Our Research Process:
Strategy for Executives is the result of an extensive multi-year, and multidisciplinary research, that took more than a decade to complete.
In essence, the idea was to extract the main ideas of the most popular strategy frameworks of the last 40 years and tie them together within a single, unified framework.
This framework would serve then as a master guide that any executive could use to create a strategy from scratch for any business (for-profit) organization.
The explosion of the consulting industry in the 80s and through the 90s produced an extensive body of work where each consulting group would develop their own “best way” to create a strategy but those frameworks most times competed with each other, fragmenting the knowledge base of readers who wanted to keep up with all these developments.
This research started as an effort by Sun Wu to bring common sense to the process of designing and implementing a strategy within his team, in a way that was intuitive but at the same time comprehensive and multidimensional.
What we included
Through this research, we evaluated over 1,000 individual sources including books, magazines and research papers, and over 500 hours of video and formal training.
On each piece of work, we would extract its core ideas and see how they could fit our core knowledge base, rejecting those that didn’t or that meant a focus on non-profit metrics.
To implement such a process successfully, we first had to agree on a set of fundamental rules and then track them back to the different ways to achieve them. In this case, for example, we set out with the premise that the ultimate goal of a business’s strategy is to maximize its value for shareholders.
In business, value for shareholders is created through cash, cash comes from profits, and profits are in turn created by only three variables: Price, Volume (demand), and Costs.
From there, anyone can quickly deduce that in order to create value for shareholders, a business’s strategy should either enable higher prices, drive higher demand, lower its unit costs, or achieve a combination of these factors.
For an operating business with growth potential, then, its strategy must group efforts across two fronts: First, it must protect its operating profits from erosion, plus it must also find ways to maximize these profits within a period of time.
That’s why a good, winning strategy that seeks to maximize value for a business’s shareholders must have two core “tactical” plans: A plan to protect its core profits, what most call a “Competitive Strategy”, and a plan to maximize its profits over the long term, which is what most refer to as a “Growth Strategy” which includes innovation, internationalization, and other things.
With that framework at hand, we then went out to find the different ways (tactics if you will) through which you could achieve these tactical goals. That’s how we came down to a list of things that executives can do to protect their core business and another list of things to grow it.
Additional layers of research
After evaluating these things using the business as the core unit of analysis, we then considered the maximization of profits at the level of a “corporation” that owns multiple business units, since, at that level, the maximization of value could be based on a different set of rules.
For example, to maximize value at the corporate level, executives may need to sacrifice the profitability of a particular business unit to benefit another, violating the maximization rules that we previously mentioned.
In the end, then, a unified strategy framework must always consider the maximization of shareholder value at the highest level in the hierarchy, adding just another dimensions of analysis to the strategy-making process.
But having a list of things you want to do is not a strategy unless you can actually implement those things effectively, and that’s why we extended our research to also include the different “execution” systems out there to help executives implement their strategy.
Then, following the same approach, we came up with a unified execution system combining the best practices of the many systems out there in a way that’s intuitive and easy to understand.
Our findings
Something we found was that although there is an abundance of materials and ideas about strategy, many of them do not respect the fundamental rules that connect value creation to profitability and profitability to cash, so after a thorough evaluation, most of the ideas that we evaluated had to stay out of the framework or be marked to be used only under very specific conditions.
The result then is a unified strategy model that can be used to plan the strategy of any business or corporation from scratch, and that introduces only the concepts, tools and definitions that are needed to understand it.
That framework is presented in full in the book.
Below is a list of all the references and sources of facts that ended up being part of the framework, along with some articles from which we created the different stories we use to present these ideas in the right context, listed in the order of their contribution to each chapter of the book. Online resources were all last accessed in December 2018.
If you want to learn more about the personal story behind the book and how it came to be, you can find it here.
