Some time ago, I had written a short post – The Success of the Opposite – in which I had argued that there is always a market for the opposite point of view! In fact, if anything fails spectacularly it could well be because it took a position exactly similar to a leader or a […]
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In our professional lives, we all have to make a lot of presentations, some to a small group of people, some to very large audiences. People who present well are likely to have a big advantage over their peers who don’t. Yet, many of us just don’t spend enough time working on and practicing out […]
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U.K. fitness brand Protein World has come out with billboards in the London Underground featuring a skinny woman in a swimsuit, alongside the provocative tagline, “Are you beach body ready?” Of course, the campaign has been attacked on the grounds that it implied that thinness was standard for beauty. There were some inventive (and outraged) […]
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The world took on cigarette smoking and tobacco consumption with a vengeance. And rightly so – as we all know, the consumption of tobacco is linked to a number of serious diseases. The attack on tobacco became so intense and sustained that the consumption of tobacco began being viewed as a despicable habit. The result […]
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The biggest sporting event in India is the IPL that lasts for around six weeks. Many advertisers spend huge sums of monies during this six-week period to get their brand messages across. I am sure that Vodaphone, Amazon, Tata Sky, Paytm, Snapdeal and others have spent huge sums of money to advertise on the IPL. […]
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A lot of what we know about competitive strategy owes a great deal to the work of Harvard’s Michael Porter. In this post, I am sharing the first HBR article that Porter wrote in 1979 to explain the five forces that shape strategy. Also attached is an updated version of the article that Porter revised […]
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I am sure many of you are familiar with the Ansoff Matrix. It is a simple strategic planning tool aimed at understanding generic strategies for growing a business via existing or new products in existing or new markets. The 2*2 matrix was presented by Igor Ansoff in his 1957 article in HBR and is still […]
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The technology market is evolving at a rapid rate – current technologies are advancing and new ones are entering the marketplace. It is likely that the average customer, who is likely to be technology-shy, finds the onslaught of these technologies overwhelming. Those who do are likely to ignore the adoption of the technology. In such […]
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In the last 120 years or so, there have been five distinct movements in the way companies compete. This has been covered extremely well in the attached article by Ken Favaro of the consultancy firm Strategy&. Efficiency. The first movement was efficiency, propounded mainly by Frederick W. Taylor. He wrote The Principles of Scientific Management […]
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The attached article by Professor Roger Martin of Rotman School of Management (who co-authored Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works with P&G’s A. G. Lafley) is a must read. In the article, Professor Martin highlights that there are still only two ways to compete: Cost Leadership. The founder of the Boston Consultancy Group, Bruce […]
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