Exploring ideas in strategy, management and how organizations really work.
The Firm Marvin Bower faced a critical choice. He had led McKinsey & Company from its earliest years, in the process helping to define the fledgling field of management consulting.1 Now nearing retirement age, it was time to hand the…
Network effects The scrappy technology startup faced an existential threat. The company was down to its final arguments in the United States Supreme Court, where the ruling would determine its fate and if millions of invested dollars would be lost….
Case study Harvard Business School’s campus is an extreme outlier, even when compared to those of peer institutions with similar histories. Situated on the Charles River across from the main buildings of its parent university, the self-contained layout was originally…
Idea one and idea two Author Theodor Geisel was dealing with some tough constraints. The audience for his next book required an instantly captivating story with a clear narrative arc, but there was a catch: they could only process a…
Future tense A good strategy should be responsive to the various scenarios that could plausibly materialize, but even the most tightly crafted ones get blown apart when their subject is hit by an asteroid. In our current situation the object…
Great circle route The next time you travel by airplane, look out the window and see if you can count how many engines are attached to the wings. Chances are pretty good you will find only one on each side….
Fit to print In the early twentieth century Americans seeking the news had plenty of print sources to choose from, many of which were local papers. Even smallish towns had markets deep enough to support multiple publications, each jockeying to…
Sleep tight The choice of a mattress is fraught with implications, given how much of life is spent asleep and the infrequency of their purchase, not to mention the high price tag. Manufacturers are keenly aware of this and do…
Job perks Beyond the obvious global consequences, the upheaval of the Second World War was causing significant reverberations in the American labor market. Millions of workers who would normally have been filling jobs on the home front were instead deployed…
Come all ye faithful Some of the devoted choose to meet in the early morning, braving the cold and arriving at their nondescript buildings in the pre-dawn darkness. The name on the sign outside might reference “soul” or “cross,” but…