Introduction
Thorndike, William N. The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Purina Mills, Inc. – Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History. URL: https://referenceforbusiness.com/history2/95/Purina-Mills-Inc.html
Sloane, Leonard. Ralston Picks New Head. The New York Times archives. February 2, 1981. URL: https://nytimes.com/1981/02/02/business/business-people-ralston-picks-new-head.html
Magretta, Joan. Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Chapter 1: The Building Blocks of Strategy
Clifford, Catherine. Jack Welch: This is the No. 1 key to success as a leader. CNBC. November 2017. URL: https://cnbc.com/2017/11/17/former-ge-ceo-jack-welch-how-to-be-a-great-leader.html
Jack Welch’s profile page at GE Website. URL: https://www.ge.com/about-us/leadership/profiles/john-f-welch-jr
Welch, Jack; Byrne, John A. Jack: Straight from the Gut. Business Plus. Kindle Edition.
Hartung, Adam. GE Needs A New Strategy And A New CEO. Forbes website. March 2017. URL: https://forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2017/03/28/ge-needs-a-new-strategy-and-a-new-ceo/#43e16a707990
Jack Welch page at Encyclopedia.com. URL: https://encyclopedia.com/people/social-sciences-and-law/business-leaders/jack-welch
Hartung, Adam. GE: A Total Leadership Failure. Forbes website. April 2015. URL: https://forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2015/04/15/ge-a-total-leadership-failure/
Jack Welch Wikipedia page. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Welch
Welch, Jack; Welch, Suzy. Winning: The Ultimate Business How-To Book. HarperCollins e-books. Kindle Edition.
Ward, Matt. Amazon: The Company Consuming Consumers. thinkgrowth.org. URL: https://thinkgrowth.org/the-big-4-part-one-amazon-the-company-that-consumes-the-world-fb4679f10708
Kokoszka, Pamela. Amazon’s domination: a timeline of key Amazon acquisitions. Verdict Media. URL: https://www.verdict.co.uk/amazons-acquisitions-retail-domination-timeline/
Bishop, Todd. Jeff Bezos explains why Amazon doesn’t really care about its competitors. GeekWire. URL: https://geekwire.com/2013/interview-jeff-bezos-explains-amazon-focus-competitors/
Henderson, Bruce. “The Pricing Paradox” (1970). The Boston Consulting Group on Strategy: Classic Concepts and New Perspectives. 2nd Edition. Edited by Stern, Carl W. and Deimler, Michael S. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2006.
Lee, Kai-Fu. AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
McGrath, Rita Gunther. The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Chapter 2: Understanding Profits
Herper, Matthew. For Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Can One Billion-Dollar Breakthrough Beget Another? Forbes Website. August 2017. URL: https://forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2017/08/08/vertex-pharmaceuticals-and-the-price-of-inspiration/
Nocera, Joe. The $300,000 Drug. The New York Times (opinion). July 2014. URL: https://nytimes.com/2014/07/19/opinion/joe-nocera-cystic-fibrosis-drug-price.html
Christensen, Clayton M.; Tedlow, R.S. Patterns of Disruption in Retailing. Harvard Business Review 78, no. 1 (January–February 2000): 42–45.
Henderson, Bruce. “The Pricing Paradox” (1970). The Boston Consulting Group on Strategy: Classic Concepts and New Perspectives. 2nd Edition. Edited by Stern, Carl W. and Deimler, Michael S. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2006.
Kim, W. Chan; Mauborgne, Renée. Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Reisinger, Don. Here’s Why Apple Wants to Buy Cobalt Directly From Miners. Fortune website. February 2018. URL: http://fortune.com/2018/02/21/apple-buy-cobalt-miners/
Porter, Michael E. Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. Free Press. Kindle Edition.
Tesla Factory Wikipedia page. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Factory
Christensen, Clayton. The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Management of Innovation and Change). Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Johnson, Mark W.. Seizing the White Space: Business Model Innovation for Growth and Renewal. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Rolls-Royce website. URL: https://www.rolls-royce.com/media/our-stories/discover/2017/totalcare.aspx
Porter, Michael E. How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy. Harvard Business Review. March 1979. URL: https://hbr.org/1979/03/how-competitive-forces-shape-strategy
Porter, Michael E. Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. Free Press. Kindle Edition.
