BLOG OF ADAM HARTUNG
Will Meg Whitman’s Layoffs Turn Around HP? Nope
HP is a victim of an outdated industrial-era strategy that has killed its ability to innovate. Meg Whitman is not an innovator, and unlikely to turn around HP
OOPS! 5 CEOs that Should Have Already Been Fired (Cisco, GE, WalMart, Sears, Microsoft)
Our attention is grabbed weekly by business problems for which CEOs make excuses. But the 5 worst CEOs have long track records of steering their companies out of growth markets and toward failure.
Sell Google – Lot of Heat, Not Much Light
Google has lost its ability to implement innovative solutions and create new markets, and is left investing billions into defending search while the market shifts to social, and trying to go toe-to-toe with Apple making handsets. Meanwhile senior leadership is manipulating the stock to make sure they keep control. Time to sell Google.
CIO’s – will you be relevant in 2017?
Will CIOs – and even IT departments – be necessary in 2017? Increasingly users can meet their own needs better, faster and cheaper with cloud services, apps and mobile devices they can afford to buy on their own.
WalMart’s the Titanic, and Mexican Bribery is its Iceberg – JUMP SHIP
WalMart is not too big to fail. WalMart’s bribery of Mexican officials is just the latest questionable action to embarrass leadership, and show investors that company leaders are out-of-step with modern retail markets. WalMart keeps doing more unethical things to keep the business going, even as growth slows and margins erode. WalMart may look invincible, but like the Titanic it is not. Sell now, Amazon and Overstock are much better places to invest your money.
Sayonara Sony – How Industrial, MBA Management Killed a Great Company
Sony was a market leader for 40 years. But it replaced its strategy of innovating new markets with an industrial strategy based on volume and cost obsession – and now the company has lost money for 4 years. Nobody can succeed in an information economy with an industrial strategy – learn from Sony
Why EVERY Company Must Be a Tech Company – Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Instagram Lessons
Apple’s great value increase is about more than one company. It reflects the economic shift away from industrialism toward information. For companies to grow, and prosper they MUST begin thinking like tech companies, dropping interest in “hard assets” and “industrial processes” and adopt the new competitive mantle of information and the technology built around information.
Momentum is a Killer – The Demise of RIM, Yahoo and Dell
We like to think success comes from understanding “core strengths” and working tirelessly to defend them. Only in today’s fast changing markets such an approach leads to rapid obsolescence. Take it from 3 failing companies that used to be market leaders, forget momentum and learn to be ignore the past in an effort to be more agile fulfilling emerging needs.
Don’t leave ObamaCare to the Attorneys!
Health care costs threaten to cripple American competitiveness. Yet the country remains unable to disrupt its old processes and create new solutions. Studying competitors and existing state level projects could go a long way toward creating a better solution.
The Good, Bad and Ugly – Apple, Google and Dell
Every business can learn from what Apple did right, and what both Google and Dell did wrong over the last 5 years. It’s about investing in taking innovation to market, and not being afraid to move beyond defending and extending what you already know.
Microsoft’s Crazy Windows 8 Bet – How you can invest smarter
You make more money, with less investment, by investing beyond what you know. Investing in what you know keeps you distant from trends, and causes businesses (and investors) to fall behind. To maximize returns we have to diversify into growth markets, even when we have little knowledge in that area. By favoring trends, we can make more money – and sell more stuff! MIcrosoft spent too long, and too much, on Windows 8 – and now they are playing “bet the company” on this latest product launch. Too bad, they’re likely to miss.
Twitter and Linked-In Drove one of 2011’s Fastest Growing Companies
How small and medium sized businesses can use new marketing tools like Twitter, Facebook and Linked-in to grow revenues. Jefferson Financial successful case study.
Buy Facebook, P&G’s CEO told you to
Many analysts are questioning whether the Facebook IPO is overvalued. Ignore the spreadsheets and look at the underlying trend. Facebook is at the front of an enormous market shift in behavior and advertising, and it will drive billions of dollars in new revenue. Buy Facebook.
Wal-Mart’s “Shoot Yourself in the Head” Strategy
Most companies see results suffer due to market shifts. New trends emerge, like in retail where people are doing more shopping on-line and using mobile devices while shopping. But most entrenched competitors act like Wal-Mart, fixated on defending and extending the old strategy they don’t adapt to these trends. They don’t shift. As more resources are dedicated to D&E actions the companies do even more poorly, allowing competitors that leverage the trends to beat them
Who’s CEO of the Year? Bezo’s (Amazon) or Page (Google)?
On the surface people may see similarities between “CEO of the Year” award winners Jeff Bezos and Larry Page. But their leadership approaches, and strategies, are diametrically opposed. Only one is likely to be a big winner in 2015 – and picking which one is critical to your success
Creative Destruction is not inevitable – Kodak, Hostess, Microsoft
Businesses can avoid creative destruction. Leaders, and investors, need to pay more attention to trends and invest in market shifts rather than trying to defend and extend outdated businesses. Creative destruction is not an investment philosophy, nor an inevitable outcome. Any business can grow if it focuses externally and makes the right investment decisions.
Drop 2011 Dogs for 2012’s Stars – Avoid Kodak, Sears, Nokia, RIMM, HP, Sony – Buy Apple, Amazon, Google, Netflix
In 2011 you could have enhanced your portfolio by investing in trends, and dumping stocks that were ignoring trends. Those who did worst saw revenues and profits collapse as markets shifted, and they didn’t. Those who did best invested in trends and entered new markets creating higher revenues and profits. Looking at 2012, follow the same approach by avoiding those who are fighting trends and investing in those who are accelerating them.
They stayed too long at the (holiday) party – The Oracle and Best Buy Hangover
Businesses, like bad partiers, stay too long at the punchbowl. They don’t prepare for changes and end up with a big hangover as new competitors rip out their profits. Even leaders, like Oracle and Best Buy, cannot compete if they don’t prepare for the next wave of competition by staying at their old party too long.
Buy Into Trends – Buy Chipotle Sell McDonald’s
Chipotle is doing far better than McDonald’s today, and will continue doing better in the future, because it is investing in new trends while McDonald’s keeps trying to defend its outdated success formula
What’s wrong at the U.S. Postal Service – Market Shift
The Post Office is failing because it did not shift with market needs. USPS is a marvel of efficiency and productivity, even with unions, and remarkably low paid leadership. But because it is restricted in what it can do, and nobody cares about its “core market” any longer it is headed for the graveyard.
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