2010

Due diligence may not protect you from frenzies of advocacy. At its worst, it’s like signing an ill-advised legal document because the spell-check said it was okay. Think it doesn’t happen? Remember that no one invests in a strategy or business expecting it to fail, yet somehow smart people invest in strategies and businesses that fail.

Here we’ll look at people who switch, 20% liberals, a tremendous success rate, and customer satisfaction. What does that crowd have in common?

What will you experience in this essay? I don’t know. Different people read the same words and see different stories. Which, actually, is what this essay is about. Which story should we believe? In this case, about the value of hiring CEOs with experience.

Those who are exquisitely aware of the value they bring to decision-making wonder why they struggle to get decision-makers to listen. I have suffered from this. So have you. Pretty much all humans above the age of one know that frustration. Oh when will those decision-makers ever learn?

An interview with ACS’ Mark Chussil from the Trust Across America blog, where Barbara Brooks Kimmel writes on building great business through trustworthy behavior. The wide-ranging interview ranges from trustworthy business behavior, to the shift from stakeholders to shareholders, to making strategy decisions.

No stunning message about strategy this time. Just a brief moment of merriment. Hope you enjoy.

How can consumers trust companies to make safe products, and to make products safer? An essay on perceived costs, hidden opportunities, level playing fields, “intangibles,” applying brains, and jerking knees.

In business we expect decisions to come from careful analysis in which experts lay out the options, quantify the costs and benefits, and make the right choices. So it may seem perplexing when two senior executives, in symbiotically linked companies, publicly and decisively disagree on a key decision.

This is something I’ve learned from all those war games: Watch out for the war metaphor in your strategic thinking, and challenge it if you see it. The challenge doesn’t cost you anything. You can always go back to the war metaphor if you really think it works.

Same-store sales rose 14.3% when using RFID tags on clothes. Is there a first-tagger advantage, and is it worth having? Let’s think it through.