Harris, Jared; Lenox, Michael. The Strategist’s Toolkit. Kindle Edition.
Schoemaker, Paul J. H. Scenario Planning: A Tool for Strategic Thinking. MIT Sloan Management Review. January 1995. URL: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/scenario-planning-a-tool-for-strategic-thinking/
Chapter 3: Protecting Profits
Flint, Joe. HBO to Talent: You Won’t Get This Much Love at Netflix. The Wall Street Journal. January 2018. URL: https://wsj.com/articles/hbo-to-talent-you-wont-get-this-much-love-at-netflix-1516031557
Netflix Prize Wikipedia page. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix_Prize
Dawar, Niraj; Bagga, Charan K. A Better Way to Map Brand Strategy. Harvard Business Review. June 2015. URL: https://hbr.org/2015/06/a-better-way-to-map-brand-strategy
Harvard Business School, Michael Porter on Competitive Strategy, Harvard Business School Video Series, 1988. URL: https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Competitive-Strategy-Harvard-Business/dp/B006N0A2DG
Kumar, Nirmalya. Strategies to Fight Low-Cost Rivals. Harvard Business Review. December 2006. URL: https://hbr.org/2006/12/strategies-to-fight-low-cost-rivals
Drucker, Peter F. Management Rev Ed. HarperCollins e-books. Kindle Edition.
Lax, David A; Sebenius, James K. 3-D Negotiation: Powerful Tools to Change the Game in Your Most Important Deals. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Chapter 4: Protecting Profitability
Sherman, Leonard. If You’re in a Dogfight, Become a Cat!: Strategies for Long-Term Growth. Columbia Business School Publishing, Columbia University Press. Kindle Edition.
Hooley, Graham; Piercy, Nigel; Nicoulaud, Brigitte; Rudd, John M. Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning. 6th edition (January 2018). Pearson.
Ivory Wikipedia page. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_(soap)
Yahoo Beauty. The History of Sunscreen. May 2015. URL: https://yahoo.com/lifestyle/the-history-of-sunscreen-117797098013.html
Healthline.com. Omeprazole, Oral Capsule. URL: https://healthline.com/health/omeprazole-oral-capsule-sprinkles#1
Drugsdetails.com. Difference between omeprazole and esomeprazole. URL: https://drugsdetails.com/difference-between-omeprazole-and-esomeprazole/
Oatman, Maddie. Can farmers in Iowa help save the world’s seafood supply? Mother Jones Magazine. January/February 2017 issue. URL: https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/01/barramundi-aquaculture-fish-farm-iowa-veroblue/
Aaker, David A. Three Threats to Brand Relevance: Strategies That Work (J-B Short Format Series). Wiley. Kindle Edition.
