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A selection of business articles and feeds
(see Archives for Axekap's full articles) :

» Sloan Management Review :

• Don’t Fire Your Customers, Yet

  Times are tough. There’s too much work to go around and some days it seems like you’re spending all your time trying to please customers who never seem happy. If this sounds familiar, reading Seth Godin’s more, More, MORE! could put you over the edge: “Firing the customers you can’t possibly please gives you the bandwidth [...]
  Published on February 25th, 2010 by Sean M. Brown

• How Much Power Do Economists Have, Really?

  There’s a fabulous talk by Paul Krugman on MIT World that spells out the Nobel Laureate, New York Times columnist, and — most important — ex-MITer’s argument that today’s policymakers are moving too timidly to solve our world’s massive economic problems. It’s smart, convincing stuff. But is Krugman accomplishing anything? He has climbed as high as [...]
  Published on February 23rd, 2010 by Jimmy Guterman

• The Pile for February 22, 2010

  Last week at TED, I wrote about Nathan Myhrvold’s latest anti-malaria plan, which involves shooting mosquitoes with lasers (we promise to direct you to a video of his talk and demonstration when it becomes available). Myhrvold, a former Microsoft executive and amateur paleontologist, does his inventing work as part of his company Intellectual Ventures, which [...]
  Published on February 22nd, 2010 by Jimmy Guterman

• Bill Gates on Sustainability at TED 2010

  Last week (was it only last week?), during our coverage of TED in Long Beach, we cited Bill Gates’ talk on innovating to a carbon-free future as one of the top presentations. You don’t have to take our word for it anymore, as the talk is now available for all to see:
  Published on February 19th, 2010 by Jimmy Guterman

• Where’d the Employee Engagement Go?

  In the report on our first annual survey and interview project, The Business of Sustainability, we noted that 56 percent of corporate executives and managers selected “employee interest in sustainability” as an issue having “a significant impact on their company.” Separately, our thought leader group cited “enhanced recruitment, retention, and engagement … as major benefits [...]
  Published on February 17th, 2010 by Sean M. Brown

• The Pile for February 16, 2010

  The Pile is our weekly guide to what we’re reading to become better managers. We’re still neck-deep in what we learned last week at TED and what TED has led us to, but here are some other articles we found useful: We’ve become addicted to our smartphones, but are we getting anything out of them? In The [...]
  Published on February 16th, 2010 by Jimmy Guterman

• TED 2010: Day 4 and Wrapup

  First, some notes on earlier talks here. Yesterday I wrote about Bill Gates’ presentation. The video hasn’t been posted yet, but you can read an insightful slide-by-slide rundown by Nancy Duarte (who we’ve featured previously in MIT Sloan Management Review). And a few days back, I mentioned another Microsoft-related talk: Blaise Aguera y Arcas’ demo of [...]
  Published on February 14th, 2010 by Jimmy Guterman

• TED 2010: Day 3

  Yes, it’s elitist. Yes, sometimes the presenters and their audience can be too full of themselves. But I’ve yet to attend a day of TED when something hasn’t made me rethink something. We had all of that today. I am disappointed to report that, unlike yesterday, no one on the stage destroyed any mosquitoes with a [...]
  Published on February 13th, 2010 by Jimmy Guterman

• For more TED…

  A few quick notes before I run into the next session: One of the best TED-U sessions was Derek Sivers on what it takes to be a leader, with a shirtless dancing guy as the news hook. Treat yourself to this three-minute talk. I wrote about Jamie Oliver’s TED Prize talk on Wednesday night. See his talk [...]
  Published on February 12th, 2010 by Jimmy Guterman

• TED 2010: Day 2

  Longtime TEDsters know that sometime during the second day attendees give up hope of taking in everything that is shooting their way. There’s just too much to keep up; every 15 or 20 minutes, there’s another talk that directs an axe toward something you have assumed was true your whole life.
  Published on February 12th, 2010 by Jimmy Guterman

» Strategy on Insead Knowledge :

• Buying companies for new competencies: Is it worth it?

