brands in the world. In the mid 90's it was in the top...
Gaming on-line referrals
I purchased a set of Sidchrome tools as a 20 year old working on my first car, simply because a mate doing an apprenticeship told me they were the best tools, and 40 years later, I still think Sidchrome are worth the money, despite not putting a spanner on a cylinder...
Market to a mind-set
I'm 60, an early adopter of marketing analytics in the 70's. Demographics, U&A, and product positioning research all hooked into mass marketing media, the foundation of our mass market, consumer led social revolution. Now all that is irrelevant, or almost....