Jenkins, Aric. We’re Keeping Track of All of Facebook’s Scandals So You Don’t Have To. Fortune website. April 2018. URL: http://fortune.com/2018/04/06/facebook-scandals-mark-zuckerberg/
Ng, Alfred. IBM’s Watson gives proper diagnosis for Japanese leukemia patient after doctors were stumped for months. NY Daily News. August 2016. URL: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/ibm-watson-proper-diagnosis-doctors-stumped-article-1.2741857
DeepMind blog. URL: https://deepmind.com/blog/deepmind-ai-reduces-google-data-centre-cooling-bill-40/
Davenport, Thomas; Harris, Jeanne G. Competing on Analytics: Updated, with a New Introduction: The New Science of Winning. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
McGrath, Rita Gunther. The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Lafley, A.G.; Martin, Roger L. Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Microsoft Services website. URL: https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/microsoftservices/campaigns/smartbuildings.aspx
Chong, Celena. Blockbuster’s CEO once passed up a chance to buy Netflix for only $50 million. Business Insider. July 2015. URL: https://www.businessinsider.com/blockbuster-ceo-passed-up-chance-to-buy-netflix-for-50-million-2015-7
Lavrinc, Damon. Apple, Google Just Killed Portable GPS Devices. WIRED Magazine website. June 2012. URL: https://www.wired.com/2012/06/gps-devices-are-dead/
Chapter 5: From Market to Operations
Jivan, Jon. Tesla Gigafactory shown progressing, but still a fraction of its final size in recent satellite photo. Electrek website. August 2015. URL: https://electrek.co/2015/08/18/gigafactory-shown-progressing-but-still-a-fraction-of-its-final-size-in-recent-satellite-photo/
Tesla’s Gigafactory official page. URL: https://www.tesla.com/gigafactory
Lux Research Press Release. URL: http://www.luxresearchinc.com/news-and-events/press-releases/read/tesla-motors%E2%80%99-gigafactory-will-see-more-50-overcapacity-its-li
Edelstein, Stephen. Tesla Gigafactory energy: no solar panels yet, but no natural gas at all. Green Car Reports. August 2016. URL: https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1105404_tesla-gigafactory-energy-no-solar-panels-yet-but-no-natural-gas-at-all
Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 Wikipedia page. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigafactory_1
Tesla Gigafactory 1 Tour Handout. Uploaded to Scribd by Fred Lamert. January 2010. URL: https://www.scribd.com/document/336162277/Tesla-Gigafactory1-Tour-Jan-2017-Handout-FINAL
Welch, Jack; Byrne, John A. Jack: Straight from the Gut. Business Plus. Kindle Edition.
Foley, Mary Jo. Microsoft lays off remaining handful of Microsoft Press staff. ZDNET. July 2016.
URL: https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-lays-off-remaining-handful-of-microsoft-press-staff/
Microsoft Press Wikipedia page. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Press
Slack, Nigel; Lewis, Michael. Operations Strategy. Fifth Edition. Pearson Education Limited.
Van Mieghem, Jan A.; Allon, Gad. Operations Strategy: Principles and Practice. Second Edition. Dynamics Ideas LLC.
Dawar, Niraj. Tilt: Shifting Your Strategy from Products to Customers. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Stone, Brad. The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition.
Chapter 6: Growing the Core
Clear aligners’ Wikipedia page. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_aligners
Collins, Jim. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t. HarperBusiness. Kindle Edition.
D’Onfro, Jillian. Here’s how much time people spend on Facebook per day. Business Insider. July 2015. URL: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-time-people-spend-on-facebook-per-day-2015-7
Deign, Jason. Updated: Mexico’s Energy Auction Just Logged the Lowest Solar Power Price on the Planet. Greentech Media. November 2017. URL: https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/mexico-auction-bids-lowest-solar-wind-price-on-the-planet#gs.tCO=4U0
TheStreet Guest Contribution. Amazon Is Losing Billions From Its Retail Business and Rivals Should Be Scared. April 2018. URL: https://www.thestreet.com/opinion/amazon-is-losing-money-from-retail-operations-14571703
Sherman, Leonard. If You’re in a Dogfight, Become a Cat!: Strategies for Long-Term Growth. Columbia Business School Publishing, Columbia University Press. Kindle Edition.
Chesbrough, Henry W. Making Sense of Corporate Venture Capital. Harvard Business Review, March 2002.
