Topic

Strategy

The Cost of Conviction: Consumer Response to CEO Activism

A CEO goes on record supporting gun rights, and consumers react. Some stock up on the company’s products, others boycott. What fuels such “lifestyle politics”? Are consumers motivated by deep personal belief, or are they publicly signaling their values to an audience of like-minded peers?

Will You Shape (or Be Shaped By) the Future of AI, Blockchain and the Metaverse?

What place do AI, blockchain and the metaverse hold in the future of business? Where does one start to answer such a huge question? Professors Tim Laseter and Dennie Kim offer framing to help forward-thinking business leaders navigate the digital assets of the present and future.

5 Ways Digital Technology Is Redefining Competitive Dynamics

Digital technologies have evolved from efficient, convenient tools to be the driving force behind a paradigm shift in competition. Strategy expert Mike Lenox discusses five changes in the landscape business leaders are wise to keep in mind.

‘All Strategy is Emergent’: How Eastern Philosophy Enhances Rational Planning

Something happens on the way from a strategy’s creation to its execution: the unpredictable, which can leave many a carefully crafted plan in tatters. Eastern philosophy offers paths to confronting inevitable uncertainty.

Can Blue Apron Develop a Recipe for Profitability?

Innovation, supply-chain disruption, strategy and hot competition: Are there just too many meal-kit cooks in the industry’s kitchen? Blue Apron provides a case in point on all of the above.

Darden Ideas to Action: Most Read Stories of 2022

Darden Ideas to Action insights draw from faculty expertise, books, research, cases and white papers. Here: the most read stories of 2022. How can one build a brand? What happens when buzz turns to backlash? How does a strategist prepare for the unforeseeable? What inequalities to women face in feedback? And why is storytelling an essential skill?

Take a Stand or Sit One Out? CEO Activism and Partisan Consumer Behavior

In these politically divided times, everyone seems to have an opinion. Is it a good idea for CEOs to express theirs? What happens to an organization when its CEO takes a public stance on a controversial issue? New research examines the net effect of CEO activism, how the effects differ for liberals and conservatives, and the effects’ duration.

Future-Proof Your Strategy: Scenario Planning

Early in 2019, who knew that a novel coronavirus would shut down businesses, communities, industries and economies in just weeks? A good business strategist understands that the future unfolds in ways that are unforeseeable as frequently as they’re predictable. But there are analytical frameworks you can use to yield insights for your organization.

Future-Proof Your Strategy: Capabilities Analysis

The most successful companies are those that create strategies that align their plans for positioning in the market with the capabilities that they have. Here’s a step-by-step framework to determine if you have what you need to execute your strategy now or if you need to enhance your organizational capabilities moving forward.

Future-Proof Your Strategy: Environmental Analysis

Your firm’s value can be affected by trends that should affect your strategic outlook. Those factors may be technological, regulatory, institutional, cultural or societal changes. Analyzing these risks and opportunities—and thinking about how they may evolve—is critical to the long-term success of your business strategy.