  In fast-moving industries, large companies are increasingly using acquisitions as a strategy to obtain new competencies from smaller firms.
  
  When Rahul Kapoor, a PhD candidate in strategy at INSEAD, became interested in acquisitions, he noticed that although many promising hi-tech start-ups were being acquired, technological progress seemed to stall after the acquisition.
  
  

• Relationship building: A key driver for securing repeat business

  A study of consulting firm Celerant has found that relationship building is key to bringing in repeat business which accounts for up to 70 per cent of its revenues each year.
  
  The study of Celerant Consulting, conducted by INSEAD Professor of Organisational Behaviour Tom D’Aunno, also found that 91 per cent of clients surveyed would like to work with Celerant again.

• Fast Strategy: Staying ahead of the game

  How can you make sure your company not only keeps its edge over its competitors, but also seizes new opportunities? In a new book called Fast Strategy: How strategic agility will help you stay ahead of the game, INSEAD professor Yves Doz and co-author Mikko Kosonen, a former senior Nokia executive, say the best way to do this is by making the most of what they call ‘strategic agility’.
  
  "I personally experienced how Nokia, as a leading company, gradually lost some of its strategic sensitivity and resource fluidity as a result of successful growth," Kosonen says. "In the early ‘90s it won over Ericsson and Motorola because of its strategic agility. But then over the years, some of these capabilities began to deteriorate and, when we tried to change, it became really difficult."

• Knowledge transfer: Use templates to pass on best practices, at least initially

  As corporations look to expand overseas – through franchising, outsourcing or setting up plants and offices elsewhere – they transfer best practices to maintain their competitive edge. But what’s the best way of doing that and how should they adapt these operational practices to local conditions? According to studies carried out by INSEAD Professor of Strategy Gabriel Szulanski and others, companies need to identify and validate actual examples that have been shown to produce results.

• The new deal at the top

  "Most companies have key managers reporting directly to the CEO on a one-to-one basis, with responsibility for their units or regions," says Yves Doz, who holds the Timken chair in Global Technology and Innovation at INSEAD. The Professor of Business Policy says the result is that "the businesses or regions tend to behave in an autonomous fashion similar to the way a baron would manage his fiefdom."

» Networking & organizations on Insead Knowledge :

• Linking team diversity to extreme team performance

  During his time working at Vivendi Universal, Fabrice Cavarretta, a PhD candidate in Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD, says "intuitively it felt that the company would either do extremely well or very badly. But it was not clear whether anyone could have predicted which way it would go. I became fascinated by Vivendi’s top management team’s composition, which was so homogeneous one could feel the situation turn out excessively well, or be a complete fiasco - one extreme or the other."

• Microsoft's Courtois: Using technology to tackle climate change

  Tackling climate change for Europe is “an incredible opportunity to innovate and compete with the rest of the world.” That’s the view of Microsoft International President Jean-Philippe Courtois. Technology can help by linking entrepreneurs to academics, venture capitalists and big business, Courtois says.

• Networking is vital for successful managers

  INSEAD Professor of Organisational Behaviour Herminia Ibarra says managers who neglect to build their networks risk failing or remaining stuck in middle management. "What you know is who you know," she says.

• The employee value proposition: Be an employer of choice

  A lot of companies talk about being an employer of choice, but as competition for talent heats to a boil, Stewart Black, INSEAD Affiliate Professor of Organisational Behaviour, says executives have to do more than give the concept lip service.

• Talent Management: Building and sustaining a strong talent pipeline

  Best practices only work in a given context, says Günter Stahl, INSEAD Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour. "So what works for one company may not work for another." That?s one of the key findings of The Global Human Resource Research Alliance, a study of best practices in talent management on which Stahl was a lead researcher. It investigated the processes and practices of 37 multinational companies, selected on the basis of their international scope, long-term performance and reputation.