Strategy | INSEAD Knowledge

Strategy

Is the Globalisation Recession Here to Stay?

Marcos Troyjo

Potential pathways to a new chapter for globalisation in an increasingly disconnected world.

Strategy

A First Step Towards Resilient Organisations

Ekin Ilseven

Cultivating resilience in the face of organisational crises hinges on the foundation of a clear strategy, heightened awareness and robust reserves.

Marketing

INSEAD Insights: September 2023 Research Picks

Lily Fang

Recent findings on online marketplace dynamics, new market creation, trust in AI, diversity in corporate boards and consumer choices.

Strategy

A Nondisruptive Approach to the Environment

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne, M. Ji

Companies can help the transition to a greener economy without sacrificing their financial interests.

Strategy

Mastering the Game: The Advantage of AI Training

Henning Piezunka

In the same way chess computers gave players a competitive edge, AI has the power to elevate skills and enhance performance.

Entrepreneurship

How Founding Conditions Impact Start-Up Success

D. C. Motley, C. E. Eesley, W. W. Koo

Diverse founding teams formed in unpredictable environments tend to perform better in similar subsequent conditions.

Managing the Black Box Crucial to Megaproject Success

Strategy

Inside the Black Box Crucial to Megaproject Success

S. Shekshnia, V. Vyas

Despite their importance to the global economy, most megaprojects fail to be delivered on budget or schedule. Here’s how managers could improve on that dismal record.

Unconventional thinking: man with balloon rises to reach target

Strategy

How LLMs Can Change the Way We Strategise

E. Ilseven, Y. Doz

LLMs have notable limitations when it comes to strategy formulation, but deliberately imperfect prompts can challenge conventional thinking.

Strategy

Democracy, Defence and Conflict in the Age of AI

Rachel Eva Lim

How can we ensure that AI fosters, rather than undermines, democratic values?

Strategy

Must AI Accuracy Come at the Cost of Comprehensibility?

F. Candelon, T. Evgeniou, D. Martens

Companies looking to integrate AI in their operations should think twice before turning their backs on simpler, more explainable AI algorithms in favour of complex ones.

Leadership & Organisations

Stop Going It Alone

Michael Jarrett

Negotiating radical organisational change needs to be a collective effort.

Strategy

The Importance of Strategic Minds

Y. Doz, K. Wilson

Directors and CEOs need to develop specific traits to effectively navigate strategic issues and help shape the future of companies.

Navigating trust and safety in a world of AI

Operations

Navigating Trust and Safety in the World of Generative AI

T. Evgeniou, J. Dunn, A. Hunsberger

The new generation of artificial intelligence can help defend against online harms – if we can effectively manage the risks.

Strategy

How AI Can Improve Human Performance

F. Gaessler, H. Piezunka

AI training enhances strategic skills, especially in lower-skilled individuals. But it isn’t a perfect substitute for human training partners.

understanding depopulation could be good for business

Economics & Finance

Why Demographics Matters More Than Ever for Businesses

C. Zeisberger, D. G. Munro

How understanding expanding and shrinking population subsets could help business and investors identify opportunities to pursue and pitfalls to avoid.

Strategy

ChatGPT and AI Disruption: Is Consulting Next in Line?

Phil Parker

Consultants need to up their game to match algorithms’ ability to provide affordable strategic due diligence.

Strategy

Developing AI With a Growth Mindset

T. Ojanperä, T. Vuori, Q. Huy

Nurture AI like you would a child.

Operations

The Road Ahead for XR Technology in Business Education

INSEAD Knowledge

How business schools can navigate the challenges and maximise the impact of immersive learning using VR.

Strategy

Leveraging Generative AI for Digital Transformation

Chengyi Lin

Opportunities and risks for companies incorporating generative AI as part of their digital transformation strategies.

Leadership & Organisations

Governance in the Age of Technological Innovation

Geraldine Ee

With new technologies redefining the global business ecosystem, how can boards navigate these changes and reinvent their business models?

Responsibility

Thoughtful Consumption for Well-Being and Sustainability

H. Plassmann, S. Rangan, E. Hansmeyer

Understanding consumer behaviour is key to making fashion more sustainable.

Strategy

Five Key Insights for Positive-Sum Innovation

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

With the right tools, businesses can innovate and achieve growth without negatively impacting society.

Strategy

Super Apps in Asia, “Everything App” in the US?

Guoli Chen

All-in-one apps that dominate China and other Asian markets may soon materialise in the United States, albeit with significant variations.

Entrepreneurship

What All Tech Start-Ups Need to Succeed

T. Evgeniou, L. Van der Heyden, Y. Lechelle

Governance exists to help tech entrepreneurs prevent value destruction from day one.

Responsibility

When Shareholders Share, the Business Benefits

Claudia Zeisberger

Offering company ownership to every employee can help reduce inequality.

Strategy

Recognising Possibility in Uncertainty

N. Furr, S. Furr

If we frame uncertainty in a different way, we might embrace the possibility it brings instead of fearing it.

Strategy

An Alternative Path to Innovation and Growth

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

How leaders can innovate and achieve growth without displacing industries, companies or jobs.

Strategy

Intellectual Honesty Is Critical for Innovation

Nathan Furr

Here’s how to balance psychological safety and intellectual honesty for better team performance.

Responsibility

Without Shared Values and Goals, Tech Regulations Won't Work

T. Evgeniou, L. Van der Heyden

The world needs to harmonise goals and values in order to rein in the potential harm technology can cause.

Strategy

ChatGPT vs. Hybrids: The Future Depends on Our Choices

Phil Parker

Imposing the equivalent of a worldwide moratorium on generative artificial intelligence is absurd. But developers might want to pause and reflect on what they hope to achieve before releasing AI applications to the public.

Strategy

How Will ChatGPT Shape Business, Society and Employment?

Geraldine Ee

Will next-generation AI systems such as ChatGPT deliver the productivity boost modern economies need – and are we ready for it?

Strategy

How to Effectively Engage Stakeholders

Lite Nartey

Strategies for identifying key players, managing stakeholder networks and creating joint value.

Two flocks of birds in two different directions

Leadership & Organisations

Joint Strategic Decisions: Do We All Need to Agree?

H. Piezunka, O. Schilke

How organisations’ decision-making rules affect the way individual managers vote.

Strategy

The Social Costs of Not Sharing Fake News

Asher Lawson

Not engaging with fake news online has its social costs; individuals are therefore forced to choose between spreading misinformation and social exclusion.

Operations

How Large Mergers Can Benefit Smaller Players

Xabier Barriola

Joint ventures between dominant incumbents can create opportunities for smaller firms to enter the market and capture market share.

Strategy

For MNCs, Big Decisions About China Are on Ice

Hellmut Schütte

Western multinationals have put important moves on hold amid political and economic uncertainty.

Leadership & Organisations

How to Rapidly Test New Organisation Designs

Phanish Puranam

Instead of blindly adopting industry best practice, companies can use gamified randomised control trials to pilot new organisation designs.

Strategy

How Conspiracy Talk Helps People Make Sense of the World

Henrich Greve

Sharing Covid-19 conspiracy theories on online social networks helped individuals cope with fear and uncertainty during the pandemic.

Responsibility

How Organisation Design Can Rescue the SDGs

Phanish Puranam

We're not on track to meet any SDGs by 2030. Organisation designers can help.

Strategy

Demystifying China’s Internet Giants

Guoli Chen

A behind-the-scenes look at what makes or breaks China’s Big Tech flagbearers and their foreign exploits.

Entrepreneurship

China’s Internet Giants: The Nuts and Bolts of Going Global

G. Chen, J. Li

The lowdown on how ByteDance, Shein and Xiaomi succeeded outside of China while WeChat failed.

Leadership & Organisations

Leading Change in Turbulence: Case of Discovery Inc.

J. Petriglieri, G. Petriglieri, M. Soldi

In this video, Marinella Soldi shares ways to navigate the turbulent waters of digital transformation and why it is important to tackle both the strategic and cultural facets of change.

Strategy

Only Fools Rush In: Pitfalls of Hasty Problem-Solving

Asher Lawson

Research into mindless maths reveals why it’s crucial to take your time when approaching a problem.

Strategy

Three Key Global Strategy Challenges Companies Face

Felipe Monteiro

Multinationals are adapting and redesigning their global strategies in response to mounting pressures.

Strategy

After the Guns Fall Silent, What Then?

Douglas Webber

Would an end of Russia's invasion of Ukraine result in lasting peace for the region?

