All articles by Ken Favaro

Strategy talk: How long should a long-term strategy be?
The right time frame for a strategy depends on what its implementation will require.
March 21, 2019 by Ken Favaro
Strategy Talk: How to Help Your Team Get More Creative
Leaders should draw on the past to spark ideas that are both novel and practical.
February 6, 2019 by Ken Favaro
Strategy Talk: What’s the Right Mix of Organic Growth and Acquisitions?
Three questions will help you find the best combination of buy, borrow, and build for your business.
October 2, 2018 by Ken Favaro
Strategy Talk: Can Strategy Be Decisive and Flexible?
Clear choices can provide stability for your organization while also enhancing your strategic options and ability to adapt.
March 15, 2018 by Ken Favaro
Strategy Talk: Can the Latest Organizational Innovations Really Help Us?
Evaluate new management approaches, such as holacracy and agile, based on how they can improve clarity and collaboration at your company.
January 2, 2018 by Ken Favaro
Best Business Books 2017: Strategy
Animal Spirits
November 7, 2017 by Ken Favaro
Strategy Talk: How Can I Make My Company More Innovative?
Successful innovation in big organizations demands three essential behaviors.
June 28, 2017 by Ken Favaro
Strategy Talk: The Real Reason Your Stock Price Is Lagging
Financial engineering won’t fix a stagnant valuation.
May 9, 2017 by Ken Favaro
Strategy Talk: How Do I Build a Strong Pipeline of Future Leaders?
The next generation of management needs to build its strategic acumen through real-world practice.
April 12, 2017 by Ken Favaro
Strategy Talk: What’s Wrong with Cross-Selling, Anyway?
Your strategy should turn customers into “cross-buyers” of your products and services.
March 21, 2017 by Ken Favaro
A Better Way to Engage Your Board on Strategy
Shaping strategy should be an ongoing team effort of the CEO and directors, not just an annual exercise.
January 31, 2017 by Ken Favaro
Strategy and the Board
Your strategic planning process and annual off-sites may be holding your directors back.
December 22, 2016 by Ken Favaro
The Strategy Lessons of a Long Hike
A punishing trek is a painful reminder to get your strategic fundamentals right.
October 24, 2016 by Ken Favaro
Lessons from the Strategy Crisis at Netflix
The thriving streaming business faces some fundamental questions about its future.
September 6, 2016 by Ken Favaro
Why Popular Strategies Always Fade
The most capable strategists see the real value, and big pitfalls, in new business concepts.
May 25, 2016 by Ken Favaro
Has Your Strategy’s Shelf Life Expired?
What to do when you outgrow your target market — or vice versa.
March 14, 2016 by Ken Favaro
Why Distinctive Customer Targeting Is a Smart Strategy
Don’t underestimate the power of choosing a unique definition of the customers your company will serve.
February 8, 2016 by Ken Favaro
Save Your Strategy from the Global–Local Divide
How companies with multiple businesses operating in far-flung markets can avoid common strategy-implementation pitfalls.
December 21, 2015 by Ken Favaro
Mutually Assured Disruption
Why established companies should join forces with upstart competitors.
December 21, 2015 by Ramesh Nair and Ken Favaro
One Company, Two Identities, One Strategy
Large enterprises that operate both as a single entity and a business portfolio get the best of both worlds.
November 9, 2015 by Ken Favaro
Best Business Books 2015: Strategy
The Search for Innovation
November 2, 2015 by Ken Favaro
The Trouble with Putting Goals Ahead of Strategy
Winning strategies start with a big idea.
June 15, 2015 by Ken Favaro
Vertical Integration 2.0: An Old Strategy Makes a Comeback
More companies are seeking greater control of their value chain — but they should do so with caution.
May 6, 2015 by Ken Favaro
The $112 Billion CEO Succession Problem
Poor planning for changes in leadership costs companies dearly. Getting it right is worth more than you might think. See also “CEO Succession: Why It Pays to Have a Plan.”
May 4, 2015 by Ken Favaro, Per-Ola Karlsson, and Gary L. Neilson
Big Ideas Mark the Path from Strategy to Execution
Winning companies are made by leaders committed to solving important problems with innovative ideas — against all odds.
