Burning Platform

Nokia's new CEO Stephen Elop came out with a scorcher of a memo for his employees last week. While indulging in a very frank analysis of Nokia's competition, Elop uses the analogy of a "burning platform". He opines that currently, Nokia does indeed find itself on such a burning platform, and it is imperative for the firm to take a plunge into dark, unknown, freezing waters. Meanwhile, Justin Fox of HBR blogs, who studied Nokia in-depth a few years ago, recollects a few things about Nokia's history, and how it came to be the giant it is today.

The CEO's memo provides as interesting a read as this piece on one of the key factors that got Nokia to where it is today.

How NOT to compete

As businesses try and do something "different" in order to capture the consumer's attention, it seems like they are all in fact doing the same thing - minor tweaking to breakthrough innovations and then terming those to be "brand new" products.

These kind of innovation-less improvements do nothing other than adding to a growing pile of mediocre products. This post at HBR Blogs talks about how such kind of strategy contributes nothing to the world. One startling statistic quoted: A recent Consumer Electronics Show (an annual affair) saw the unveiling of 20,000 products... Woah! 20,000 products within the consumer electronics segment alone. How many of these are we actually interested in?

A Simple Strategic Framework

Many who read the blog title may opine that the phrases "Simple" and "Strategic Framework" do not go together!

However, H. James Wilson proposes exactly such a framework. While admitting that traditional strategic frameworks are rarely helpful to front-line practitioners, he draws upon a simple concept from his personal life as a trainer and racer in triathlons.

Wilson found that triathlon racers can be segmented into three categories based on which position they finish in. Those finishing middle or last seem to have just one goal - to somehow get into the segment which finishes first, i.e. move in that direction from one race to the next. Based on this concept, he asked three questions to several firms to assess where they were, and whether they were moving in the right direction.

You can read about his findings at the HBR Blogs. A rather short and simple read, this.

Have Breakfast... Or... Be Breakfast!

The title of this post is a perspective on competition given by the boss of an IT company.

In this classic article from The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Y.L.R. Moorthi elaborates on how one should not be myopic while considering the competitors of one's business.

The examples he gives drive home the point beautifully. So 'nuff said... Just read it here!