Strategy

Managing in an Unimaginable World

José Santos

Business leaders can leverage serendipity to help their companies deal with far-reaching market shocks.

Business card exchange. Photo by Getty/PeopleImages

Career

Collaborations That Are Bad for Business but Benefit Employees

H. Piezunka, T. Grohsjean

Sharing a partner with competing companies hinders the success of firms but helps employees’ careers.

Strategy

Creating Your Blue Ocean Through Noncustomer Analysis

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne, M. Ji

Adopting a blue ocean perspective can allow you to reach beyond your existing industry’s customers.

Strategy

Can AI Help You Strategise Better?

P. Puranam, P. Sen

Machine learning algorithms can uncover intricate patterns in big data and enable managers to strategise with more confidence.

Creative office by KatarzynaBialasiewicz/Getty Images

Operations

Do Unconventional Offices Promote Creativity?

M. Sosa, S. Lee

It is widely assumed that unconventionally-designed offices stimulate creativity. But that isn’t always the case – sometimes they may even impede innovation.

Motherland Monument by ValuaVitaly/Getty Images

Strategy

A World at War With Putin’s Regime

Ludo Van der Heyden

To defend democracy, the civilised world needs to stand with Ukraine in securing victory and continue to engage and pressure Russia to reform itself.

Responsibility

Rising to the ESG Challenge: Towards Effective Governance

Geraldine Ee

Boards can drive the ESG agenda effectively by identifying what is material to their organisation and being willing to adapt along the way.

Strategy

How to Design for Disruption

A. Chadha, S. Hasija

Why a structured approach can turn a volatile world into a growth opportunity.

Strategy

Speed Kills: Why Some MNCs Fail to Pay Attention to Quality

Quy Huy

When managers are too fixated on quick financial results, ethics and service tend to take a backseat.

Leadership & Organisations

Why Communication Breaks Down

P. Puranam, Ö. Koçak

As workplaces become more diverse and work becomes more distributed, it is more important than ever to converge on a common code for effective communication.

Strategy

Thinkers50: The Upside of Uncertainty

Rachel Eva Lim

In this Thinkers50 webinar, Nathan Furr and Susannah Harmon Furr share practical tools for navigating life’s ambiguities.

Strategy

Will China’s Internet Giants Conquer the World?

G. Chen, J. Li

Dissecting the success and strategies of Chinese internet firms as more of them venture overseas.

Strategy

Four Elements of Successful Stakeholder Communication

Lite Nartey

Firms can enhance cooperation and reduce conflict by understanding the different dimensions of stakeholder dialogue.

Leadership & Organisations

The Special Bond Behind Every Brilliant Idea

M. Lazar, E. Miron-Spektor, J. Mueller

The way we view ourselves shapes the way we develop and connect with our own ideas.

Strategy

In Age of Deglobalisation, MNCs Need Closer Ties to Thrive

Q. Huy, C. Moschieri, D. Ravasi

Cultivating relationships with local communities and other stakeholders will help multinationals counterbalance increasingly powerful governments.

Entrepreneurship

Corporate VC Is Booming, but Is It What Your Start-Up Needs?

N. Sauvage, C. Zeisberger, M. Varadan

A guide to choosing the right corporate investment for entrepreneurs.

Leadership & Organisations

Paradox Mindset: The Source of Remarkable Creativity in Teams

E. Miron-Spektor, K. Emich, L. Argote, W. Smith

Teams are more successful if they embrace internal differences and explore conflicting ideas instead of glossing over them.

Operations

Making Sense of Attribution in Online Advertising

Antoine Desir

While online advertising has grown rapidly, methods to justify marketing spend on digital platforms have yet to catch up.

Strategy

Can We Get Better at Navigating Uncertainty?

Nathan Furr

What innovators have learnt that empowers them to face the uncertainty of new pursuits.

Leadership & Organisations

The X Factor in Crafting New CXO Roles Successfully

J. L. Alvarez, S. Svejenova

CXO roles have proliferated in recent decades, making it difficult for some title holders to find their footing in an ever-changing C-suite landscape.

Marketing

Consumer Streaks Are Motivating – The Key Is Keeping Them Alive

A. Barasch, J. Silverman

People often go out of their way to repeat a behaviour if it is logged and highlighted to them.

Strategy

Why the Customer Isn’t Always Right

Alixandra Barasch

Consumer behaviour on food-logging tools reveals initial expectations don’t match actual experience.

Operations

Mind the Inventory Risk: Price Paradox Under Competition

A. Ovchinnikov, H. Pun, G. Raz

In competitive environments, operational innovation could well be the answer to inventory risk.

Leadership & Organisations

What the World Can Learn From Nordic Boards

S. Shekshnia, S. B. Jensen, L. Engstam

Proactive, engaged and democratic, corporate boards in Nordic countries are well-placed to deal with today’s increasingly complex operating environments.

Marketing

Unlock the Full Value of Your Business Relationships

Christoph Senn

A fruitful relationship starts with asking the right – and sometimes difficult – questions.

Strategy

The Rising Importance of Value Innovation for Creating New Growth

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne, M. Ji

With limited resources at hand, companies need to stay smart and efficient when it comes to investing in innovation.

Strategies to Overcome Competitive Pressures: “Making” vs. “Milking”

Strategy

Overcoming Competitive Pressures: “Making” vs. “Milking”

P. B. Zemsky, A. A. Costa

A fresh take on the classic theme of generic business strategies.

Responsibility

Not All Heroes Wear Capes. They May Just Have More Willpower

Amit Bhattacharjee

We instinctively see people with stronger self-control as more virtuous and more capable of realising good intentions.

Career

The Pitfalls of Flaunting Your Social Status

A. Barasch, S. Srna, D. Small

Ditch the luxury logos if you want to be seen as a cooperative team player.

Strategy

Stop Labelling Negotiations as Win-Win or Win-Lose

Horacio Falcão

Too many people have an either naïve or fatalist view of these terms, which have become so misunderstood that we should perhaps even discard them.

Operations

Unfinished Business: Co-Creating Solutions With Beneficiaries

Atalay Atasu

Under severe budget constraints, how can NPOs manage the trade-offs between offering variety versus serving more beneficiaries?

Leadership & Organisations

Creating People-Centric International Organisations With AI

R. McLachlin, K. Tatarinov, T. Ambos, P. Puranam

The United Nations is both a fascinating playground for artificial intelligence applications and a showcase of AI implementation problems and solutions.

Strategy

ENGIE: Powering the Energy Transition With Data

P. Boza, T. Evgeniou, M. Sarkar

What does it take for a utility company to develop a data- and AI-driven software business?

Leadership & Organisations

Rethinking the Role of Leaders in the Creative Process

S. Harrison, E. Rouse

A strong vision and a more disciplined approach can actually equal more creative results.

Entrepreneurship

Venture Capital Crucial to Push for ‘Ethical’ AI and Tech Standards

T. Evgeniou, C. Zeisberger

Venture capitalists’ role as funding source and mentor of tech start-ups makes them uniquely placed to press for more responsible use of technology.

Entrepreneurship

Escaping the Survival Trap

Martin Gargiulo

Why expanding your network is crucial for long-term creative success.

Strategy

Russia’s War on Ukraine: First Lessons and Outlook

Michael A. Witt

Russia loses big, China gains, and win-lose becomes a new normal.

Responsibility

ESG in the Air

L. F. Monteiro, G. Szulanski

How the airline industry is riding a transformation to sustainability.

Strategy

Negotiating With a Team? Skip the Chit-Chat

R. Swaab, R. B. Lount Jr., S. Chung, J. M. Brett

Team negotiators may achieve higher joint gains when they first discuss superordinate goals that either team can’t achieve without the help of the other.

Strategy

A Simple Guide to Charting the Evolution of an Ecosystem

A. Shipilov, F. Burelli

Capture key changes and pivots with a timeline.

Marketing

Why Facebook Is Rebranding Itself as Meta

Klaus Wertenbroch

Is the tech company dodging bad publicity or creating a gatekeeper economy?

Strategy

Could Green Methanol Be What China Needs to Reach Net Zero?

Quy Huy

Methanol produced with solar and wind energy is a clean and cheap alternative fuel that could slash China’s emissions by as much as 80 percent.

Strategy

A Sociological Take on Creativity: Believe in the Unexpected

Frédéric Godart

Amid the relentless pursuit of creativity, it may be time to reconsider how we define it.

