Competing for the boomer business Two competitors in the female boomer retail space do not necessarily identify each other as direct competitors: Chico’s and Stein Mart. Both of these retailers claim to focus on women ages 25 and older; however, the actual offers of each appear to be geared toward the 45 and above female. …
Using your classroom teams in their online Wiki sites, have students conduct the following studies: Referring to the short cases on Chico’s and Stein Mart, develop a strategic analysis of the two companies as competitors. Do you see evidence of them being in the same strategic space? Explain through your Wiki presentation. Using the Borderlines…
Business Schools face strategic choices http://video.ft.com/v/1217880931001/Less-room-at-the-top/ Are US business schools prepared to compete with the Asian market? Can they be nimble, if constrained by faculty research commitments? Yale University Dean, Edward Snyder, suggests that business schools need to find solutions that keep faculty and students engaged in international business on a modular basis, rather…
Surviving economic swings through innovation http://meettheboss.tv/Broadcast/Leadership/212/Managing-Innovation/ In spite of recession aftershocks and consumer wariness, Adidas CEO, Herbert Hainer finds that product innovation is central to his company’s ability to continue on a steady growth path. Its people, products and consumers matter to Adidas. Organizing R & D in Germany for European sports and in the…
Crowdsourcing virtual collectables http://pinterest.com/about/ Keeping track of visuals and links for research projects requires organizational discipline. Pinterest is a virtual social bulletin board on which the user “pins” images from web searches and from other Pinterest boards. The service interfaces with Facebook and Twitter. Registered community members can make comments on activated pins and can…
Custom publishing across platforms http://www.sharedbook.com/index.html Publishers struggle with innovating customer-based solutions. Custom books continue to attract some faculty/student interest on campus, as the competition for textbook purchases increases. SharedBook, founded in 2002 by Jossie Hollandar, is a publishing and annotation platform company headquartered in New York, with R&D offices in Herzlia, Israel. Its latest offer,…
Border matters http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/borderlines/ Country borders define physical allegiance, but they may not define culturally-based identities. Border delineations, often defined by occupying forces, serve to separate country ownership, but create interesting population demographics that defy the borderlines. London-based author, Frank Jacobs, writes about “cartographic curiosities.” He describes these borders as “a bit like glass ceilings, but…
Management strategy lessons from the pages of art history http://www.jamieandersononline.com/Book.html http://www.locavesting.com/Locavesting_homepage.html In an interesting take on business and innovation management, authors Anderson, Reckhenrich and Kupp look at several successful creative artists from an historical perspective, in order to distill lessons-learned that can be applied to business. Believing that creativity, innovation and their relationship to…
Community building community http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-25/michelle-obama-urges-mayors-executives-to-add-healthy-foods.html Building communities is good for business. Following on Michelle Obama’s crusade to bring healthy food to the dinner table, eight mayors and several food retailer CEOs met in Chicago to discuss mutually beneficial ventures. The Urban Power farm network, Growing Power , entered into a distribution memorandum of understanding with Walgreen…
Causes illuminated
Causes illuminated http://www.onedayonearth.org/ On 11.11.11 this year, millions of people will participate in a photo extravaganza, exposing cause-related projects from around the world. As of this writing, featured causes include: poverty, environment & nature, education, gender equality, human rights, migration & refugees, health care, humanitarian aid, and child welfare. This could be an opportunity…
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