The Technology Inflection Point
We are at a unique intersection in history. Moore’s law, the hype cycle, Roger’s Bell Curve, cloud computing, and big data are intersecting like a ball hitting a baseball bat. That’s another way of saying that things are changing incredibly fast. In particular, the...
How Great Executives Make Transparent Decisions
We are entering a new era of executive management. Travis Kalanick’s quick exit from Uber was just the latest in a litany of high-profile ousters of founders such as Jerry Yang (Yahoo) and Jack Dorsey (Twitter). Some of tech’s most prominent stars have been booted for...
Amazon Buys Whole Foods: If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em
The announced offer by Amazon to purchase Whole Foods for $13.4 billion hit me like a ton of bricks. An online retailer buying a brick-and-mortar? What is this world coming to? Whole Foods has been rumored as an acquisition target for traditional food retailers like...
Are You Positioned as an Expert?
The rapid escalation of global competition has brought a new round of hyper-specialization. The concept of specialization is nothing new; the division of labor has been a key tenant of economics since the birth of capitalism. Sites like Guru and Upwork have propelled...
How To Make Decisions About Outsourcing
With all the debate about protectionism, the media has been buzzing about outsourcing and offshoring. As margins are squeezed, companies are looking for control over lead time and costs, and want to recapture profit upstream and downstream. The risks of offshoring...
The Entrepreneur’s Dilemma
Growing a small business is no small task.Small businesses in America account for 54% of all U.S. sales, and more than half of American employees works in a small business. The U.S. government defines a mid-market business as having less than $10 million in sales....
The Business Strategy of a Market Leader
Twenty years ago, when the book The Discipline of Market Leaders was published, it was revered as one of the seminal works on business strategy. The premise of the book is that market leaders fall into one of three categories:Product Innovators: Providers who redefine...
How Vertical Integration Works for Companies Big and Small
It is the natural order of things; categories evolve and mature. In the race to the bottom that has plagued so many industries, alliances promoting the ultimate customer experience must take form. Vertical integration is back, and will extend not only to the supply...
The New Business Model for Old Musicians
It was during the summer of 1969 that 400,000 people made their way to the sleepy community of Woodstock, New York. Woodstock marked a new dawn for large format rock festivals. While festivals remained popular in Europe, the format fizzled through the ‘80s and ‘90s in...