Bhattacharya, Arindam; Reeves, Martin; Lang, Nikolaus; Agustinraj, Rajah. New Business Models for a New Global Landscape. The Boston Consulting Group. The New Globalization Series. 2017. URL: https://www.bcg.com/en-gb/publications/2017/globalization-new-business-models-global-landscape.aspx
Sato, Kaz. Using machine learning for insurance pricing optimization. Google Cloud website. March 2017. URL: https://cloud.google.com/blog/big-data/2017/03/using-machine-learning-for-insurance-pricing-optimization
Davenport, Thomas; Harris, Jeanne G. Competing on Analytics: Updated, with a New Introduction: The New Science of Winning. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Lewis, Alan; McKone, Dan. So Many M&A Deals Fail Because Companies Overlook This Simple Strategy. Harvard Business Review blog. May 2016. URL: https://hbr.org/2016/05/so-many-ma-deals-fail-because-companies-overlook-this-simple-strategy
Heffernan, Margaret; Why Mergers Fail. CBS MoneyWatch. April 2012. URL: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-mergers-fail/
Skype Wikipedia page. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype
Reardon, Marguerite. Why Cisco killed the Flip mini camcorder. CNET. April 2011. URL: https://www.cnet.com/news/why-cisco-killed-the-flip-mini-camcorder/
Welch, Jack; Byrne, John A. Jack: Straight from the Gut. Business Plus. Kindle Edition.
Revista Expansión. Las Empresas más importantes de México. June 2017.
Ahuja, Kabir; Hilton Segel, Liz; Perrey, Jesko. The roots of organic growth. McKinsey Quarterly. August 2017. URL: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-roots-of-organic-growth
Ahuja, Kabir; Hilton Segel, Liz; Perrey, Jesko. Invest, Create, Perform: Mastering the three dimensions of growth in the digital age. McKinsey article. March 2017. URL: http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/invest-create-perform
Anthony, Scott D.; Johnson, Mark W.; Sinfield, Joseph V.; Altman, Elizabeth J. The Innovator’s Guide to Growth: Putting Disruptive Innovation to Work. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Reeves, Martin; Moose, Sandy; Venema, Thijs. BCG Classics Revisited: The Growth Share Matrix. BCG.com. June 2014. URL: https://www.bcg.com/en-us/publications/2014/growth-share-matrix-bcg-classics-revisited.aspx
Kiechel, Walter. Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Treacy, Michael; Sims, Jim. Take Command of Your Growth. Harvard Business Review OnPoint, Fall 2008.
Chapter 7: Creating New Products and Services
Dean Kamen Wikipedia page. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Kamen
Harris, Tom. How Segways Work. How Stuff Works. URL: https://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/engines-equipment/ginger1.htm
Machine of Dreams (article). Vanity Fair Magazine. May 2002.
Kemper, Steve. Code Name Ginger: The Story Behind Segway and Dean Kamen’s Quest to Invent a New World. Harvard Business Review Press. 2003.
Shark Tank (TV Show). Season 5, Episode 9. ABC Television Network. 2013.
Siminoff, Jamie. 2 Years: An Open Letter to Shark Tank. Ring blog. November 2015. URL: https://blog.ring.com/2015/11/13/sharktank
Montag, Ali. This $1 billion company was once rejected on ‘Shark Tank’—here’s how the founder proved everyone wrong. CNBC. November 2017. URL: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/30/shark-tank-reject-doorbot-is-now-billion-dollar-company-ring.html
Christensen, Clayton. The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Management of Innovation and Change). Harvard Business School Press. Kindle Edition.
Kim, W. Chan; Mauborgne, Renée. Blue Ocean Shift: Beyond Competing – Proven Steps to Inspire Confidence and Seize New Growth. Hachette Books. Kindle Edition.
Sherman, Leonard. If You’re in a Dogfight, Become a Cat!: Strategies for Long-Term Growth. Columbia Business School Publishing, Columbia University Press. Kindle Edition.
Eades, Keith M. The New Solution Selling: The Revolutionary Sales Process That is Changing the Way People Sell. McGraw-Hill Education. Kindle Edition.
Christensen, Clayton M.; Dillon, Karen; Hall, Taddy; Duncan, David S. Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice. HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Sviokla, John; Cohen, Mitch. The Self-Made Billionaire Effect Deluxe: How Extreme Producers Create Massive Value. Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Barnes, Cindy; Blake, Helen; Pinder, David. Creating and Delivering Your Value Proposition: Managing Customer Experience for Profit. Kogan Page. Kindle Edition.
