The ACS Blog

Have you ever seen 36,270 what-if’s on your strategy ideas? Have you ever seen your 36,270 what-if’s compared in a universe of 5,658,120 simulations? That’s what ACS did for over 150 strategists competing in a pricing tournament.

It is, of course, good news for Yahoo that new CEO Carol Bartz is a capable person working hard to turn the company around. It is worth asking, though, whether a turnaround is even possible. Is there only room for one major search engine?

People talk of business models with certain words and meanings in the USA. People may use the same words with different meanings in France, Malaysia, Brazil, and South Africa. We may translate the words but we may not understand each other, with real consequences.

We know pretty well how to assess the financial impact of a product or service that purports to reduce costs. What about products or services that purport to improve the quality of our decisions? And how can we avoid the traps of streaks and slumps?

What we really want is to find a theory (in the sense of a model or system, not in the sense of an idea) that repeatedly, not anecdotally, predicts future events well. That’s how it works in science. I’m not saying it’s easy. I am saying it’s possible and it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Remember that the tough problem a year ago was where to buy a Nintendo Wii? Thinking about 2008, your next strategy move, and 2009.

Abercrombie, Pure Digital, and Seoul have a lot in common. Here’s how they plan to win, and how they’re winning. Would you invest in them or in their competitors?

We hear a variety of conditions being proposed to accompany an auto-industry bailout: limits on executive pay, change in management, financial oversight. All sound suitably stern. Each of those conditions is a solution to a perceived problem. Does solving those problems solve the real problem?

A brief survey of the day’s news, and what ACS had to say about it before it happened.

What to “do about” the Detroit Three is, deservedly, front-page news. I recommend that Congress and the industry commission business war games on behalf of the industry, the workers, the government, and we the people. Now is the time to look forward.