Sustainable Advantage: I don’t know how we can claim we have a sustainable competitive advantage unless, that is, that we believe that advantage to be our ability to learn faster than the competition. Technology is moving much too fast for us to think that some sort of product or service is really our competitive advantage. But continuous learning, a willingness …
The Black Box
Puzzle Eons ago, when I was in engineering school, we had an exercise known as “The Black Box.” The idea is simple; the challenge wasn’t always so simple. Inside the box, hidden from our view, was an electronic circuit. There were two variations, a paper exercise where the instructor gave us the input and outputwaveforms, and we had to derive …
Book Review: The Living Organization by Norman Wolfe
There is much discussion in the business world as to what has happened in the economy and how it affects our business models. Most business owners with whom I speak agree that things have permanently changed. What that means to the business is that we need a new model, a new way of thinking about our businesses so that we …