US Airways and Kimpton Hotels both compete in very crowded market spaces where price can make the difference in a consumer’s final selection.  But one of them knows how to move beyond price to compete on experience and the other doesn’t. On a recent trip to NYC, I flew on US Air because it [...]

What to do about US banks that are too big to fail, to regulate, to understand, to manage or, given their importance in national income growth, to compromise their ability to grow?  Two solutions are on the table: one high in regulation and the other high in disruption. Both aim to remedy the US taxpayer [...]

It came as no surprise to many analysts that Microsoft has had a disappointing few months, with very slow holiday sales of its Surface tablet and continuing tepid-at-best reviews of Windows 8.  PCs and Windows software are in trouble – so much so that Microsoft is investing billions to prop up one of its channels [...]

Brand trust is harder to earn in today’s economy? The pressure to cut costs makes delivering day after day on promised benefits more challenging. Social media creates messages that listeners deem more reliable than your own. And retaining meaningful and hard-to-copy differentiation has become more challenging in our copycat global economy. Silicon leader Dow Corning [...]

As a budding economist, I was initially awed by the market mechanism: the invisible hand that encourages innovation and leads companies to efficiency levels that grow our nation’s wealth.  Observing underlying economic principles at work never ceased to amaze me as a college or graduate student. My learning journey in economics was not unlike that [...]

The most powerful brands offer more than a unique, hard-to-copy and relevant value promise embracing both tangible and emotional benefits. They are also about more than the brand’s personality, although I will admit to loving beer brand Dos Equis “most interesting man in the world” personality. The best brands appeal to a shared aspiration that [...]

The following quote (courtesy of a blog post by Esther Dyson, savvy internet investor) should be posted on billboards next to every large company, especially in Japan where once-great electronics giants face the Herculean challenge of reversing an accelerating decline. “Without order, planning, predictability, central control, accountancy, instructions to underlings, obedience, discipline — without these [...]

Leaders often fail to recognize the underlying facts that will transform their markets, which creates opportunities for disruptors who work 24/7/365 for a share of the leader’s business. The economy’s move from the Industrial Age to the Information Age created three new facts that leaders must heed. Let me use newspapers as an example of [...]

I had occasion this week to look through a number of business-to-business manufacturers’ websites and noted the growing role of services in company offerings. Some services link directly to the products (e.g., financing or warranty services). Others are complementary – e.g., “buy our power generation products and our service team will help you minimize your [...]

I had occasion this week to look at a number of different frameworks containing questions that help you design and innovate business models, each one developed by an insightful strategist and each offering advantages. While they varied in details, there was a singular logic that leaders, charged with ensuring their company is competing with winning [...]