April 7, 2015 by Ken Favaro
Diversify or Focus? The Best Strategies Do Both
It’s time to break your company’s cycle of expand-contract-repeat.
February 26, 2015 by Ken Favaro
The Quantified Self Goes Corporate
How to make data your source of sustained growth.
January 26, 2015 by Ken Favaro and Ramesh Nair
The Internet of Things Wins s+b’s 2014 Strategy of the Year
The linking of billions of devices through the Web has scaled the heights of strategy fashion.
January 20, 2015 by Ken Favaro
The Truth About Breakthrough Strategies
You won’t find them through typical strategic planning, executive retreats, or brainstorming sessions.
December 15, 2014 by Ken Favaro
Best Business Books 2014: Strategy
To the Nimble Go the Spoils
November 3, 2014 by Ken Favaro
Free Your Strategy from Annual Planning
When your strategy is shackled to the annual planning process, you lose a uniquely powerful management tool.
October 28, 2014 by Ken Favaro
Where Are the Sinkholes in Your Strategy?
Answering two critical questions will fortify your company’s strategy—and your ability to implement it.
August 14, 2014 by Ken Favaro
Don’t Let the Short-Term–Long-Term Tension Drag Your Strategy Down
How to navigate the twin demands of current performance and future investment.
June 24, 2014 by Ken Favaro
The Lives and Times of the CEO
From 100 years back to a quarter century ahead, the evolution of the chief executive officer.
May 30, 2014 by Ken Favaro, Per-Ola Karlsson, and Gary L. Neilson
Strategy or Culture: Which Is More Important?
Although culture is much more than an “enabler” of strategy, it’s no substitute for it.
May 22, 2014 by Ken Favaro
Strategy Is Not about the Competition
Customers and capabilities—not the competition—should take center stage when developing strategies.
April 28, 2014 by Ken Favaro
How IKEA, Disney, and Berkshire Hathaway Succeed with Adjacencies
Many adjacency moves fail because they’re driven by the wrong motives. But a lot can be learned from those that succeed.
March 11, 2014 by Ken Favaro
The Dangers of Adjacencies Strategy
Why a popular approach to growth may put your company’s health at risk.
January 30, 2014 by Ken Favaro
Big Data Strategy: s+b’s Strategy of the Year
From the headlines to the C-suite, big data embodied the height of strategy-as-fashion in 2013.
January 8, 2014 by Ken Favaro
Introducing s+b’s “Strategy of the Year”
What is 2013’s most in-vogue strategy? Make your nominations.
December 2, 2013 by Ken Favaro
Dear Verizon: Here’s How to Make the Megadeal with Vodafone Pay Off
Avoid the usual temptations and your big bet on Verizon Wireless might be a big win.
October 29, 2013 by Ken Favaro
How Microsoft Can Once Again Punch Above Its Weight
A respected head office and strong corporate affinity will drive the company’s fortunes.
September 24, 2013 by Ken Favaro
Looking Inside the Latest Reorganization of Microsoft
As he prepares to step down, will Ballmer’s organizational shake-up make any difference?
August 27, 2013 by Ken Favaro
The Thought Leader Interview: Loran Nordgren
The cofounder of unconscious thought theory explains how taking a break and distracting the mind can lead to higher-quality decision making.
August 27, 2013 by Ken Favaro and Amy Murphy
Was News Corp’s Split Inevitable and Is PepsiCo Next?
Why some corporate relationships end in divorce while others live on in blissful union.
July 29, 2013 by Ken Favaro
Is Strategy Fixed or Variable?
Successful strategists understand that their role is to manage a process fraught with contradictions.
July 18, 2013 by Ken Favaro
Does P&G Need Product Innovation or Strategic Innovation?
As A.G. Lafley returns to the helm, the consumer products giant can’t just rely on its product development expertise to get its mojo back.
June 20, 2013 by Ken Favaro
You Can’t Build a Winning Strategy If You Don’t Know Who You Are
The road to sustained success begins with the answer to this simple question: “Who are we?”
June 10, 2013 by Ken Favaro
Portrait of the Incoming Class
The newest CEOs have neither the diversity nor the global backgrounds that you might expect.
