Topic

Strategy

Design Thinking vs. Cognitive Biases: 10 Biases for Innovation to Overcome

Professor Jeanne Liedtka calls out 10 specific biases that cause especially serious problems for innovators. Design Thinking’s ability to fight these common biases accounts for its ability to help us test our ideas successfully.

Scale Up a Startup: The Importance of Operations

Professor Chao looks at Husk Power Systems and the operations surrounding this start up.

6 Global Business Lessons From Ki Aikido: Energy and Strategy

an businesses learn from Eastern philosophies? Major names like Disney, Dollar General and Men’s Health have implemented principles of Ki Aikido to great success. Professor Bourgeois discusses the concept of ki and the six lessons on energy and strategy one may glean from Kōichi Tōhei’s simple, profound “Principles of Mind and Body Unification.”

Hoshin Kanri: A Management Tool for Continuous Improvement

Hoshin Kanri is effective strategy deployment without a bureaucratic air but with a commitment to continuous improvement. Elliott Weiss and Austin English describe the simple construct that increases engagement at all levels, detailing general concepts, basic steps, and keys to successful implementation and iteration.

5 Questions on the Future of Grocery

While the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have accelerated trends for much of the retail industry, the impact on the grocery world is not so clear-cut. Darden Professor Tim Laseter discusses the state and future of the grocery industry and his “How to Win in Online Grocery” research.

Chips on the Table: Chinese Consumer Electronics Manufacturer Bets Big on European Microchip Maker

China manufactures nearly a quarter of the world’s high-tech goods, but most of those goods’ microchips come from the U.S. When tension rose in U.S.-China relations, one Chinese company found an M&A win-win with a European chipmaker looking to expand in China’s market. Here’s how a CEO turned around an existential threat and supply chain weak link.

In the Era of the Global Workplace and Dispersed Teams, How Can Managers Promote a Cohesive Culture?

How can managers promote consistent ways of working among team members from diverse cultural backgrounds who are based all over the world? And how can leaders help workers develop solid relationships with their colleagues even though they may not meet them regularly — if ever? Darden Professor Yo-Jud Cheng sheds light on those questions.

A Bite Out of Apple: What Happens If You Lose Strategic Talent?

When Apple’s longtime design guru Jony Ive announced that he’d be starting his own agency, it meant major change. The situation serves as a case in point for any organization whose success rests on strategic human capital: If strategy is intrinsically tied to talent, how does a firm support that talent or proceed if that talent disengages?

3 Keys to Navigating Digital Disruption: The Case of a Luxury Retailer

What does it take to transform? What if the challenges are huge: globalization, economic uncertainty, technological disruption, market innovations, changes in customer expectations, new competition — maybe all of the above? Here’s how luxury goods distributor and retailer The Chalhoub Group is responding to a changing world.

First: Do No Harm. Second: Strategize for Stakeholders After You Do.

Stakeholders don’t just respond to companies’ harmful practices — they respond to perceived harm. Darden Professor Andy Wicks examines how companies should respond to stakeholders’ responses. For example: Assembly Bill 5. Are Uber drivers employees or contractors? Stakeholders and the company disagree.