Strategy

ESG Strategy in Action

C. Lin, T. Smoor

Lessons from translating a global water conservation strategy into a coherent and impactful action plan.

Strategy

The Power of Collective Intelligence

Nathan Furr

Lessons from an ant colony.

Strategy

Our Best of 2021: Managing Change in Tumultuous Times

INSEAD Knowledge

This year's top articles look at adaptation, resilience and how we all manage change.

Strategy

Why Businesses Should Negotiate Prices With Customers

H. Falcao, A. Komaromi

In most scenarios, B2C companies have more to gain by bargaining than not.

Strategy

Negotiators Should Decrease Concessions Across Rounds

K. S. Tey, R. Swaab, M. Schaerer, N. Madan

Signalling your bottom line reduces your counterparty’s ambitions.

Career

Performance Reviews Need a Brand-New P&L

Chengyi Lin

Is your firm’s performance review process helping or hindering progress for your high potentials?

Career

The World’s Most Talent Competitive Countries, 2021

L. F. Monteiro, B. Lanvin

The pandemic revealed strengths and weaknesses in how nations develop and retain talent.

An Unintended Side-effect of Hedge Fund Activism.jpg

Strategy

An Unintended Side-effect of Hedge Fund Activism? Human Capital Loss

Philipp Meyer-Doyle

When hedge fund activism triggers an exodus of key employees, everyone loses.

Strategy

The Importance of Incorporating Innovation in a Firm

R. Noyes, L. F. Monteiro

In this INSEAD Knowledge podcast, the author describes lessons from his work with innovation and multinationals.

Strategy

If Your Company Were a Political Party, Which Would It Be?

Ayman Jawhar

Four simple questions will tell you where your organisation stands on today’s wide-ranging ideological spectrum.

Strategy

Five Lessons From Xiaomi’s Path to Smartphone Supremacy

Chengyi Lin

Xiaomi’s leadership team idolised Steve Jobs. Now, it seems the student has become the master.

Strategy

How the “Butterfly Effect” Can Harm Firm Performance

I. Stern, G. Chen

Firms need to develop appropriate HR risk management strategies to lessen the impact of unanticipated employee departures.

Strategy

Research Hacks to Help You Negotiate Anything

Alena Komaromi

Even zero-sum negotiations can turn into a win-win.

Strategy

Strategising for Success in Winner-Take-All Industries

Phebo Wibbens

Wild differences in performance within a market are largely shaped by that market’s dependence on resources.

asking the right questions of data team.jpg

Strategy

Are You Asking the Right Questions of Your Data Team?

C. Zimmerman, T. Evgeniou, D. Kelly, J. Weng

Asking great questions is perhaps the most underappreciated skill of great data-driven leaders.

Strategy

Xiaomi’s Road to Internet-of-Things Dominance

A. Chattopdhyay, H. Yang, J. Ma

The key to building the world’s largest IoT company? A novel collaboration-based strategy of “strategic coalescence”.

Strategy

CEOs Who Play to Type Win the Market

Guoli Chen

An important CEO attribute that shapes firm strategies such as mergers and acquisitions is uncovered.

Strategy

A ‘Lab in the Field’ Approach to Evidence-Based Management

P. Puranam, J. Singh, H. Rao

Simplified experimentation in the field may be the best of both worlds, provided its results are viewed with the proper perspective.

Strategy

A Blue Ocean Compass for Your Post-Covid Strategy

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne, M. Ji

Four questions to help you rethink industry logic and existing practices to prepare for a powerful comeback.

Strategy

The Relationships That Create Successful Acquisitions

Laurence Capron

A study of start-up acquisitions shows important patterns on both sides lead to a successful integration.

Strategy

Why Do Innovation Outposts Fail?

L. Felipe Monteiro

The steps multinationals can take to create a brokerage environment that fosters innovation.

Strategy

Building and Leading Your Organisation’s Data Capability

C. Zimmerman, T. Evgeniou, G. Lotan, S. Bala

The most impactful data teams can think strategically while delivering technically.

Strategy

The “Frenemy” Effect: When Strategic Alliances Go South

Javier Gimeno

How to fuel – and cool – competitive wars.

Strategy

Simple Rules for the Post-Pandemic World

Nathan Furr

Learning and using rules of thumb makes a difference both during crises and when opportunity knocks.

Strategy

Do CEOs Matter?

S. H. Lee, G. Chen

Conditions that underpin the power and impact of chief executives vary widely, with remarkable results.

Strategy

Three Key Steps to Prepare for Data and AI Leadership

C Zimmerman, K Walsh, J McMillan, T Evgeniou

To harness the potential of new technology, today’s data-driven business leaders must also be politicians and communicators.

Strategy

Testing Google’s Claim of Quality

Hyunjin Kim

Research suggests that, by using a tying strategy, dominant platforms may be able to gain traction in new markets with a lower quality product than what is offered.

Strategy

What Makes Business Ecosystems Succeed?

Andrew Shipilov & Francesco Burelli

Our framework guides you through the forces driving Airbnb and other ecosystem-based businesses.

Strategy

What Yelp Reviews Can Tell Us About the State of the Economy

Hyunjin Kim

Data from online sources like Yelp can help you take the pulse of local business activity in the absence of updated official statistics.

Strategy

The Fundamentals of Transforming from Matrix to Agile

Y. Doz, M. Guadalupe

Nothing less than an evolution of strategy, structure, processes, people and technology will do.

Strategy

How Happiness, Anger and Anxiety Can Help You Negotiate

Don’t suppress your emotions – harness them to negotiate better.

Strategy

Not Everyone Can Be Agile

Y. Doz, M. Guadalupe

An essential checklist for Agile aspirants.

Strategy

The Five Essential Roles of Corporate Ecosystems

Andrew Shipilov & Francesco Burelli

Most firms that try to build an ecosystem would be better off joining an existing one. The first step is for them to know where they would fit.

Strategy

Nokia’s Reinvention Was Emotionally Driven

Q. Huy, T. Vuori

No less than start-ups or SMEs, large organisations can accomplish a radical strategic shift – if they can regulate managers’ raw emotions in the aftermath of failure.

Strategy

Can the Subscription Economy Save Financial Services?

Wolfgang Ulaga & Michael Mansard

The traditional FSI business model is looking threadbare – and not only because of the pandemic. Some players are seeking new territory by transitioning to subscriptions.

Strategy

The Post-Covid Future of “Everything as a Service”

Wolfgang Ulaga

The tough lessons of 2020 will provoke two major developments in B2B, having to do with technology and people.

Strategy

Don’t Confuse Platforms with Ecosystems

A. Shipilov, F. Burelli

A beginners’ guide to high-value business models.

Strategy

Six Tools for Turning Your Ideas Into Reality

Nathan Furr

From finding the right analogy to tapping into FOMO, learn how to sell your ideas to potential supporters.

Strategy

How to Be a Blue Ocean Strategist in the Post-Pandemic World

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne, M. Ji

A blue ocean mindset uncovers hidden opportunities amid the Covid-era economic crisis.

Strategy

Hold the Emoji and Other Tips for Successful Email Negotiations

Tactics for increasing B2B sales.

Strategy

Four Steps to Business Model Innovation

Sameer Hasija

Success in this new era of accelerated disruption requires a holistic approach to technology.

Strategy

Scorched-Earth Strategic Thinking for Covid Times

“Disrupt yourself first” is so five years ago. The new motto is “Burn your company to the ground then rebuild it.”

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Strategy

Food Security in a Pandemic: Lessons From India’s Lockdown

W. W. Koo, X. Li

Portable food ration cards allow migrant populations to shelter in place, but implementation across state borders faces hurdles.

Strategy

Innovation Plucked from the Zeitgeist

Michaël Bikard

A method to quantify the phenomenon of simultaneous discoveries sheds insight into how one innovation wins and another is left on the shelf.

Strategy

How Hedge Fund Activists Influence Target Firms

Understanding settlement agreements is important to see the complete picture of the corporate governance landscape.

Strategy

What the War Between Alibaba and Tencent Says About Strategy

Guoli Chen

In emerging markets or nascent industries, plan-as-you-go has proved to be a winner many times over.

Strategy

How to Make the Most of a Chief Sustainability Officer

Guoli Chen

Shift the focus from doing less bad to doing more good.

Strategy

Recession-Proofing the Subscription Economy

W. Ulaga, M. Mansard

Believe it or not, most subscription-based businesses are still seeing modest growth by exploiting four strategic manoeuvres.

Strategy

How to Become a Star in a Strange Land

A. Shipilov, S. X. Li, W. Li

It helps if you’re a generalist with no ego.

Strategy

Global Strategy for a De-globalising World

Benjamin Kessler

The world may not be as flat as it once was, but global business strategy is, if anything, a more urgent priority than before.

social impact brazil covid-19 challenges

Strategy

How Social Impact Start-ups Are Solving Brazil’s Covid-19 Challenges

F. Salum, K. Coleta, F. Monteiro

The persistent problem of inequality in Latin America leaves citizens more vulnerable to the coronavirus. Innovative platforms move towards balancing the scales.

Strategy

Creating, Fast and Slow

Michaël Bikard

Instead of bickering about the superiority of specialists or generalists, why not recognise that creative strategies involve trade-offs?

Strategy

How Data Is Transforming the Energy Sector

Pál Boza & Theos Evgeniou

One German utility company has taken the lead in transitioning to “embedded, scaled and disrupted” AI.

Strategy

Green Shoots for Businesses in China’s New Normal

Guoli Chen

After a historic economic contraction, opportunities beckon nimble-footed companies.

three essentials of b2b digital transformation.jpg

Strategy

The Three Essentials of B2B Digital Transformation

Joerg Niessing & Fred Geyer

The most common question we hear is, “Where do I start?” The answer is, “Where it makes the most sense from a customer’s point of view.”

Strategy

How Covid-19 Raises the Digital Stakes Even Higher

Rachael Noyes

Now is the time for firms to invest in digital transformation.

Strategy

Growing Resilience in Uncertain Times

Nathan Furr

Managing the current crisis is an inside job.

Strategy

Rising to the Challenges of COVID-19 Recovery

M Bikard, C Lin, A Shipilov

Which companies and industries seem to be getting it right, and which are floundering?

Strategy

Four Strategic Priorities for the Post-COVID-19 World

To build resilience going forward, the first question to answer is not, “What’s in it for me?” but “What if?”

Strategy

How the SDGs Can Power Innovation

L. Felipe Monteiro

Risk-averse industries like the energy sector should use the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals as the inspiration for new challenges.

Strategy

How to Handle Video Negotiations

Alena Komaromi

Better get used to virtual negotiations, as they might just be the way of the future.

Strategy

How Virus-Hit China Manages Its Sprawling Gig Economy

Chengyi Lin

When it comes to employee satisfaction in these extraordinary times, Alibaba and other Chinese e-commerce players leave Amazon in their trail.

Strategy

Blending Public and Private Value Creation at Natura

Aline Gatignon & Laurence Capron

One major, home-grown firm in Brazil offers a successful, impactful business model to overcome skill and talent scarcity.

Strategy

Maximising Outcomes in Impact Investing

Jasjit Singh

Debates on whether investing for impact should involve financial compromises are moot. Here’s the more relevant question: How can different kinds of investors optimise their societal impact?

Strategy

TMT: The Unit for Success

How the right mix of experience and innovation generates a great start-up top management team.

Strategy

The Changing Tides of the Global Economy

L. F. Monteiro, M. Troyjo

Political economist and diplomat Marcos Troyjo advises us to buckle up for a possible new round of globalisation.

Strategy

What Companies Tend to Get Wrong About AI

Jenny Watkins

In the stampede to build an AI strategy, executives fall into four main traps.

Strategy

Firms Favour Academic Insights That Come From Hubs

M. Bikard

Innovators can improve their performance by paying attention to academic science.

Strategy

How to Bend the Rules Like Beckham

The risks professional footballers take as they flirt with foul play hold lessons – positive and negative – for high-stakes competitors in every arena.

Strategy

LIVA: How to Truly Measure Long-Term Success

P. Wibbens, N. Siggelkow

Most executives care about creating long-term shareholder value but haven’t had the right tool to track it – until now.

secret ingredients of superforecasting.jpg

Strategy

The Secret Ingredients of ‘Superforecasting’

Data from a political predictions tournament are starting to yield insights into the main drivers of forecasting excellence – and how to cultivate it.

Strategy

Big Food Is Ripe for a Revolution

Kevin Parker & Boris Liedtke

The wine industry shows how eco-friendly production can benefit both companies and consumers.

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Strategy

Developing a Toolkit for Strategic Foresight

D Midgley, T Coltman, T Simnadis

Why some companies see disruption coming from a mile away, and respond accordingly.

Strategy

Super Apps: How to Create a Mass Market of One

G. Chen, M. Trocha

By targeting each customer as a single market, super apps build a business model that is transforming lives in emerging markets.

Strategy

Why Foreign Firms Struggle to Break Into China

J. S. Black, A. J. Morrison

Trade wars are not even the biggest problem.

Strategy

Boards Under the Influence

H. Greve, A. Shipilov, T. Rowley

Directors need to carefully manage their reactions to what they read in the business press.

Strategy

How Silence Can Help Win-Win Negotiators

While silence can be uncomfortable, its benefits are too numerous to ignore.

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Strategy

Making the Online World Less Addictive – and More Popular

Paulo Albuquerque & Yulia Nevskaya

How companies can use five levers to regulate online user engagement over time.

Strategy

The Best CEO-CFO Team for M&As

G. Chen, W. Shi

Buyouts engineered by optimistic CEOs and pessimistic CFOs have the best odds of success.

Strategy

Why Negotiators Should Be on Social Networks

Horacio Falcão & Alena Komaromi

The mere presence of a Facebook connection increases trust and forgiveness in negotiations.

Strategy

Can Emotion Be Automated?

Chengyi Lin

The emotional literacy gap between bots and humans is expected to narrow, thanks to a series of technological advances.

Strategy

Responding to the New Cold War

Michael A. Witt

Multinationals have two options for dealing with rapidly rising tensions between China and the United States.

Strategy

Define, Broadcast, Attract and Select: A Framework for Crowdsourcing

H. Piezunka, L. Dahlander & L.B. Jeppesen

Crowds are not inherently wise. They become so under the right set of conditions.

Strategy

Automakers, Don’t Listen to Henry Ford

Car manufacturers would be wise to invest in multiple alternatives to the conventional car in order to succeed in diverse markets.

Strategy

Blockchain Is a Technology for Collaboration

The unique strength of blockchain is authenticating “stuff” to enable trust between partners.

Strategy

Digital Business: Three Core Concepts Exploded

The digital world has pushed old curves off the whiteboard as new trajectories arise.

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Strategy

How Strategic Alliances Can Strengthen Investigative Journalism

M. Hunter, L. Van Wassenhove & M. Besiou

Collaborations between journalists and NGOs forge new avenues for mutual value creation – and social impact.

Strategy

How Airlines Manage Conflicts Between Profits and Safety

Henrich Greve & Vibha Gaba

Warning: Don’t read this just before your next flight.

Strategy

Global Open Innovation in the Silicon Valley of Sport

L. Felipe Monteiro

One of the world’s biggest football clubs has set out a pioneering collaborative strategy of innovation.

Strategy

The Ten Stages of Successful Strategic Alliances

Corporate partnerships resemble marriages in many respects – including an unfortunately high failure rate.

Strategy

The Real Business Case for Quantum Computing

Disregard the alarmist headlines: Quantum computers won’t end privacy online. In fact, their most revolutionary impact may be felt offline.

Career

The World’s Most Talent Competitive Countries, 2019

Felipe Monteiro & Bruno Lanvin

Entrepreneurial talent is a critical component of both competitiveness and innovation.

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Strategy

It’s Time for a Behavioural Revolution in Innovation

Transformative change requires organisations to rethink the way they envision their future.

Strategy

Will Apple Be the Next Nokia?

Amid a stunning slowdown in smartphone sales, what does the future hold for Apple and its global tech rivals?

Strategy

Designing Durable Alliances: Lessons From Renault-Nissan

An alliance should continually enable mutual value creation. Otherwise, it’s just a disguised merger.

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Strategy

Three Principles for Targeted Innovation

Marcel Corstjens & Gregory Carpenter

Leading consumer goods companies can revive their flagging innovation capacities by investing differently.

Strategy

How to Prolong Competitive Advantage

The resources that take a company further.

Strategy

Don’t Let Time Pressure Dictate Your Options

Horacio Falcão & Alena Komaromi

Proactive negotiators are less likely to be tempted by inferior deals.

Strategy

Managing the Paradoxes of Coopetition

A. Shipilov, W. Hoffmann, D. Lavie, J. Reuer

The challenging tensions of coopetition require leaders who can cope with ambivalence and uncertainty.

