Rss Feed
Tweeter button
Linkedin button

Archive for the ‘Journal Articles’ Category

The ultimate strategy for thinking on your feet…

Comes from an Air Force pilot named John Boyd. For many within the defense industry, there is no greater strategist in the last four decades. The downside? The only place you’ll find things he has written are in military libraries and only available through inter-library loans.

While his book rushes to my door, I am enjoying the process of considering his model without much context. The famous OODA loop has been applied to corporate, industrial and military strategy, with success in each of these domains.

Of the many important observations, including the OODA decision framework – my favorite has to be the simultaneous look at the unfolding interaction with his environment and the acknowledgment of the inherent bias that individuals arrive with.  I don’t have much to drill into from his writings, but I’ve been having a lot of fun with this one. I hope you do too!

Tags: ,

No Comments


Why Big Guys Team up with Little Guys

This question is particularly interesting to all the scrappy entrepreneurs out there. Evidence from the Formula One racing world illustrates that they do it for one reason: the little guys work harder.

When there is strong relationship between effort and output, the big players can afford to slack off. Even IF their performance sucks, their amazing reputation will put a nice sheen on anything they do.  The little guys can’t afford such random events as a bad performance. So they work harder and better in order to support their teammate (be it a supplier, customer, partner…)

The result ends up being that when great Formula One brands pick engine suppliers who are less well known, they get better service and hustle. In a game where service, speed and hustle counts – sometimes little and charged up is better than big and well known.

Castellucci, Fabrizio and Ertug, Gokhan “What’s in It for Them? Advantages of Higher-status Partners in Exchange Relationships.” Academy of Management Journal. Feb 2010. Vol 53. Issue 1.

Tags: , , ,

No Comments


Designing BOP Businesses

Designing Companies for the Base of the Economic Pyramid

View more presentations from chastings.
A friend remarked recently…. we’ve heard of all those mentioned in Pralahad’s book, but where are the new examples?
If we listen to James Fiet, we can find it by looking in all the right places and making a deliberate search – so why aren’t we?
Does it violate the rights of the poor to try and crowdsource?
Does it ruin the myth of base of the pyramid ingenuity by looking for the “bright spots?” (Hat tip to the Heath Brothers.)
A leader in teh BOP told met hat if I wanted to understand them and serve them, then I should go live there for 10 years, find an innovation and then go change the world.  I’m young, I’m idealistic – do I have to wait 10 years? Is the harshness of poverty so disguised? Can I not be determined to create using the principles of empathy, connection with the end consumer and prototyping to start the change right now?
That would seem smarter.

No Comments



Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes
SetPageWidth