Several days ago, Prateek Raj retweeted a capsule HBR article by Piero Formica, “Why Innovators Should Study the Rise and Fall of the Venetian Empire”. Retweeting it myself, I said “This is bad history. Really, really bad”. Quite fairly, I was challenged to elaborate by University of Liverpool’s Andrew Smith. My response took the form … Continue reading Cool Hand Lagoon: On the Misappropriation of Venetian History
Innovation
Sanforized* Economics: A Look at Shrink Theory
A week or so ago, Alvaro La Parra-Perez tweeted a link to a Rafael del Pino master conference presentation (think of this as being asked to address bigwigs by Brookings Institute or American Enterprise Institute) by John Joseph Wallis of the University of Maryland. Wallis, an economic historian, entitled his presentation “The Nature of Long-Term … Continue reading Sanforized* Economics: A Look at Shrink Theory
A Second Law of Strategy: All Profits come from Routine Innovation
If you want to convince yourself you can read a foreign language, try reading business articles. Well, let me clarify that: I’m not saying business English is a foreign language, I’m saying that business articles in another language you more or less know will prove surprisingly transparent. I spent a recent flight back to the … Continue reading A Second Law of Strategy: All Profits come from Routine Innovation
Buzz is Noise: A Law of Business Strategy
Thought leadership is not leadership. Expertise in the direction of the moment does not make one a strategist any more than the direction itself constitutes a strategy. We can see this by looking at the waves of fashion in business consulting. A time series of business buzz phrases- if you picked them carefully - might suggest some … Continue reading Buzz is Noise: A Law of Business Strategy
Against the Winds: Can Innovation Overcome the Negative Trends in the American Economy?
On average, over the last 145 years, the economy of the United States, measured by GDP per capita, has grown 2% per year. Over the last 45 years, however, US per capita growth has been markedly slower, averaging 1.62% for the period 1970-2014. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and the slow recovery … Continue reading Against the Winds: Can Innovation Overcome the Negative Trends in the American Economy?
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