Strategy

How Speech Recognition Is Set to Disrupt

In the digital age, nothing stays the same for very long.

Strategy

Don't Discount the Competitiveness of State-Owned Multinationals

Dated notions about large state-owned MNCs need to adapt to the 21st century.

Strategy

How Nokia Bounced Back (With the Help of the Board)

Quy Huy & Timo Vuori

To help the former mobile giant find a radically new strategic direction, Nokia’s board assumed a unique role.

Strategy

Does Eating Together Improve Negotiations?

Horacio Falcão & Alena Komaromi

Who you share your table with may add or detract value.

Strategy

Why Successful Companies Usually Fail

Y. Doz, K. Wilson

The dynamics of corporate collapse are caused by three phenomena.

Strategy

How the Platform Economy Is Reshaping Global Trade

Firms and even countries will need a strategy as the world moves from pipelines to platforms.

Strategy

What Happens to Firms That Don’t Adopt Dominant Technologies?

Firms that choose the non-dominant technology in an industry shakeout can innovate in other ways.

Strategy

Is Neo-Feudalism the New Nation-State?

John Hulsman & Boris Liedtke

The simultaneous rise of hyperlocal and transnational politics could fill the power vacuum left by the decline of the nation-state.

Strategy

The Truth About Lies in Negotiations

Horacio Falcão & Alena Komaromi

It’s a complex game of “catch me if you can”.

Strategy

Do Dating Apps Really Want You to Find Love?

Y. Wu, V. Padmanabhan

Matchmaking services charging a monthly fee to fill a personal or professional void are in a somewhat conflicted position.

Strategy

Imagine Alternatives to Negotiate More Ambitiously

M. Schaerer, M. Schweinsberg, R. Swaab

Mentally simulating an attractive alternative can provide some of the advantages that real alternatives typically offer.

Strategy

What if the EU Invited Canada to Join Its Bloc?

John Hulsman & Boris Liedtke

Trump’s trade war opens the door to a move that would change the geopolitical game entirely.

Strategy

Does a Tough Reputation Pay Off in Negotiations?

Horacio Falcão & Alena Komaromi

How to build the type of reputation proven to lead to better deals.

Strategy

Don’t Reinvent the Regulatory Wheel

How internet companies under siege can learn from the finance industry.

Strategy

The Technologies Senior Leaders Plan to Deploy in the Coming Years

Cloud computing is expected to take a back seat to AI, big data analytics and blockchain.

Strategy

Who Benefits From Transparent Pricing?

Horacio Falcão & Alena Komaromi

The American steel industry provides a case study on the effects of price disclosure.

Strategy

Ryanair: A Role Model for Europe’s Banks

The industry sorely needs a low-margin, high-volume business model relentlessly focused on long-term value creation.

Strategy

Three Factors for Happiness at Work

Consider these questions before you embark on a career.

Strategy

Why Negotiators Should Lose Sometimes

Horacio Falcão & Alena Komaromi

Lose a battle to win the war.

Strategy

A Matchmaker for Public-Private Partnerships

Manuel Sosa

Collaborations between dissimilar organisations can benefit from the involvement of neutral third parties.

Strategy

Can Alcohol Help You With Negotiations?

Horacio Falcão & Alena Komaromi

What research tells us about the art of negotiating under the influence.

Strategy

Where Amazon Is Headed With Whole Foods

P. Padmanabhan & D. Lecossois

The search is still on for a viable omni-channel business model in the grocery industry.

Strategy

Governance Needed for Initial Coin Offerings

Traditional board-like governance can provide credibility for companies raising capital via ICOs.

Strategy

Why Tech Innovation Isn’t the Answer Everyone Thinks It Is

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

Value innovation is the cornerstone of new market creation.

Strategy

How Incumbents Are Adapting to Disruption

Incumbents are focusing on people skills, culture and customer centricity when it comes to digitisation.

Strategy

Business as a Force for Good: A Blue Ocean Perspective

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

How to shift from dividing to expanding the economic pie.

Strategy

Leapfrog Into an Innovative Future

How Brazil’s development bank aims to coordinate the nation’s digital transformation.

Strategy

When Winning Means Losing in Negotiations

Horacio Falcão & Alena Komaromi

Be careful about imposing your terms as it may backfire.

Strategy

Spanning the Boundaries That Limit Organisational Innovativeness

Yves L. Doz

Managers must bridge across their firms’ geographic, cultural and institutional diversity to gain a unique competitive advantage.

Strategy

Is Kim Jong-un Crazy, and Other FAQs on North Korea

Despite appearances to the contrary, the protagonists in the North Korea conflict are pursuing rational negotiation strategies.

Strategy

Digital Winners Transcend Technology

Successful digital disrupters are good at solving bread-and-butter problems, attracting staff and staying nimble.

Strategy

Nudging Your Staff to Healthier Habits

Wendy Wood

Adequate cues and a dash of rewards can go a long way towards persuading employees to adopt and maintain healthy behaviours.

Strategy

Can Advisors Afford to Give Uncertain Advice?

Horacio Falcão & Alena Komaromi

Confidence may go a long way when there are no certain answers.

Strategy

The Other Way to Make Money Out of Bitcoin

The best strategy to piggyback on a new ecosystem may be to build a complementary product or service.

Strategy

Our Best of 2017: A Thirst for New Ideas

INSEAD's research points the way forward.

Strategy

The Three Dilemmas of Data Gathering

What companies do with customer data needs to be considered more closely.

Strategy

How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming the IT Hierarchy

The ability to adapt and learn quickly helps smaller IT companies compete against industry heavyweights.

Strategy

The Art of Selling With Executive Sponsors

Why sales teams should consider involving non-sales senior leaders in the selling process.

Strategy

How Attention From Top Managers Impacts Innovation

When companies acquire external knowledge, they need to make sure management attention doesn’t wane.

Strategy

The Strategic Decisions That Caused Nokia’s Failure

Yves L. Doz

The moves that led to Nokia’s decline paint a cautionary tale for successful firms.

Strategy

The Persuasive Power of Transparency

Horacio Falcão & Alena Komaromi

Cost transparency can be a compelling strategic choice in both marketing and negotiation.

Strategy

How to Outsmart the Car Dealers’ Tricks

Horacio Falcão & Alena Komaromi

Skilled persuaders use a few key principles to influence potential buyers.

Strategy

When to Abandon an Unresolved Project

Successful breakthroughs are always elusive, so don’t get too attached to any one prospect.

Strategy

The Consummate Opportunities of Cross-Cluster Collaboration

When a Swiss watchmaker visited Silicon Valley seeking help to create a luxury smart watch, it brought with it intangible benefits.

Strategy

Is Amazon Dooming Retailers or Are Retailers Dooming Themselves?

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

Retailers are focused on competing instead of creating.

Strategy

What It Takes to Shift From Competing to Creating

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

Why non-disruptive creation is as important as disruption in seizing new growth.

Strategy

Market Segmentation at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Isabelle Laporte

Serving the poorest requires using a micro-lens to fully understand their needs and challenges.

Strategy

The Power of Social Media When Disaster Strikes

How virtual networks can encourage resilience in a disaster.

Strategy

What Makes a Number One Hit

A look at 58 years of Billboard Hot 100 uncovers the secret ingredients of popular music.

Strategy

The Nine Major Ways of Doing Business in the World

A new measure for gauging and understanding the challenge of business abroad.

Strategy

What Sales Leaders Can Learn From Start-Ups

Paul Sanders & Philippe Pereira

Key ingredients for start-up success could benefit even giant sales organisations.

Strategy

Digitally Enabling Customer Loyalty

Empowering the front lines with digital tools enables organisations to capture the hearts of diverse consumer groups.

Strategy

The Digital Transformation of Museums

Giovanni Tassini, Tong Gu, Annet Aris

Museums are embracing new technologies to better understand their audience and create a broader, more engaged customer base.

Strategy

Why Digital Asia Is Different

Annet Aris

West meets East in the battle for global digital market leadership.

Strategy

How to Thrive in the Subscription Economy

What you deliver and how you deliver it to customers has to be completely rethought.

Strategy

Strategy Making: How to Tap the Wisdom of the Crowd

Daniel Mack & Gabriel Szulanski

Even firms that typically prefer to centralise decisions needn’t miss out on the benefits of opening up their strategy making.