Gavetti, Giovanni; Henderson, Rebecca; Giorgi , Simona. KODAK. Harvard Business Review. Rev. April 28 2003. Case URL: https://hbr.org/product/kodak-a/703503-PDF-ENG
Markides, Constantinos C.; Geroski, Paul A. Fast Second: How Smart Companies Bypass Radical Innovation to Enter and Dominate New Markets. Jossey-Bass. Kindle Edition.
McAlone, Nathan. This man invented the digital camera in 1975 — and his bosses at Kodak never let it see the light of day. Business Insider. August 2015. URL: https://www.businessinsider.com/this-man-invented-the-digital-camera-in-1975-and-his-bosses-at-kodak-never-let-it-see-the-light-of-day-2015-8
VisiCalc Wikipedia page. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VisiCalc
Industry Focus (Podcast). CG: Estee Lauder Stock Surges on the Back of Prestige Branding. The Motley Fool. April 10, 2018. URL: https://www.fool.com/podcasts/industry-focus/2018-04-10-cg-estee-lauder-stock-surges-on-the/
Del Rey, Jason. Surprise! Amazon now sells more than 70 of its own private-label brands. recode.net. April 2018. URL: https://www.recode.net/2018/4/7/17208804/amazon-private-label-brands-list
Moore, Geoffrey A. Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers. Harper Collins, Inc. Kindle Edition.
Choudary, Sangeet Paul; Parker, Geoffrey G.; Van Alstyne, Marshall W. Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work for You. W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
Weiblen, Tobias; Chesbrough, Henry W. Engaging with Startups to Enhance Corporate Innovation. California Management Review. Vol. 57, No. 2, pp. 66–90. 2015.
Yu, Howard. Leap: How to Thrive in a World Where Everything Can Be Copied. PublicAffairs. Kindle Edition.
Carlson, Nicholas. Larry Page Tried To Sell Google For $1.6 Million — $358 Billion Less Than It’s Worth Today. Business Insider. April 2014. URL: https://static1.businessinsider.com/larry-page-tried-to-sell-google-for-16-million–358-billion-less-than-its-worth-today-2014-4
Cauley, Leslie. Verizon rejected Apple iPhone deal. USA Today. Updated January 2007. URL: https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-01-28-verizon-iphone_x.htm
Casson, Herbert N. The History of the Telephone (Illustrated). 1st World Library – Literary Society.
Christensen, Clayton M.; Anthony, Scott D.; Roth, Erik A. Seeing What’s Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition
Chapter 8: Capital Allocation
Thorndike, William N. The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Maxfield, John. An Interesting Chart About Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool. July 2017.
URL: https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/23/an-interesting-chart-about-berkshire-hathaway.aspx
Berman, Karen; Knight, Joe; Case, John. Financial Intelligence, Revised Edition: A Manager’s Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Christensen, Clayton. Where does Growth come from? Talks at Google. YouTube video. URL: https://youtu.be/rHdS_4GsKmg
Reeves, Martin; Haanaes, Knut; Sinha, Janmejaya. Your Strategy Needs a Strategy: How to Choose and Execute the Right Approach. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Magretta, Joan. Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy. Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Jay Rosenzweig Interviews William Thorndike, Author of The Outsiders. YouTube video. URL: https://youtu.be/3nDz_Q9bafk
Vintage Value Investing (contributor). Here’s how Warren Buffett used insurance to become one of the world’s richest people. Business Insider. April 2017. URL: http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-insurance-float-2017-4
Rosenbaum, Eric. Warren Buffett explains the enduring power of stock buybacks for long-term investors. CNBC. September 2018. URL: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/31/warren-buffett-explains-the-enduring-power-of-stock-buybacks.html
Thorndike, William. The Outsiders. Talks at Google. YouTube video. URL: https://youtu.be/D6h5bvxnBKk
O’Brien, Sara Ashley. Amazon lays off hundreds of employees. CNN Business. February 2018.
