An interesting report by Stanton Marris came out this week, as reported by Stephan Stern in tuesday’s FT, called: “Strategy evolution: adapting to a new world”. Stanton Marris interviewed 45 CEOs and other board directors to find out how they are wrestling with the question of strategic repositioning, which is particularly important given today’s extremely rapid market [...]
Category Archives: Strategy
Branding Locally-Made as the Real Premium
July 12, 2009 – 10:57 am
“Made in the USA”, or even better, “Made in Canada”, is definitely a branding that scores high in our opinion as consumers. We are probably not alone. Much has been said about the role of the US housing bubble in the current economic woes, less about the role of China and our addiction to consumption. [...]
Les priorités du gestionnaire de crise
June 21, 2009 – 9:42 pm
I was interviewed by Nicolas on crisis management for lawyers, in the June edition of the Canadian Bar Association’s “National” monthly magazine.
Exxon + GM = ?
June 10, 2009 – 2:18 pm
The U.S. government just announced the appointment of the new Charmain of the Board for the new entity, once it emerges out of bankruptcy. Here’s an excerpt from the press release: General Motors Corp. says the former chairman and CEO of AT&T Inc. will become the chairman of the reorganized automaker later this summer. Edward Whitacre Jr., 67, will [...]
Underground/Overground – June 9th, 2009
June 9, 2009 – 12:26 am
Today we’re starting a new regular post on this blog – the Underground/Overground review of the week in business & marketing. “What’s that?”, we hear you clamoring. The concept is quite simple: every week, the comrades at Camarade will select and comment for you the news that should have been given more placement, and the [...]
Simple comme Burger
June 4, 2009 – 9:02 am
GM and Starbucks should have followed the example of McDonald’s, which was founded long ago around the four principles of simplicity, control, cleanness and order.
Government Motors
June 1, 2009 – 6:55 pm
It’s a sad day for corporate America. It’s also a sad day for U.S. and Canadian taxpayers, who now own Government Motors. From a Canadian perspective, with our fragile government and annoying inability to take decisions, owning 12% of this mess can only come as terrible news. Having watched CNBC all night as they report [...]
In Praise of the CPO
May 30, 2009 – 9:47 am
Among the string of operational changes brought by the Obama administration, we were thrilled to see the position of “Chief Performance Officer” open for the first time, as part of the Office of Management and Budget in the Executive Office of the President. Jeffrey Zients was given the position on April 18, following the nomination [...]
L’imputabilité, “no matter what!”
April 26, 2009 – 3:56 pm
From a management point of view, it was rather inspiring to hear President Obama declare “The buck stops with me” about the “dirty” AIG bonuses, even if he hadn’t anything to do with that problem. Taking responsibility is the first step towards accountability. And accountability is the first step toward performance.
Regulation By Failure
April 12, 2009 – 1:14 pm
You’ve heard it on the news: government regulation is relevant again – especially in finance. It was long overdue. We are now going to witness a return of one of the most important natural forces of human nature, that we seemed to have forgotten about: I’m speaking of FAILURE. After 15 years of unstoppable growth, [...]