Strategy

Amazon-Whole Foods Is Not About to Wipe Out Supermarkets

P. Padmanabhan & D. Lecossois

Amazon will gain access to new capabilities in retail, but the challenge to traditional supermarkets will come from elsewhere.

Strategy

Lessons from the Merchants of Venice

Giovanni Tassini & Loic Sadoulet

Many innovations underpinning Venice’s commercial success during the late-medieval period hold true today.

Strategy

Setting the Stage for Digital Transformation

Joerg Niessing & Clémence Knaébel

Being customer-centric in a digital world requires not a plan but a process.

Strategy

How Disruptive Will Automation Be?

The speed of change will determine how disruptive automation is to the future of work and society.

Strategy

Does Racial Bias Call the Shots in the NBA?

Henrich Greve

Even in the performance-obsessed world of pro basketball, racial preference influences how the game is played.

Strategy

How Your Bonus Affects Your Colleague’s Behaviour

S.K. Lee, P. Puranam

Incentives aren’t just about rewarding individual achievement. They can also be a key factor in shaping group behaviour.

Strategy

Our Edge in a Machine-Dominated World

People can’t win against computers; fortunately we are irrational.

Strategy

The Right Incentive Structure Makes Firms Smarter

Assessing top-level managerial contractual design from a long-term strategy perspective.

Strategy

Why Advertising Safety Isn’t Safe

Providing information that signals safety or quality may have a negative impact on sales, if it draws consumers’ attention to product safety risks.

Strategy

The Next Cycle of Capitalism

Fabian Salum & Paulo Vicente dos Santos Alves

In the latest cycle of technological change, capitalism is getting ready for its next act, but it is vulnerable to political developments.

Strategy

Strategy as Hypothesis

Far from reducing complexity, the leaders of the digital economy absorb it, test it and change quickly.

Strategy

Innovating at the Intersections

Nathan Furr, Jeffrey H. Dyer & Kate O’Keeffe

The most valuable innovation is often found at the intersection of firms’ capabilities. Exploiting these opportunities requires a new approach to collaboration.

Strategy

Forming Corporate Alliances That Get Results

A. Shipilov, I. Stern

Four principles that describe how well-chosen and well-managed alliances boost financial performance.

Strategy

The Fine Line Between Optimism and Fakery

Are humans unrealistically hopeful about the future, or just pretending to be?

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Strategy

Three Ways to Get Ahead of the Digital Competition

Leaders seeking to capture value in the digital age need to expect the unexpected.

Strategy

When Foreign Firms Are No Longer Welcome

Daniel J. Blake & Caterina Moschieri

Foreign firms are more likely to divest from a country when they experience a dispute with a host government.

Strategy

Making the Most Out of Public Money

Ilze Kivleniece & Julien Jourdan

Examining the dual effects of public sponsorship on firm performance

Strategy

The Strategic Science of Delayed Compliance

No company is above the law, but some firms are allowed much more time in complying with it.

Strategy

Storytelling: More Than a Presentation Tool

How a story can make a strategy come to life.

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Strategy

Converting Social Impact Into Competitive Advantage

Improve quality of life in an underserved region, and you create a blue ocean.

Strategy

Question the Consensus of Experts

If forecasters are too closely linked, less information can be gleaned from their opinions and decision-makers are more likely to make costly mistakes.

David Dubois Building Blocks for Digital Transformation

Strategy

A Framework for Driving Digital Transformation

David Dubois

Leading an organisation’s digital transformation requires simultaneously tackling three questions.

Strategy

The Harmful Effects of Workplace Incivility

Quy Huy

Low-level unpleasantness in the workplace can have disastrous results – but managers can do something about it.

Strategy

Fear Can Stifle Collaboration, or Jumpstart It

During organisational change, play the radicals against the moderates to foster collaboration.

Strategy

Three Steps to Creating a Diverse Organisation

The path to successful diversification requires belief, courage and consistency.

Strategy

How Products Can Climb the Social Ladder

In a few short years, one ambitious fashionista transported grappa from reviled to respectable.

Liri Andersson Ludo Van Der Heyden The Real Impact of Digital - As Seen From the Virtual Coalface

Strategy

Leaders in Digital Merge the Physical and the Virtual

Organisations that treat “virtual” as real are moving ahead.

Strategy

Mobilising Online Communities to Your Cause

Vinika Rao & Parminder Singh

Social media can amplify a message or start a movement, but there are fundamental rules for success.

Strategy

When Strategy Becomes Fantasy

Ironically, when managers think they have all the answers, strategy can turn into fantasy.

Philipp Meyer-Doyle Gaming the system for higher pay

Strategy

The Unrecognised Impact of Merit-Based Incentives

Olivier Chatain & Philipp Meyer-Doyle

Changing the way executives in professional service firms are compensated can help organisations address some tough organisational dilemmas.

Strategy

The “Africa” Framework for Start-ups in Tough Places

After an 11-year career at GE, Swaady Martin adopted many of the strategies and tactics instrumental to its successful African expansion to launch YSWARA, an African, global luxury brand.

Nathan Furr Creating a digital platform for your product

Strategy

Turning Products into Valuable Platforms

Paying attention to the management of your company and nurturing customers is the key to transitioning a successful product into a robust digital platform.

Horacio Falcao careful assessment makes powerful negotiating

Strategy

The Heavy Burden of Forceful Negotiating

It takes several good interactions to counteract the effects of one negative one. Spare yourself the cost and approach your negotiating partners with care.

Strategy

Factoring Synergies into Resource Allocation Decisions

Pigeonholing business units into categories like “dogs” and “stars” gives short shrift to the most important elements of corporate strategy.

Nathan Furr Are organisations structures stifling innovation

Strategy

Embracing Uncertainty for Innovation

It has been said that the purpose of organisation is to eliminate uncertainty. Is this stifling the ability to innovate?

Strategy

Negotiating a Win-Win for Brexit

Now that the UK has exercised its democratic right to follow its own path, the future will depend on how both sides enter a challenging and tricky negotiation.

Strategy

Why Corporate Social Media Platforms Fail

Many managers approach enterprise social media networks as technology deployments and expect them to automatically buzz with activity. Many fail to realise that emotional capital is key to the success of such platforms.

Strategy

How All-Star Employees Affect Firm Behaviour

The status-seeking moves of ambitious employees can alter the fate of a company.

Stephen Mezias Innovative thinking for global expansion

Strategy

ZEE Entertainment’s Three Step Process for Worldwide Growth

Successful globalisation requires the flexibility to adapt products and think beyond established boundaries.

Strategy

How the Smallest Choices Matter

The Kingdom of Bhutan applies choice architectures to improve decisions and well-being.

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Strategy

Four Signs That Your Industry is Ripe for Digital Disruption

If there are ways for your firm to improve the customer experience with digitisation or use technology to reduce costs, you should move quickly or risk being disrupted by an outsider.

Strategy

Are Brands Losing Their Magic?

In the digital world, a product’s substance is more highly valued than the stories woven around it.

Strategy

Corporate Strategy Decision Making, Demystified

For leaders of multi-business firms, the best decisions aren’t necessarily those that produce the best immediate outcomes.

Strategy

Preventing Social Media Armageddon

Gilles Hilary & Varun Mittal

The accessibility and fluidity of social media leaves organisations open to significant risks. But there are countermeasures organisations can take to prevent reputation disaster.

Dana Popescuo How Algorithms and Gaming Affect E-marketing

Strategy

How Pricing Automation is Impacting E-Commerce

Are re-pricing algorithms putting e-traders at risk of being “gamed”?

Strategy

Delay Your Offer, Not Your Deadline

Saša Zorc & Ilia Tsetlin

They may be disliked but “exploding” offers remain common corporate practice as an offer strategically delayed is, almost always, a negotiator's best bet.

Strategy

Are You Next for Digital Disruption?

No industry is safe from the tsunami of digital disruption, but some will be hit sooner than others. Three checks could reveal if you’re next.

Horacio Falcao How careful brainstorming during crucial points of negotiation yield more value

Strategy

The Risks of Brainstorm Negotiating

Throwing all your ideas onto the table can put you at risk of revealing too much and giving the other party an advantage. But careful brainstorming at crucial points of the negotiation can yield more value all round.

Amitava Chattopadhyay how brands transcend social change

Strategy

Maintaining Market Dominance

Consumer tastes are changing rapidly. For leading brands to stay on top, meet their aspirations.