May 28, 2013 by Ken Favaro, Per-Ola Karlsson, and Gary L. Neilson
“It’s Time for a Change”
CEO turnover is trending high, but in a more planned and stable manner.
May 28, 2013 by Ken Favaro, Per-Ola Karlsson, and Gary L. Neilson
Captains in Disruption
Even when facing a crisis, some CEOs know how to anticipate the worst, plan a response, and navigate to advantage. You can do the same.
May 28, 2013 by Ken Favaro, Per-Ola Karlsson, and Gary L. Neilson
Can Best Buy Thwart the Grim Reaper?
The big box retailer badly needs a good dose of strategic innovation. Is it up to the task?
May 13, 2013 by Ken Favaro
We’re from Corporate and We’re Here to Help
Understanding the real value of corporate strategy and the head office.
April 8, 2013 by Ken Favaro
The Right Ideas in All the Wrong Places
How strategic intuition unlocks innovative solutions to your biggest problems.
March 11, 2013 by Ken Favaro
The Thought Leader Interview: Cynthia Montgomery
A Harvard Business School professor observes that leaders become better strategists by engaging in conversations about the purpose of a company.
February 26, 2013 by Ken Favaro and Art Kleiner
Sourcing Growth
A review of Build, Borrow, or Buy, by Laurence Capron and Will Mitchell.
February 26, 2013 by Ken Favaro
How Leaders Mistake Execution for Strategy (and Why That Damages Both)
When leaders substitute visions, missions, purposes, plans, or goals for the real work of strategy, they send their firms adrift.
February 11, 2013 by Ken Favaro
Strategy or Execution: Which Is More Important?
Many business leaders think they’d rather have great execution than superior strategies, but you can’t have the first without the second.
June 1, 2012 by Ken Favaro
Strategy: An Executive’s Definition
What is a business strategy? It is the result of choices made to maximize long-term value.
May 29, 2012 by Ken Favaro
CEO Succession 2011: The New CEO’s First Year
Big companies are once again appointing new chief executives in greater numbers, Booz & Company’s annual study finds. Here’s a close look at the incoming class, and some advice from veterans on how they can best navigate their crucial first year.
May 24, 2012 by Ken Favaro, Per-Ola Karlsson, and Gary L. Neilson
Navigating the First Year: Advice from 18 Chief Executives
CEOs who took part in Booz & Company’s 2011 study of CEO turnover share their thoughts about the difficulties they faced, the successes they achieved, and what, in retrospect, they might have done differently in their first year on the job.
May 24, 2012 by Ken Favaro, Per-Ola Karlsson, and Gary L. Neilson
The Two Levels of Strategy
Business strategy is best distinguished from corporate strategy by the different perspectives that business leaders and strategic planners must bring to bear.
April 27, 2012 by Ken Favaro
Netflix Wasn’t All Wrong
Six months after video rental company CEO Reed Hastings was forced into a strategic retreat from Qwikster, strategists can still learn a lot from his decision.
April 2, 2012 by Ken Favaro
The Next Winning Move in Private Equity
To outperform their rivals, private equity firms will need to enhance their ability to spur organic growth in the companies they own. (And public companies will need to follow.)
May 24, 2011 by Ken Favaro and J. Neely
CEO Succession 2010: The Four Types of CEOs
Booz & Company’s annual study of turnover among chief executives — now increasingly diverse, as the world’s largest companies migrate to emerging economies — suggests that the nature of the job varies with the role of the corporate core.
May 24, 2011 by Ken Favaro, Per-Ola Karlsson, and Gary L. Neilson
Total Shareholder Returns
This measure of business performance is the best indicator of corporate success.
March 21, 2011 by Ken Favaro and Greg Rotz
Getting Tensions Right
How CEOs can turn conflict, dissent, and disagreement into a powerful tool for driving performance.
August 24, 2010 by Ken Favaro and Saj-nicole Joni
CEO Succession 2000-2009: A Decade of Convergence and Compression
The role of the chief executive is evolving. CEOs from around the world discuss the game-changing practices that lead to success.
May 25, 2010 by Ken Favaro, Per-Ola Karlsson, and Gary L. Neilson

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