Winning Moves Blog

I’ve said in my previous writing that brainstorming does not drive successful innovation. This is the case because success does not come from generating the wildest ideas. According to my 25+ years researching business success and failure patterns, innovation success results from selectively pursuing the right ideas, generally ideas that evolve from your existing strengths. A new book related to this, Continue reading “Think Inside the Box Beats Brainstorming’s Wild Ideas” »

Bloomberg Businessweek recently (April 15-21, 2013) featured several brief how-to articles on a variety of subjects. One of them, was “How to Reinvent a Brand” as told to Susan Berfield by Lew Frankfort, CEO of Coach, a company that went from a $550 million business to $5 billion in about a decade.

Short but valuable, the article includes what my 25+ years of research into business success and failure patterns finds is one of the most–if not the most–important Continue reading “Avoid the Fatal Error: a Key How-To Rule for Reinventing Your Brand” »

The recent turmoil at Penney’s illustrates the challenges of transformational change. And, when transformational change goes awry, merely halting the bold moves and attempting to reverse the damage does not eliminate the challenges. At Penney’s, challenges remain even after ousting its CEO, former Apple executive Ron Johnson, who was hired to bring about transformational change. So, now what for Penney’s? Continue reading “Stop the Transformational Change–It’s Too Bold for Penney’s, but Now What?” »

The March 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review described a research study which found that CEOs who have been in their jobs for more than five years perform more poorly than those whose tenure has not yet reached the five year mark. The article, “Long CEO Tenure Can Hurt Performance” by Xueming Luo, Vamsi K. Kanuri, and Michelle Andrews, explains that Continue reading “CEO Tenure: How Data Can Be Misleading” »

Have you seen the article “Big-Bang Disruption” in the latest issue (March 2013) of Harvard Business Review? This article screams panic. It elicits potent emotional reactions by displaying powerful images of buildings being destroyed. Its message: the severe damage and destruction seen in these buildings can easily happen to your business if you don’t take bold action fast.

But, panic is a poor business strategy. And, the strategic advice Continue reading “Don’t Panic! It Won’t Save You from Market Disrupters” »