Strategy

Mobile Still Has a Long Way to Go

The voracity with which users have taken to mobile internet has once again turned digital on its head; just who will be a winner in this cyber sweepstakes remains to be seen.

Strategy

10 Principles for Digital Disruption

Digital upstarts are rewriting the rules of strategy, adopting winning principles almost instinctively. Traditional incumbents and hybrids should take note.

Phanish Puranam Recognising Value Through Synergies

Strategy

What Corporate Strategists Need to Know About Synergies

Understanding the distinctive “footprints” of four different types of synergy can help improve the way you value and implement corporate strategies

Quy Huy Five ways to inspire collective action

Strategy

Scaling Up Emotional Intelligence to Inspire the Crowd

Five ways to inspire purposeful collective action on a grand scale.

Strategy

Three Steps Towards Market Domination

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

The market dynamics of value innovation.

Gilles Hillary Complex models don't plan for uncertainty

Strategy

Embrace the Fuzzy Crystal Ball

Complex models employed to forecast the future as accurately as possible are a poor way to plan for uncertainty.

Strategy

Monetising Digital Content Requires Focus

It’s better to stick with one approach to monetise digital content, rather than spread yourself too thin and confuse the customer.

Strategy

Cities Can Capture More Value

By implementing a centralised management platform, cities could create more value for business, citizens and investors. But they’ll have to reinvent their management approach.

Strategy

Digital Has Killed the Strategic Plan

Four crucial steps to creating a business strategy fit for the digital age.

Picking the right persuasion technique for your audience

Strategy

How Communicator and Audience Power Shape Persuasion

Powerful people aren’t always the best choice for persuading others. Less powerful audiences require warmth and connection.

Strategy

The Mindset Needed For Digital Change

The world’s going digital, but is your company ready to make the change? Sometimes having the technology is not enough.

Strategy

Why Strategy Is Not Dead

Strategy is no longer necessary, according to some – but without it, business would not utilise our full human potential.

Strategy

Volkswagen: Still Too Much Power with Majority Shareholders?

Regulations protecting minority shareholders are not enough. States must enforce them.

Strategy

Integrating Digital Intelligence into Brand Strategy

David Dubois

As organisations seek to integrate the massive flow of digital data into their brand strategy, they face a triple challenge to stay ahead.

Strategy

How Successful Start-up Teams Allocate Roles

The financial success of a new venture depends heavily on who does what within the founding team. The most successful start-ups allocate positions based on prior work experience as well as how co-founders fit into the social context around them.

Fear destroys initiative and causes unethical behaniour

Strategy

Does Your Organisation Run on Fear?

Gilles Hilary & Vip Vyas

Overbearing and oppressive leadership can make people afraid of failure, destroy initiative and even cause unethical behaviours within the enterprise.

Strategy

Rising Colleges Fees: a Reflection of Offerings or Aspirations

Are rising tuition fees a sign of how much an individual college degree is worth, or how worthy the college wants to be?

Strategy

Corporates and Start-ups: Engage or Else!

There have never been more ways for big companies and entrepreneurs to collaborate - and you’d be surprised at how common these unlikely pairings are becoming.

Manfred Kets de Vries successful mergers and acquisitions

Strategy

Making Mergers Less of a Crapshoot

Very human factors are at play in mergers and acquisitions. Paying attention to them can increase your chance of success.

Strategy

Emerging Multinationals Use Purpose for Growth

Integrating a strong, cohesive purpose can ignite employee passion and drive growth, something emerging market companies have become good at.

Strategy

Why Local Companies Are Winning in Emerging Markets

When entering emerging economies, multinationals should get genuinely involved and actively participate in the development of local markets rather than just adapt to them.

Family firms provide lessons in creating continuous innovativation

Strategy

How to Institutionalise Innovation

Family firms provide lessons in creating continuously innovative companies.

Strategy

Gaining Influence in a Crisis

Gilles Hilary, Marie-Hélène Mansard

Complex crises need less “managed” communication approaches.

Strategy

AB InBev’s Acquisition Formula

Laurence Capron

The beer giant applies three core principles to swallowing its competitors.

Strategy

Blue Ocean Politics: Trudeau’s Election Victory

Fares Boulos

How Justin Trudeau’s textbook blue ocean strategy made him the unlikely Canadian Prime Minister.

Strategy

Five Reasons Most Companies Fail at Strategy Execution

If your organisational culture has these five characteristics, all attempts to implement strategic change will likely be doomed.

Strategy

Our Best of 2015: New Paths to Success

What the most popular INSEAD Knowledge articles of 2015 tell us.

Strategy

Adopt Contrasting Strategies for Emerging Markets

Emerging markets have typically been lumped together by investors and corporations attempting to define all-encompassing strategies, but these markets are diverging. Tailored, local strategies are now more important.

Strategy

The Strategic Edge of a Blue Ocean Thinker

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

The ten-year expanded edition of Blue Ocean Strategy came out this year. Blue ocean strategy continues to grow in popularity across the world and is widely used in practice and in MBA and executive education classrooms. INSEAD Knowledge interviews Professors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne to understand the strategic edge it brings, its impact on business education at INSEAD and around the world, and what we can expect in the future.

Economics & Finance

Collaborating to Compete

The Dutch flower cluster shows how much value can be found in a commoditised sector that collaborates before it competes

Strategy

Innovation Metrics and KPIs: Are You Getting What You Pay For?

Everyone’s pushing hard for innovation in science, technology, logistics and business planning but how do you know you’re getting the best return on your investment?

Strategy

Hybrid Technologies: A Stepping Stone to the Future

When uncertain transformation threatens an industry, jump in or do nothing are not the only options.

How firms integrate disruptive innovation with their core assets

Strategy

Disruptive Innovation in Mature Industries

With start-ups driving and defining transformation and disruptive change across industries, what is the role of larger companies?

Strategy

Should You Preannounce Your Innovation?

Before telling the world about their innovation-in-progress, companies should carefully weigh the costs and benefits.

Strategy

Monetising Others’ Success

Success in the twenty first century will depend on many things, including how well your organisation empowers others to make money.

Strategy

Making Customers Compete for Your Firm

Innovation contests can yield highly valuable ideas when designed in a way that stimulates customer creativity.

Strategy

Three Steps for Successful Digital Integration

The “uberisation” of the economy is making companies rush into digital integration, but they need to build some critical capabilities before investing.

Strategy

Transforming Organisations for Sustained Innovation

“Market-oriented” firms are better able to innovate consistently, but getting there requires complex and demanding organisational change.

Responsibility

“Doing Good” Is a Source of Growth

Firms must develop a higher social purpose to achieve growth and longevity.

Strategy

How Innovation Is Helping Emerging Multinationals to Race Ahead

Emerging market multinationals are strong market-driven innovators. But to go truly global, they would do well to shift their focus to technological innovation.

Strategy

Leveraging Communities to Create Social Media Momentum

As social networks become increasingly ingrained into brands’ communication strategies, organisations need to take a more global and creative approach to understanding the dynamics and cultural fabric of their target communities

promoting success can cost you your best employees

Strategy

Are You Making Your Employees Attractive to Competitors?

Trumpeting your firm’s achievements makes your top managers more attractive to competitors and gives them a leg up in the labor market. Greater care should be taken with media splashes to hold on to your talent.

Strategy

Who Killed Nokia? Nokia Did

Q. Huy, T. Vuori

Despite being an exemplar of strategic agility, the fearful emotional climate prevailing at Nokia during the rise of the iPhone froze coordination between top and middle managers terrified of losing status and resources from management. The company was wounded before the battle began.

What Businesses can learn from how the military manages uncertainty

Strategy

Eight Ways the Military Manages Uncertainty

From managing and structuring information to fostering internal learning and smooth communication, the military holds lessons for businesses operating in uncertain environments.

Strategy

Why Your Company Needs a Resident Futurist

Being far-sighted about your strategy can help you prepare for the big global changes already unfolding.

Strategy

Expanding Through Uncertainty, the Carrefour Way

Any good strategy is based on a risk-reward analysis but what happens when the environment is particularly uncertain and the threats difficult to understand?

Strategy

How to Build a Sustainable Blue Ocean

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

High performing and sustainable market-creating strategies align value, profit and people.

Strategy

The Three Steps of Successful Turnarounds

Claudia Zeisberger

When companies find themselves in distress, turnarounds are one way to set them back on track. But turnarounds are messy and getting them right is no easy task.

Strategy

Keeping Brands Strong When Going Global

Consistent global positioning is the cornerstone of any successful global brand growth strategy. Without it brands risk becoming irrelevant before they even get established in international markets.

