Borders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week (“Borders Begins a New Chapter…11″). The reasons ranged from price battles with internet retailers like Amazon.com to carrying too much debt. But the real problem was a lack of strategy. Like so many other companies that experience early success and then falter, Borders failed to evolve their strategy over time based on the changing competitive landscape and customer value… READ MORE

“If you are not genuinely pained by the risk involved in your strategic choices, it’s not much of a strategy.” Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix Think you have a tough group of competitors to deal with? Take a look at this list and see if you’d like to trade: Walmart, Amazon, Blockbuster and Apple. Any takers? So how does one not only compete with the likes of Walmart, Amazon and Apple but actually win? By creating a strategy that is truly… READ MORE

Friday is almost in the rear-view mirror. How much time did you spend talking about strategic issues this week? Research published in the Harvard Business Review showed that 85% of executive leadership teams spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy, with 50% spending no time at all. Contrast that with Amazon.com. Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos (recently rated the 7th best performing CEO in the world in a study by INSEAD) said that his… READ MORE