Corporate strategy

And why your company can’t ignore it.

A confident approach is a useful strategy when dealing with difficult people.

It tells you where an industry is going.

The problems with the company are ingrained in its business model.

An education-gaming firm that has relied largely on volunteer developers has to rethink this strategy as it prepares to pitch investors for a new round...

A survey of 50 executives found four strategies for getting the deal done.

Less than a decade after the frantic merger activity of the late 1960s, we are again in the midst of a major wave of corporate acquisitions. In contrast to the 1960s, when acquirers were mainly freewheeling conglomerates, the merger movement in the 1970s includes such long-established giants of U.S. industry as General Electric, Gulf Oil, […]

In search of lessons to apply in our own careers, we often try to emulate what effective leaders do. Roger Martin says this focus is misplaced, because...

Research finds optimism and pessimism play an important role.

Lessons from P&G's acquisition of Gillette.

For decades, negotiators have been working out agreements by focusing on interests, not positions. But the messy problem of how to share the gains created...

Examples from ING Direct and Southern New Hampshire University.

Many companies looking for breakthroughs struggle to move beyond incremental ideas, because cognitive biases trap people in the status quo and prevent...

5% of patients drive half of the health care spending in the U.S.

Not every challenge requires an algorithmic approach.

Visits to the toy store were a lot different for Jim Clayton since he took the job as president of Playto Industries. Long lines at the checkout counter used to infuriate him. Now they delighted him because they signaled a boom in sales for Playto. Trips up and down the aisles used to be part […]

The value of many products and services rises or falls with the number of customers using them; the fewer fax machines in use, the less important it is...

The United States and United Kingdom may be, as Churchill said, two countries separated by the same language. Equally, however, the United Kingdom may be the best window Americans have onto the deliberately opaque landscape of the European Community. Sitting here in London, spiritually closer to Boston than to Brussels, it is easy for me […]

Three elements to focus on.

While in-depth analysis of competitors and suppliers is de rigueur in formulating strategy, surprisingly few companies pay much attention to firms that sell complementary products and services.