URL: http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/12/technology/amazon-layoffs/index.html
TheStreet Guest Contribution. Amazon Is Losing Billions From Its Retail Business and Rivals Should Be Scared. TheStreet.com. April 2018. URL: https://www.thestreet.com/opinion/amazon-is-losing-money-from-retail-operations-14571703
Wolcott, Robert C.; Bauke, Boris; Baier, Ronny. Technical Note: Corporate Venture Capital, Case Study. Kellogg School of Management. 2015.
Report: Global CVC in 2017: A comprehensive, data-driven look at global corporate venture capital activity in 2017, CB Insights. URL: https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/corporate-venture-capital-trends-2017/
Weiblen, Tobias; Chesbrough, Henry W. Engaging with Startups to Enhance Corporate Innovation. California Management Review. Vol. 57, No. 2, pp. 66–90. 2015.
Chapter 9: Making Strategy Happen
Kelly, Heather. GoPro announces foldable Karma drone. CNN Business. September 2016. URL: http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/19/technology/gopro-drone-karma/index.html
Mac, Ryan. The Sky Is Falling For GoPro. Forbes. February 2017. URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2017/02/02/behind-recall-gopro-karma-drone/#efb902b4ec95
Noguchi, Yuki. Why Borders Failed While Barnes & Noble Survived. NPR. July 2011. URL: https://www.npr.org/2011/07/19/138514209/why-borders-failed-while-barnes-and-noble-survived
Patel, Nilay. Apple HomePod Review: Locked In. The Verge. February 2018. URL: https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/6/16976906/apple-homepod-review-smart-speaker
Wong, Raymond. Now we know why Siri was so dumb for so long. Mashable. March 2018. URL: https://mashable.com/2018/03/14/why-siri-is-so-dumb/#X3dq21NqsZqw
Panzarino, Matthew. Apple is Rebuilding Maps From the Ground up. TechCrunch. June 2018. URL: https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/29/apple-is-rebuilding-maps-from-the-ground-up/
Desilu Production Wikipedia page. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desilu_Productions
The Toys That Made Us (Netflix TV Series). Star Trek. Season 2, Episode 1. 2018.
Mankins, Michael; Steele, Richard. Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance. Harvard Business Review. July-August 2005 issue. URL: https://hbr.org/2005/07/turning-great-strategy-into-great-performance
Mankins, Michael. 5 Ways the Best Companies Close the Strategy-Execution Gap. Harvard Business Review. November 2017. URL: https://hbr.org/2017/11/5-ways-the-best-companies-close-the-strategy-execution-gap
McChesney, Chris; Covey, Sean; Huling, Jim. The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals. Free Press. Kindle Edition.
Gryta, Thomas; Lublin, Joann S.; Benoit, David. How Jeffrey Immelt’s ‘Success Theater’ Masked the Rot at GE. The Wall Street Journal. February 2018. URL: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-jeffrey-immelts-success-theater-masked-the-rot-at-ge-1519231067
Holusha, John. Exxon’s Public-Relations Problem. The New York Times archives. April 1989. URL: https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/21/business/exxon-s-public-relations-problem.html
Rehak, Judith. Tylenol made a hero of Johnson & Johnson: The recall that started them all. The New York Times archives. March 2002. URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/23/your-money/IHT-tylenol-made-a-hero-of-johnson-johnson-the-recall-that-started.html
Chapter 10: The Human Factor
Stone, Brad. The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition.
Bhardwaj, Prachi. Amazon poached 30 executives from Microsoft in the past 3 years — 6 times as many executives as the next lead poacher, Google. Business Insider. July 2018. URL: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-poached-30-former-microsoft-executives-2015-to-2017-vs-google-report-2018-6
McCarthy, Kyle. These Tech Companies Give The Largest Signing Bonuses. Blind’s Work Talk Blog. Blind. May 2018. URL: http://blog.teamblind.com/index.php/2018/05/21/these-tech-companies-give-the-largest-signing-bonuses/
Welch, Jack; Byrne, John A. Jack: Straight from the Gut. Business Plus. Kindle Edition.
