BLOG OF ADAM HARTUNG
NJ Governor Christie Vetoes Higher Minimum Wage — Happy Labor Day
Labor Day is for celebrating workers, so why do so few politicians act to improve their pay?
A Federal Reserve Primer and Why You Don’t Need To Worry About Interest Rates Today
While Wall Street worries the Fed will raise interest rates, we mostly need fiscal policies to stimulate jobs and wage growth.
Can Jet.Com Save Walmart From Sears’ Fate?
As Walmart’s “core” brick-and-mortar stores become crime hubs with struggling margins, a lot is expected of Jet.com to turn-around the giant’s e-commerce fortunes.
‘Mythbusters’: Six Steps To Greater Diversity And Superior Results
Most of the time "diversity" is a code word for adding women or minorities to an organization. But that is only one way to think about diversity, and it really isn't the most important. To excel you need diversity in thinking. And far too often, we try to do just...
Donald Trump – Why It’s Easier To Be CEO Than Mayor, Governor or President
Donald Trump has had a lot of trouble gaining good press lately. Instead, he's been troubled by people from all corners reacting negatively to his comments regarding the Democrat's convention, some speakers at the convention, and his unwillingness to endorse...
Why McDonald’s and Apple Investors Should Be Very Wary
Growth Stalls are deadly for valuation, and both Mcdonald's and Apple are in one. August, 2014 I wrote about McDonald's Growth Stall. The company had 7 straight months of revenue declines, and leadership was predicting the trend would continue. Using data from...
What the NBA All-Star Game Venue Change Teaches Us About Decision-Making
Most leaders think of themselves as decision makers. Many people remember in 2006 when President George Bush, defending Donald Rumsfeld as his Defense Secretary said "I am the Decider. I decide what's best." It earned him the nickname "Decider-in-Chief." Most CEOs...
‘Pokémon GO’ – How Nintendo Beat Microsoft and Sony With an End Run
Poke'Mon Go is a new sensation. Just launched on July 6, the app is already the #1 app in the world - and it isn't even available in most countries. In less than 2 weeks, from a standing start, Nintendo's new app is more popular than both Facebook and Snapchat. ...
Starbucks and JPMorganChase Pay Raises – Just Following Trends
This week Starbucks and JPMorganChase announced they were raising the minimum pay of many hourly employees. For about 168,000 lowly paid employees, this is really good news. And both companies played up the planned pay increases as benefitting not only the...
‘The Founder’s Mentality’ Recommended For Your Summer Reading
Before you can go from “good to great” you have to go from “mediocre to good.” Leadership advice from the minds at Bain & Co. on how to do better.
Brexit – Economic Destruction vs. Creative Destruction
I’m a believer in Disruptive Innovation. For almost 100 years economists have been writing about “Creative Destruction,” in which new technologies come along making old technologies — and the companies built on them — obsolete. In the last 20 years, largely thanks to the initial insights of the faculty at Harvard Business School, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in understanding how new companies use new technologies to disrupt markets and wipe out the profitability of companies that were once clearly successful.
Microsoft and Linked-In – Same Song, Different Key
Microsoft is buying Linked-In, and we should expect this to be a disaster. It is clear why Linked-in agreed to be purchased. As revenues have grown, gross margins have dropped precipitously, and the company is losing money. And LInked-in still receives 2/3 of its...
How Traditional Planning Systems Failed Microsoft, and Its Board
Last week Bloomberg broke a story about how Microsoft's Chairman, John Thompson, was pushing company management for a faster transition to cloud products and services. He even recommended changes in spending might be in order. Really? This is news? Let's see, how...
Why Is Snapchat Worth $20B? The Value Of Implementing Trends
The photo sharing trend is here to stay, and it has valued Snapchat at $20B. What are you doing to capture trend value for your business?
Why Understanding 1 Retail Trend Is Worth 50% More Than All of WalMart
WalMart announced 1st quarter results on Thursday, and the stock jumped almost 10% on news sales were up versus last year. It was only $1.1B on $115B, about 1%, but it was UP! Same store sales were also up 1%, but analysts pointed out that was largely due to lower...
Innovation – Why Bezos Succeeded, While Lampert Failed at Sears
Last week Sears announced sales and earnings. And once again, the news was all bad. The stock closed at a record, all time low. One chart pretty much sums up the story, as investors are now realizing bankruptcy is the most likely outcome. Quick Rundown: In...
Apple – The Sustaining Innovation March – What a Defend & Extend Strategy Looks Like
Apple’s focus on iPhones has left it without a strong new innovation to power future growth, while efforts to defend & extend iPhone sales have limits.
Facebook’s Surge, Apple’s Slide and Chipotle’s Stall – It’s All About Growth
Growth fixes a multitude of sins. If you grow revenues enough (you don't even need profits, as Amazon has proven) investors will look past a lot of things. With revenue growth high enough, companies can offer employees free meals and massages. Executives and senior...
Can Netflix Double Pivot to Be a Media Game Changer?
Netflix has been a remarkable company. Because it has accomplished something almost no company has ever done. It changed its business model, leading to new growth and higher profits. Almost nobody pulls that off, because they remain stuck defending and extending...
PC Sales drop >10% Q1 2016. Surprised? Do You Care?
Leading tech tracking companies IDC and Gartner both announced Q1, 2016 PC sales results, and they were horrible. Sales were down 9.5%-11.5% depending on which tracker you asked. And that's after a horrible Q4, 2015 when sales were off more than 10%. PC sales have...
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