BLOG OF ADAM HARTUNG
Is GM ready to Change?
General Motors has seen its stock value grow almost 40% in the last 3 months. Why? Many analysts and investors believe that GM management has been Disrupted, and is moving into White Space for new solutions to its problems. Is it for real? Well,...
Disruptive Times
Readers of this BLOG know I have been no fan of Roger Deromedi and Kraft. So, you probably think I'm delighted with his ouster this week by Altria (effective parent of Kraft). Actually, I'm unconvinced whether it will matter. There is no doubt that Kraft...
Double-up that Lock-in
As readers of this BLOG, you know that I find McDonald's a risky company that is horribly Locked-in to its old Success Formula. So, I wasn't surprised when I recently read about McDonald's latest plan to grow. McDonald's is planning to pump up sales by opening a...
Easy Idea Susceptibility
I recently attended a great event. A marketing company offered $3,000 to the start-up with the best idea - an idea they had only 3 minutes to explain. This was a competition for companies looking for angel or venture funding. As the dozen companies...
Selling Success
DJIA member, and industry leading pharmaceutical company Pfizer has had a rough go of it the last 4 years. While revenues are up from 2001, they were flat in 2005 signaling a growth stall. This had been predicted since 2001, as earnings have been highly...
Impatient Management
I talk a lot about the deadly impact of growth stalls. Whenever companies suffer two consecutive flat or declining quarters, or a year-over-year decline, I call that a growth stall. And the results are deadly, with fewer than 10% of these companies ever...
Obvious, and worrisome
Last week a phase ended when the top execs at Enron were found guilty of crimes related to the downfall of Enron. The are likely to spend the rest of their lives in prison for "white collar crimes." Unfortunately, those crimes cost investors,...
Appearances
This week one of America's great media companies jumped nearly 10% in value. The Tribune Company - owner of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, WGN superstation, the Chicago Cubs and other great assets - announced a significant stock buyback. After...
Go, Go, Go
I love to watch soccer. A very popular sport around the world, it's popularity is gaining every year in the U.S. Part of the game's allure is how players will work, and work, and work to move the ball around the field for many minutes - always looking for...
The sound of Thunder
According to an old Greek legend, thunder was the sound of giants falling in battles in the sky. There's been plenty of thunder in the tech world lately. Dell Computer, not even a decade ago considered one of the most admired American companies, has seen...
Growth vs Profits
If you want your business to be a success, attracting employees and investors alike, there's a simple solution. You need to both grow and earn an above average rate of return. It's the ability to both grow and make money that is attractive. But for...
Make that a double-profit decaf coffee
Last week Starbucks beat analyst estimates as profit rose 27%. Same store sales were up 10%, the 57th consecutive quarter of sales increases in stores open a year or more. Starbucks now has over 11,000 stores. It has opened 900 so far this year, and...
A stumbling giant
Believe it or not, in 1985 Apple sold more personal computers than all the Microsoft-based machines combined. Hard to imagine that 20 years later. By the mid-1990s almost everyone in TechLand considered Apple a non-player. Apple had become a small,...
Ahh..The Power of White Space
Would you get into the wireless phone business today? Can you think of a more cutthroat competitive marketplace than cell phones? Can you think of a market that has more disappointed investors than mobile communications - voice or data? If I told you...
Of Winners and …. Strugglers
Wow, have you seen the share price of Google? Google's value has more than doubled the last 12 months, and risen about 5-fold since going public some 21 months ago. Why is this happening? Simply because revenues are more than doubling annually, and...
1-Trick Pony
If asked to name the world's top operationally excellent company, one name you would have to consider is Wal-Mart. From humble beginnings, a relentless focus on operations led this company to become the world's largest. For two decades Wal-Mart has been...
Unambiguous Lock-in
Sears held its annual meeting this week, and demonstrated that nothing insures failure like Lock-in to a failed Success Formula. (See coverage in New York Times and Chicago Tribune.) Sales are down, store concepts are failing and the Chairman said he has...
Chocolate White Space?
Do you remember 1-800-Flowers.com? You probably think that was one of those dot-coms that dot.bombed since 2000. After going public in 1999 the stock shot to $22, only to fall to about $2 the next year. The company is still around, but it gets very...
Becoming a Target
Newspaper stocks are getting the snot kicked out of themselves the past year. Investment analysts, industry analysts - why at this week's industry trade show even the industry executives - are all saying that newspapers are losing readers, losing advertisers and...
Look through the Windshield
In my presentations I impress upon people the need to look into the future to recognize Challenges and unearth opportunities. Don't let Lock-in keep you projecting the future from the past. A great example showed itself recently. The Chicago Tribune (see...
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