Leadership & Organisations

What Business Leaders Can Learn from Generals

The military approaches peacetime with risk management and wartime with uncertainty management. To operate amid uncertainty, managers become leaders and more autonomy is given to troops to ensure agility and resilience.

Strategy

When Financial Incentives Don’t Work

Performance incentives may encourage employees to deliver but when it comes to innovation it’s by no means certain they trigger the best results.

Coordinating internal networks can strengthen client relationships

Strategy

How Strong Internal Networks Can Save Client Relationships

Organising a diverse team to service one client may minimise the risk of them switching firms on the coat-tails of a senior executive, but if the individual coordinating the network departs, the cost could be even greater.

Strategy

Four Reasons Why Blue Ocean Thinking Is Crucial

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

The rising needs of consumers and their increasing voice means organisations need to move in new, creative directions.

Strategy

Using Tax Havens Secretly Is Bad for Shareholders

Tax havens are used for more than just saving money. When companies take advantage of their lack of transparency for more sinister activities, shareholders can lose out.

Strategy

How Firms Change Bad Practices

Organisations don’t always respond to threats, but they change quickly when their peers do.

Strategy

Want to Create a Blue Ocean? Avoid These Six Red Ocean Traps

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

Firms trying to tap into new markets for growth often fall into the traps of putting resources into wooing existing customers and investing heavily in value-added offerings. But this won’t get them to blue oceans.

Strategy

Leaders Who Can Read Collective Emotions Are More Effective

Quy Huy

How a leader manages collective emotions can create or destroy enormous market value. It can also have a huge bearing on what large groups of stakeholders think of you.

Responsibility

Steering Clear of the Sustainability Reporting Trap

Companies get stuck in box-checking when it comes to sustainability. But there is substantial value to be found in making sustainability a strategy.

Strategy

Private Equity vs. The Strategic Acquirer

When private equity firms and strategic acquirers meet on the M&A battlefield they come packing very different strategies and artillery. Who has the advantage?

Strategy

How One Company Turned the Recession into an Opportunity – and Thrived

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

We recently had the opportunity to interview Shawn Busse, CEO of Kinesis – a Portland marketing firm founded in 2000. When his company started to feel the impact of the downturn in 2009, Shawn turned to Blue Ocean Strategy to change the course of the company and steer it towards uncontested market space. This blue ocean journey has allowed Kinesis to enjoy becoming one of the Portland Business Journal’s 100 fastest growing private companies three years in a row, and be selected as a 2015 Portland Business Journal Small Business & Innovation Award honoree.

Leadership & Organisations

Maximising Innovation with Diversity

Bringing people from different backgrounds together to work in teams can help generate new ideas, but creating diversity across teams can unlock even greater innovation.

Strategy

Pirelli’s Acquisition by ChemChina: Has a New Era Begun for the Global Tyre Industry?

Consolidation speeds up in the global tyre industry as Pirelli gains rare access to the Chinese market ahead of Western peers.

Strategy

Why Megaprojects Seem to Fail

P. Puranam, C. Lundrigan, N. Gil

Megaprojects come with big expectations. But a project’s success is often in the eye of the beholder. Can managers avoid the conflict – and cost – when competing stakeholders seek to influence large scale development?

Strategy

Why Non-Compete Agreements Are Not Always Good for Business

Locking your employees in might seem tempting in order to protect your firm’s intellectual property, but have you also considered the potential downsides?

Strategy

When Strategy and Values Collide

Family-owned companies have entrenched cultures and values. Outsiders are needed to balance such firms, but they must tread very carefully.

Strategy

Sustainable Improvement Through Big Data

If managed wisely, big data can help manufacturers make continuous, and ultimately sustainable, improvements in processes and product quality.

Strategy

Generate More Value From Your External Knowledge Sourcing

Are your scouts so busy looking outside for new knowledge they’re not understanding what your company really needs?

Strategy

Blue Ocean Strategy Inspires the First-Ever Blue Awards in France

French SMEs are embarking on a blue ocean journey to spur economic growth.

Strategy

Turning Competition into Collaboration

Competition is healthy but winning can come at a hefty price. Sometimes the swiftest way forward is to replace conflict with collaboration.

Strategy

Culture Can Make or Break Strategy

Without a deep and accurate assessment of their organisation’s culture, boards and management teams will find it very challenging to initiate and implement strategic change.

Strategy

Retailers: Who Needs Black Friday When You Have Big Data?

Arbitrarily slashed prices don’t necessarily win greater wallet share. Retailers need to bring ecosystem thinking to the store shelf.

Strategy

From Corporate Social Responsibility to Business Model Innovation

Compassion, enlightened self-interest and an innovative approach can make CSR projects a viable part of your business operation.

Strategy

Culturally Savvy Leaders Boost Strategy Implementation

Business culture is a reflection of societal culture. Understanding its complexity is essential for those leading diverse, multicultural groups and implementing strategic change.

Strategy

What Industry Leaders Are Doing With Their Data

Data can be your secret weapon, but using it effectively is much more about processes and people than about tools.

Strategy

The Power of Stakeholder Media

On-line forums of angry stakeholders have the power to destroy a unit of a multinational firm. Is anyone at your company listening to them?

Strategy

Four Lessons for Turning Around a Declining Business

The movie theatre business offers insights as to how firms can find new opportunities for turning around dying businesses by understanding consumers and their needs better.

Strategy

When I Found the Salesperson’s Script

Many companies and individuals put too much faith in the magic of tactics, and apply them indiscriminately without fully understanding the balance of risks and rewards.

Strategy

When to Partner and When to Acquire, Louis Vuitton Style

Controlling almost all distribution turned Louis Vuitton into a globally competitive force.

Strategy

Preparing for Growth-Accelerating Partnerships

Influential alliances can help grow your business fast. It’s never too early to start building your global network.

Strategy

Keeping Clients Post-Merger

Strong rapport between a firm and its client can be beneficial to both, but when a competing firm is brought into the equation it’s this tight bond that can tear the relationship apart.

Strategy

Add Value or Someone Else Will

The lure of maximising profits at the cost of creating customer value can be devastating in the long term.

Strategy

Business Strategy: Are You Inside-Out or Outside-In?

An ideological gulf has opened in today’s business world, between companies that look outward for long-term value and those relying on internal resources.

Strategy

Solving Your Business Dilemma by Solving Other People’s Dilemmas

Optimise the power of storytelling.

Persistent customer service representative

Strategy

When Persistence Backfires

Pushy customer service representatives trying to drastically alter the decisions of consumers can end up being a costly headache.

Strategy

Keeping a Cap on a Crisis

Gilles Hilary

A close look at certain aspects of your company’s procedures could prevent a minor incident turning into a full-blown disaster.

Strategy

How Foreign Acquisitions Boost Productivity at Home

Foreign expansion can be more than just a gateway to new markets. When acquired in context, overseas companies can provide the capabilities and skills to raise productivity in operations back home.

Strategy

How to Lead Strategic Change Without Inciting a Mutiny

Strategic change is in the works, pressure to meet targets is mounting and there are rumblings in the ranks. As CEO how do you maintain your leadership role and avoid a mutiny?

Strategy

How to Get More Out of Your Network Alliances

Business networks are not just about cutting costs. New strategy frameworks show how you can create value by combining ideas, resources or market access across different partners.

Strategy

The Conspiracy Theory of Management: Implementing Strategy from the Top Down

Nurturing a coterie of 'true believers' and expunging the confirmed ‘doubters’ is key to strategic success.

Leadership & Organisations

Are Bosses Becoming Extinct?

Hierarchy is often viewed as hindering innovation, but getting rid of hierarchy carries risks of its own. Savvy organisation design can help you strike a successful balance.

Strategy

“Build, Borrow or Buy” Your Talent?

Laurence Capron

Germany’s two leading football clubs are about to go head-to-head in the final of the German Cup. The talent management principles that got them there went well beyond just buying players.

Strategy

Why the Old Paradigms of Strategy Development Are Out of Date

Most of the tools managers use to craft business strategy today were developed in the 20th century. Strategy formulation needs an update.

Strategy

Is Europe Stuck in a Vicious Energy Cycle?

The shale gas boom in the United States has made domestic power producers cleaner and turned coal producers into major exporters. A weak Europe, anxious about fracking, is becoming reliant on cheap U.S. coal to fuel its power stations, trapping it in a vicious cycle.

Strategy

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