Porter's Generic Strategies

Scientific Management at Ford

Chipotle "Back to the Start"

VHS vs Betamax

The One Great Thing that Every Great Leader Does

“Yochi,” I finally said, “I think you wrote that first plan on the plane. The venture guys kicked holes in it so you rushed back to your hotel and re-wrote it. Then you went to your next meeting and repeated the process. You’re doing that over and over until you get a plan that the venture community will buy.” 

“That’s exactly what I’m doing,” he softly replied. 

“Wow,” I said in amazement, “the VC guys are writing your business plan for you. By the time you’re finished they’ll have so much invested it’ll be their plan. Then they’ll have to buy it.” Yochi just laughed.

Link 

In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad

However, the workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labor in harsh conditions, according to employees inside those plants, worker advocates and documents published by companies themselves. Problems are as varied as onerous work environments and serious — sometimes deadly — safety problems. 

Employees work excessive overtime, in some cases seven days a week, and live in crowded dorms. Some say they stand so long that their legs swell until they can hardly walk. Under-age workers have helped build Apple’s products, and the company’s suppliers have improperly disposed of hazardous waste and falsified records, according to company reports and advocacy groups that, within China, are often considered reliable, independent monitors.

Link 

Starbucks unveils plans for India stores with Tata

Starbucks has unveiled plans to open its first outlets in India.Continue reading the main story

The outlets are to be co-branded "Starbucks Coffee: A Tata Alliance", on an initial investment of 4bn rupees ($80m).


The US coffee giant said the first coffee shops would open by
September in a 50-50 joint venture with Tata Global Beverages.

Companies try to recycle all waste, send nothing to landfill

Food leftovers as worm bedding? At a DuPont warehouse in Lockport, N.Y., cafeteria waste is turned into compost that's used for its landscaping.

• 
  By Don Heupel, for USA TODAY

Enlarge

By Don Heupel, for USA TODAY

At other DuPont facilities, shipping pallets are repaired or shred into chips to make animal bedding, and scrap pieces of Corian are recycled into new countertops or used as landscape stone. Food waste that's not composted is turned into energy.

DuPont Building Innovations, which makes countertops and Tyvek building wrap, announced earlier this month that — within three years — it has slashed the annual amount of waste it sends to landfills from 81 million pounds to zero. Yes, zero.

Link

What the Bible Teaches About Capitalism

More than any other nation, the United States was founded on broad themes of morality rooted in a specific religious perspective. We call this the Judeo-Christian ethos, and within it resides a ringing endorsement of capitalism as a moral endeavor. 

Regarding mankind, no theme is more salient in the Bible than the morality of personal responsibility, for it is through this that man cultivates the inner development leading to his own growth, good citizenship and happiness. The entitlement/welfare state is a paradigm that undermines that noble goal.

Link 

How Barnes & Noble Can Save Itself From Becoming A Kodak Moment

Kodak’s current moment speaks to the basic branding principle referred to as “fit and leverage.” Sure, many Kodak products “fit” logically into the areas in which it competed, be it cameras, film, or printing. The problem was that it hasn’t been able to “leverage” any of these things in any significant or sustainable way. It hasn’t been able to come up with a better mousetrap and has lost its competitive advantage across the board. And this is the daunting challenge now being faced by Barnes & Noble. 

What Barnes & Noble needs to do in order not to follow Kodak into the brand book of memories is to rethink its business strategy; determine how it can take the products and services if offers – good fits all, by the way – and leverage them in a way that no one else in the category is doing, or can do. Now, you don’t have to be a tech expert to know that the company’s Nook will never beat Apple at the e-reader game. Nor do you have to be an actuary to know that Barnes & Noble will never beat Amazon on pure scale, be it Kindle related or otherwise. But if Barnes & Noble looks hard enough and thinks smart enough it might find a play that’s not yet on the playing field, a way of combining the best of retail book selling with the best of what people love about reading in a digital world. Remember, Barnes & Noble has something its competitors don’t – a ubiquitous and very popular brick and mortar presence. To survive the category evolution, it has to somehow bundle its goods and services in a way that’s different from what’s already out there in a way that consumers care about (the mark, of course, of every strong brand).

Link 

The End of a Job as We Know It

The concept of a job, as we know it, is starting to go away.

Let me explain. Over the last year I’ve been speaking with corporate business and human resource leaders and hearing a common theme: we need our organizations to be more agile. We need to redesign our organization to build dynamic cross-functional teams, communicate faster, and rapidly find experts.

Link

Challenger tragedy caused by Groupthink?

Activists call for Body Shop boycott

Animal welfare activists have called for a boycott of the Body Shop after its founder Anita Roddick and fellow shareholders sold out to French cosmetics giant L'Oreal for £652m.

The boycott was called by Naturewatch and backed by Uncaged.

The animal welfare groups oppose L'Oreal's policy on the testing of cosmetics ingredients on animals.

Body Shop made its name championing ethical consumerism and opposing animal testing and went on to make a fortune of £130m for Mrs Roddick and her husband Gordon.

Link

Being a Sailboat vs Powerboat

Leaders often feel they must develop elaborate five- or 10-year plans. This is a mistake, Parrott argues.
"I know what we have on our plate for the next 18 months," Parrott said. "What is after that I have no idea. But if we are good stewards and get the most out of what we have, the right opportunity will come along."

The key, he argues, is to be a sailboat rather than a powerboat. He uses the example of Belhaven's recent decision to buy the adult accelerated learning programs in Chattanooga and Atlanta from Covenant College.

Read more: djournal.com - Belhaven chief touts new book Jackson university s growth

Contrast with Bryan College's Vision 2020, particularly projects already completed.

The Greatest Running Shoe Never Sold

Athletic brands spend millions every year trying to build a better sneaker that will propel them to the front of the $6.3 billion running shoe business, one of the biggest and most visible areas of sporting goods, with 11 percent growth in 2011, according to industry analyst SportsOneSource. Nearly all sneakers have a sole that looks like lasagna, composed of layers of rubber, foam, and plastic. The fluffy foam is made from ethylene-vinyl acetate, or EVA, which has its critics: EVA adds weight to shoes, and lab tests show it requires more energy per stride. Running shoe companies have long sought an EVA substitute that absorbs shock but also returns more energy. “Consumers like the cushioned feeling associated with a conventional running shoe,” says Darren Stefanyshyn, a University of Calgary researcher and former chairperson of the Footwear Biomechanics Group. “If you could provide that without using foam, you’d have a winner.”

Link

Is It Ethical to Own an iPhone?

"Recent media reports and ongoing protests over the reportedly abhorrent working conditions at factories where Apple's iPhones are produced have left socially conscious Americans with a dilemma: Is it ethical to own an iPhone? 

For many Americans, even those who support socially responsible manufacturing and business practices, their iPhones and iPads have become must-have devices for both work and personal use. Now they're being forced to ask themselves whether they are willing to ignore strong evidence that their beloved devices are being made by mistreated and underpaid employees."

Link