Category Archives: strategy

Now what?

Posted on September 23, 2011 by

The all-knowing, all-seeing Federal Reserve (not Carnac) has advised they expect the U.S. economy to remain essentially flat for several years. Is it ok with you if your company does the same? (Ok, after the downturn of 2009/10, where flat was … Continue reading →

Posted in management, Marketing, strategy | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Size Counts

Posted on August 2, 2011 by

I’ve learned many things from Mitch since I joined CMG in 1999, but perhaps the one nugget I remember most often is his insight that “the essence of strategy is to grow faster than the market, because all markets stop … Continue reading →

Posted in competitive advantage, strategy | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Are these really the dumbest things he ever did?

Posted on June 27, 2011 by

My friend Allen Hauge sent me a link to an article about the 10 Dumbest Things Steve Jobs Ever Did. They are indeed dumb … some of them only in hindsight. However, the list is missing one of the biggest mistakes … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Marketing, product development, strategy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Critical success factors

Posted on June 6, 2011 by

Many planning frameworks (ours too) include the construct of critical success factors. Simply stated, critical success factors are those actions/factors which are necessary and sufficient to achieve the results anticipated by the plan. The key is necessary (do you really need to … Continue reading →

Posted in strategy | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

When in doubt, increase your advertising

Posted on March 29, 2011 by

Back in February I posted about the auto insurance industry and their focus on price. Apparently the “waste” I discussed in that article has been transferred to the advertising industry. Over $4B/year is spent on advertising by this industry. And this is over … Continue reading →

Posted in Advertising, Marketing, strategy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The right results

Posted on February 25, 2011 by

I was walking through O’Hare yesterday (got lucky and beat a big snow storm out of town) and saw the ad pictured here. The ad got my attention because it was about strategy meeting the real world. We focus on … Continue reading →

Posted in strategy | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Clearly it’s a commodity

Posted on February 1, 2011 by

The ads run by many of the various auto insurers fascinate me. Companies such as Progressive, Geico and 21st Century Insurance, just to name three, focus on a common theme. In most of their ads they tell us that x million people switched to … Continue reading →

Posted in Advertising, Marketing, strategy | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The lesson of Microsoft for almost everyone

Posted on November 30, 2010 by

I recently ran across a young singer in Poland with my last name (actually Mroz is a fairly common name in Poland): Urszula Mroz.  What amazed me as I watched her YouTube video was that she was singing, for a … Continue reading →

Posted in competitive advantage, first mover advantage, Innovation, product development, strategy | Tagged | Leave a comment

Who knew? Doing good by your customers is sometimes a winning strategy!

Posted on October 30, 2010 by

One strategy is almost any industry is to provide really superior customer service.  There’s almost always some segment of the available market that isn’t terribly price-sensitive and values excellent service.  This strategy doesn’t need to preclude other, low-cost strategies, although … Continue reading →

Posted in customer loyalty, customer service, strategy | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The resurrection of MySpace?

Posted on October 28, 2010 by

MySpace announced their awaited refocus yesterday. This refocus: no surprise, is back to their roots of Gen Y music-oriented people. Their new president, Michael Jones, is quoted as saying, “Over time, MySpace got very broad and lost its focus…” Ya think! … Continue reading →

Posted in Focus, strategy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment