When Bold Strategy Becomes a Bet You Can’t Afford to Lose
Honda just announced its first net loss since listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1957. The company cancelled three EV models it had been engineering for years — the Honda 0 SUV, the Honda 0 Saloon, and the Acura RSX — writing off up to ¥2.5 trillion in assets and supplier commitments in a single fiscal year.
That fact alone is worth sitting with. This is not a story about a company that failed to try.
It is a story about the difference between boldness and prudence — and what happens when a business has the first without the second.
Strategy? Forget All You Know!
Below are seven pieces of advice I give to business leaders based on the most successful strategy practices I know. Whenever I discuss these in an open forum, there is always pushback from at least a few people, particularly in Japan. Some people are even offended! That’s OK. If I am doing my job correctly, […]
The Secret to Persuasive Strategy
All senior level executives and managers are asked to develop and present a strategy, whether global strategy, regional strategy, or simply strategy for a team or department they oversee. Many managers create long slide presentations with lots of data to justify why their strategy is right. However, the most persuasive managers talk about all the […]
[:en]Campaigns Don’t Shape Brands[:ja]ブランドとはキャンペーンによって形作られるものではない[:]
[:en]Campaigns don’t shape brands. Leaders do. Campaigns merely project to the outside world the brand as perceived by the people inside your company, whether that brand is how you like it or not. Dissonance will cause any branding campaign to fail, no matter what you do.
[:en]2018 Predictions [:ja]２０１８年を予測する[:]
[:en]I love making predictions, so here is my list of ten predictions for 2018.
[:en]Market Entry Manifesto[:ja]日本市場参入について[:]
[:en]Last week, a reporter from The Telegraph in the UK contacted me for my views on the challenges of market entry in Japan. My market entry manifesto is below:
[:en]Japan, Rotten to the Core? No.[:ja]日本の企業文化が芯まで腐敗しているというのは間違いである[:]
[:en]When you hear of malfeasance in American companies like Equifax, Wells Fargo, Valeant, Countrywide Financial and Washington Mutual of subprime mortgage crisis infamy, and even Enron, no one questions whether or not something is rotten in the whole of American corporate culture. So, why should we think differently when it comes to corporate malfeasance in Japan?
[:en]Leader Versus Minion Behaviors [:ja]リーダーとそうでない人との違い[:]
[:en]Who on your staff is leadership material, and who is…perhaps not? Forget personality profiling and engagement survey results. None of these tests have ever been scientifically validated, and can tell you as much about a candidate for a higher level of leadership as reading the entrails of a slaughtered chicken.
[:en]Using R&D to Make a Sale is like Eating Your Young[:ja]研究開発部を利用して営業を上げるのは、リソースの無駄遣いである[:]
[:en]I often see sales people offer highly valuable expert services from an R&D division to a customer for free in order to make a product sale, even when the customer would likely have been happy to pay.
[:en]Obesity and the Peril of Mistaking Cause[:ja]肥満：物事の原因を誤解することの危険性について[:]
[:en]The American Medical Association recently reclassified obesity as a disease after years of resistance and debate. Previously, obesity had been considered a behavioral disorder. What behaviors? Gluttony and sloth. If you were overweight or obese, your doctor would advise you to eat less and exercise more without a second thought. However, with 80% of Americans […]
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