McLean, Bethany; Elkind, Peter. The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron. Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.
Umoh, Ruth. Why Amazon pays employees $5,000 to quit. CNBC. May 2018. URL: https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/05/21/why-amazon-pays-employees-5000-to-quit.html
Murphy Jr, Bill. You Don’t Just Get Fired at Netflix. What Happens Instead Is Brilliant. (Or Maybe Insane. There’s a Raging Debate). Inc.com. URL: https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/you-dont-just-get-fired-at-netflix-what-happens-instead-is-brilliant-or-maybe-insane-theres-a-raging-debate.html
The Economist Explains. Why does Michael Dell want to take his company private? The Economist. February 2013. URL: https://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/02/economist-explains-why-michael-dell-taking-company-private
Subramanian, Guhan. Corporate Governance 2.0. Harvard Business Review. March 2015.
Vossoughi, Sohrab. A company’s culture has to come from within or it will fail. The Globe and Mail. May 2018. URL: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/management/a-companys-culture-has-to-come-from-within-or-it-will-fail/article14169921/
Beirne, Mike. United to Shut Down Ted Airlines. Adweek. June 2008. URL: http://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/united-shut-down-ted-airlines-95995/
Coleman, John. Six Components of a Great Corporate Culture. Harvard Business Review blog. May 2013. URL: https://hbr.org/2013/05/six-components-of-culture
Griffith, Erin. Netflix Sees Itself as the Anti-Apple. WIRED Magazine website. April 2018. URL: https://www.wired.com/story/reed-hastings-at-ted/
Nicholls, Jane. Inside Crotonville: GE’s corporate vault unlocked. GE Reports. October 2017. URL: https://www.ge.com/reports/inside-crotonville-ges-corporate-vault-unlocked/
Welch, Jack; Byrne, John A. Jack: Straight from the Gut. Business Plus. Kindle Edition.
Bernholz, Malte; Teng, Andrew. Why and How to Build an In-House Consulting Team. Harvard Business Review blog. September 2015. URL: https://hbr.org/2015/09/why-and-how-to-build-an-in-house-consulting-team
Stockton, Nick. Everything You Need To Know About the Theranos Saga So Far. WIRED Magazine website. May 2016. URL: https://www.wired.com/2016/05/everything-need-know-theranos-saga-far/
Reingold, Jennifer. Theranos’ board: Plenty of political connections, little relevant expertise. Fortune website. October 2015. URL: http://fortune.com/2015/10/15/theranos-board-leadership/
Carreyrou, John. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Georgiou, Archelle. Skilling speaks: Enron CEO’s jailhouse interview. CNN Money. June 2010. URL: https://money.cnn.com/2010/06/14/news/newsmakers/jeffrey_skilling_prison_interview.fortune/index.htm
Donaldson James, Susan. John Taylor Skilling, Ex-Enron Chief’s Son, Dies of Possible Overdose. ABC News. February 2011. URL: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/john-taylor-skilling-son-jailed-enron-chief-jeffrey/story?id=12843040
Morris, Chris. Former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling Released From Prison. Fortune website. August 2018. URL: http://fortune.com/2018/08/31/enron-ceo-jeff-skilling-released-prison/
Afterword:
Mac, Ryan. As Alibaba’s IPO Approaches, Founder Jack Ma Pens Letter To Potential Investors. Forbes website. September 2014. URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2014/09/05/as-alibabas-ipo-approaches-founder-jack-ma-pens-letter-to-potential-investors/#7bdedf52685c
Jeff Bezos on Leading for the Long-Term at Amazon. Harvard Business Review. January 2013. URL: https://hbr.org/2013/01/jeff-bezos-on-leading-for-the
Appendix:
Amazon Financials. Provided by Nasdaq. URL: https://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/amzn/financials
Investopedia. Free Cash Flow. URL: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/freecashflow.asp
Investopedia. Comparable Company Analysis – CCA. URL: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/comparable-company-analysis-cca.asp