Too often, technology is treated as an implementation detail. Strategy is decided first; technology is brought in later to execute it, accelerate it – or even to try to rescue it. Outside a small number of digitally native firms, many Read More

Most organisations think strategy lives in documents such as PowerPoint decks, spreadsheets and carefully worded statements about markets, priorities and strengths. But if you really want to know your strategy, look at sales conversations – especially the ones that happen Read More

In the UK the big coffee chains – Costa, Starbucks, Pret – are under pressure. Latest symptom: while Coca Cola bought Costa from Whitbread for £3.9bn, they’ve just turned down an offer for less than half of that. But it’s Read More

Are you an incumbent business, scared by the media and advertisers with stories of ‘the disruptors’? If so, consider this electrifying quote from Miyamoto Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings. In it, the legendary Japanese sword master tells us how Read More

[I’m not naming the company in my example because it has since changed strategy and leadership following the events described below] A few years ago, a 100-year-old multinational hired a top-tier management consultancy to help it navigate an existential strategic Read More