Author Archives: Adam Hartung
Summary: Google is locking-in on what it made successful But as technologies, and markets, change Google could be at risk of not keeping up Internal processes are limiting Google’s ability to adapt quickly Google needs to be better at creating and launching new projects that can expand its technology and market footprint in order to maintain long-term growth Google has been a wild success. From nowhere Google has emerged as one of the biggest business winners at leveraging the internet. With that great success comes risk, and opportunity, as Larry Page resumes the CEO position this year. Investors hope Google keeps finding new opportunities to grow, somewhat like Apple has done by moving into new markets with new solutions. Where Apple has built strong revenue streams from its device and app sales in multiple markets, Google hasn’t yet demonstrated that success. Despite the spectacular ramp-up in Android smartphone sales, Google … Continue reading
Nobody admits to being the innovation killer in a company. But we know they exist. Some these folks “dinosaurs that won’t change.” Others blame “the nay-saying ‘Dr. No’ middle managers.” But when you meet these people, they won’t admit to being innovation killers. They believe, deep in their hearts as well as in their everyday actions, that they are doing the right thing for the business. And that’s because they’ve been chosen, and reinforced, to be the Status Quo Police. When a company starts it has no norms. But as it succeeds, in order to grow quickly it develops a series of “key success factors” that help it continue growing. In order to grow faster, managers – often in functional roles – are assigned the task of making sure the key success factors are unwaveringly supported. Consistency becomes more important than …
Or why we don’t create enough Amazon.com’s by Adam Hartung It is unlikely anyone in business or government thinks productivity is a bad thing. Productive students get their homework done faster, and learn more in the available time. Productive musicians make more recordings, and tend to learn more over their careers. And productive companies produce more goods and services with less inputs – like labor – thus offering more to customers at lower cost while making more money for investors. At a national level, the more productive we are at everything from growing wheat to making cabinets to writing smartphone apps improves the quantity of goods available to our population – growing the gross domestic product (GDP.) Improving productivity is one of the most critical activities to creating and maintaining a healthy economy, improving incomes and generating wealth. Then why is American policy so anti-productivity? American manufacturers today are …
Business people keep piling onto the innovation and growth bandwagon. PWC just released the results of its 14th annual CEO survey entitled Growth Reimagined. Seems like most CEOs are as tired of cost cutting as everyone else, and would really like to start growing again. Therefore, they are looking for innovations to help them improve competitiveness and build new markets. Hooray! But, haven’t we heard this before? Seems like the output of several such studies – from IBM, IDC and many others – have been saying that business leaders want more innovation and growth for the last several years! Hasn’t this been a consistent mantra all through the last decade? You could get the impression everyone is talking about innovation, and growth, but few seem to be doing much about it! Rather than search out growth, most businesses are still trying to simply do what …
Create wealth like Apple, Amazon, Priceline, DeVry, Colgate by Adam Hartung “Goodbye 2010, the Year of Austerity” is the headline from Mediapost.com’s Marketing Daily. And that could be the mantra for many, many companies. Nobody is winning today by trying to save their way to prosperity! As we move into this decade, it is important business leaders realize that the only way to create a strong bottom line (profit) is to develop a strong top line (revenue.) Recommendations: Never be desperate. Go to where the growth is, and where you can make money. Don’t chase any business, chase the business where you can profitably growth. Be somewhat selective. Focus efforts on markets you know best. I add that it’s important you understand not to do just what you like, but learn to do what customers VALUE. Let go of crap, traditions and “playing it safe” actions. …
Summary: Many large, and leading, companies have not created much shareholder value the last decade A surprising number of very large companies have gone bankrupt (GM) or failed (Circuit City) Wal-Mart is a company that has generated no shareholder value The Wal-Mart disease is focusing on executing the business’s long-standing success formula better, faster and cheaper — even though it’s not creating any value Size alone does not create value, you have to increase the rate of return Companies that have increased value, like Apple, have moved beyond execution to creating new success formulas Have you noticed how many of America’s leading companies have done nothing for shareholders lately? Or for that matter, a lot longer than just lately. Of course General Motors wiped out its shareholders. As did Chrysler and Circuit City. The DJIA and S&P both struggle to return to levels of the past decade, as many of … Continue reading
