Business Networks
Strategy

Building Sustainable Competitive Advantage in a Networked Economy

Sustainable Competitive Advantage One of the most fundamental pillars of any successful strategy is an organizations ability to create and sustain a competitive advantage, create a niche, business practice, product, service that only is a differentiator for the organization in the market. Some organizations use patents, some use product design (Apple), some use their ability to innovate and come up with new market categories (Uber, 3M, Proctor & Gamble), some use their ability to manage cost (SouthWest Airlines), some use their scale of operation& Gamble, Colgate), some use their customer focus (Amazon, Zappos, Ritz Carlton), some use a combination of […]

Strategy

Why Clay Christensen and Michael Porter Could Both be Wrong About the Future of Higher-Ed

The Stand Off: There has been a lot of buzz around Harvard Business School starting their own version of MOOC, HBX, and the debates and arguments between two of the best minds in strategy in the world today – Clay Christensen & Michael Porter. By creating HBX, Harvard finally decided to bet on Porter’s strategy, that the core business strategy of a firm should remain unchanged and every part of the business need to reinforce this core strategy. There has been a lot of debate about who among the titans has got this right. Both could be wrong In my […]

Podcast

PBTO5: Innovation, Design Thinking and Solving Complex Problems

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/pushingbeyondtheobvious/05_PBTO5__Innovation_Design_Thinking__Solving__Wicked_Problems_.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Email | RSSIn this episode, we host Lakshman, who heads the innovation practice for the consulting division of SAP, based in India and also a visiting faculty at the Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam, Germany.  In this conversation, we talk about the importance of defining the right problem to solve, as the first step in any innovation practice. Lucky also shares his views on how to build a practice capable of being able to innovate on a consistent basis. We also talk about Design Thinking, its history, the key components of this philosophy and […]

Leadership

How To Build Organizational Culture

Recently, I was moderating a design thinking workshop and talking about how it is critical to foster a culture of innovation within the organization and that it is responsibility of the leaders to build & nurture this culture. Some one stopped me and asked the following question: ” As a leader, what can i do to build the culture that i want for my team or organization”. For a moment, i was lost for the right words. I then took a pause and collected my thoughts and responded such: Building a culture is like gardening. Irrespective of what you do […]

Podcast

PBTO4: Getting Hooked On Customers With Bob Thompson

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/pushingbeyondtheobvious/04_PBTO4__Getting_Hooked_on_Customers_with_Bob_Thompson.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Email | RSSWelcome to episode number 4 of “Pushing Beyond the Obvious”. In this episode, we have with us Bob Thompson, CEO & editor of www.customerThink.com, the biggest online community about customers and customer centricity. Bob has recently released his book #HookedOnCustomers. We shall talk to him today about what does customer centricity mean and everything that goes along with it. We talk about The fact that most customer centric organizations are such, because their operational fabric is such that they do listen to their customers and act upon it and this is […]