Versatile Amphibian

As promised in my update on the research I'm doing on executive team roles and configurations , here is the first deep dive into an industry. I've chosen to start with Retail for a couple of reasons. First - selfishly - I have some ongoing cases that can make use of the data. Second, retail is a nice, simple business to understand. True, many companies make it complex to manage and understand, but relative to many other sectors retail is very easy. You buy products (some or all of which you may have designed), you move them into a market in which there is demand and then you sell them for more than you bought them for. Sure, there are many twists on this ('total lifetime value', as an excuse for discounting, for example), but fundamentally, you buy, you ship, you sell for more than your costs. You would think that with such a well understood model that there would be a consistent 'best' configuration for both leadership and the organisation that those people l...

Yesterday’s news cycle brought with it the announcement that Debenhams, a staple of the UK high street, was now in the control of its lenders . This kind of news is sad for the employees of Debenhams and certainly for its shareholders, but it is also a good opportunity for reflection. A business that can trace its history back to 1778 may be about to cease trading forever. For leaders in the retail and associated consumer industries, now is a good time to consider what lessons can be learnt from Debenhams and what could be done to seize the opportunity presented by its passing. I’m thinking about the topic of strategic responses to emerging events at the moment because of the seeming inevitability of a recession this year or next, which will doubtless bring with it many similar situations. Before I get started, a disclaimer. I have no inside knowledge of Debenhams, I have never consulted for them, pitched to them or even met anyone in their management team. This post uses Debenham...

I've been doing a really large number of driver trees recently - we've taken to using them on every project to get really into the guts of value creation for businesses and thus decide where to focus initiative development (How To Win, if you're keeping score). Anyhow, I had to pause for thought recently to work out how to represent the subscription aspect of telecoms retail for a client. Since it took me a minute, I thought I'd share... its lack of elegance suggests that its not quite right, although it was enough to demonstrate that there was a certain lack of coverage in the initiatives that my client was pursuing and thus spark a debate. Enjoy.

I’m firmly of the belief that participants in the TMT industry need to read widely in order to understand the present and future dynamics of the market. To that end, this post is a collection of the articles that have caught my eye. This week – Retail Fights Back, it’s Zuck’s year in the Netherlands, how Microsoft is making games gamier and dreams of an iPad duck hunt. Emerging technology Why do I need this? I want a camera to start super-fast, be incredibly reliable and focussed (sorry) on taking brilliant pictures. Do I need a jury-rigged smart phone O/S for that? Of course not. I predict... Fail. http://www.slashgear.com/polaroid-sc1630-16mp-smart-camera-runs-android-10208386/ A big moment for Nokia and Microsoft. The 800 has received great reviews, but the sales figures I’ve seen have been a bit lacklustre – only a few tens of thousands of units finding a home in the UK since launch. I hope the 900 does better as I’m very bullish about Nokia – they remain great engineers and use ra...

I've been trying to get my head around the news that HMV are struggling - closing 10% of their stores in order to avoid breaking their debt covenants. It's not news that the shift to digital and increasing popularity of Play and Amazon hurt the traditional retail model, however I can't really understand how it can drive a retailer like HMV - a near-monopoly player on the highstreet to the verge of bankrupcy. I think the fundamental issue is that the core HMV stores provide a commodity retail experience - pile-em high and sell-em... not cheap enough. I don't buy CDs and games from HMV anymore, because the experience is so horrible - I'd rather get them from Amazon in bulk. Contrast this with Waterstones (also owned by HMV). Much to my surprise, I've started buying my books there again after nearly a decade of Amazon. Why? Because Waterstones stores provide a personal recommendation service instore, whether through the little cards they place on the shelf-ends or ...