All articles by Tim Laseter
A Strategist’s Guide to the Digital GroceryJuly 10, 2017 As Amazon and Walmart disrupt the grocery industry, smart retailers can compete by plying their wares in a technologically enabled way.
The Line between Confidence and HubrisNovember 21, 2016 You can identify early signs of failure or success from a prospective CEO’s behavior.
Navigating Retail’s Last Mile November 9, 2015 To serve online shoppers effectively, companies need to make complex trade-offs among speed, variety, and convenience.
What Mom-and-Pop Stores Can Teach Grocery ChainsNovember 10, 2014 To stave off online competitors, supermarkets should work with their suppliers and get back to personalized service.
Management in the Second Machine Age
May 12, 2014 Future leaders will succeed by being entrepreneurial and by rethinking the balance between financial and social goals.
A Skeptic’s Guide to 3D PrintingNovember 26, 2013 Excitement about any new technology should be balanced with the application of time-tested forecasting tools.
Building a Flywheel BusinessMay 28, 2013 By linking customers and capabilities, companies can generate the momentum for sustainable growth.
The University’s DilemmaNovember 27, 2012 In the face of disruptive change, higher education needs a new, more innovative business model.
Three Games of Strategic Thinking
May 29, 2012 Decision makers struggling with uncertainty can choose from a trio of probabilistic models to match the type of risks they face.
A Better Way to Battle MalwareNovember 22, 2011 Emulating the methods used to transform production quality could clean up the Internet — and might even pay for itself.
Focus and Scale on the Internet
May 24, 2011 The next wave of online business models must focus narrowly, rather than blindly pursuing scale.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle…or RethinkNovember 23, 2010 For consumer durables, environmental sustainability starts with discarding conventional wisdom.
Cleaning the Crystal BallMay 25, 2010 How intelligent forecasting can lead to better decision making.
An Essential Step for Corporate StrategyNovember 24, 2009 Though often missing, a formal operations strategy can guide the crucial decisions that build competitive advantage.
Reframing Your Business EquationMay 26, 2009 Companies and industries are often driven by implicit formulas. Questioning their validity can lead to breakthroughs.
Supplier Empowerment and the Bottom LineNovember 25, 2008 When you adapt your sourcing strategy to a more diverse world, everybody benefits.
Launch and LearnFebruary 26, 2008 To consistently turn out profitable new offerings, companies must integrate three distinct innovation portfolios.
See for YourselfAugust 29, 2007 Firsthand observation on the front lines can offer the critical insights that make for inspired — and inspiring — leadership.
Operations Strategy for a Flat WorldMay 17, 2007 How ecommerce, globalization, and outsourcing, are changing the production and distribution of products and services.
Operations Strategy for a Flat WorldMay 17, 2007
Lessons of the Last BubbleFebruary 28, 2007 Smaller bets can make the next technological boom more productive and enduring.
The Craft of ConnectionAugust 28, 2006 Organizational network analysis is helping companies share knowledge worldwide, one natural broker at a time.
The Hidden Costs of ClicksFebruary 28, 2006 Internet retailers are finally learning why books and luggage make money online — while shoes and toys don’t.
Reinhard Selten: The Thought Leader InterviewMay 23, 2005 The Nobel Prize–winning German economist says understanding hindsight will improve foresight.
The Right Mix for a Pricing FixMay 23, 2005 Balancing relationship building and opportunism leads to a strategy for all seasons.
When Offshoring Isn’t a Sure ThingAugust 25, 2004 Gung ho for going global? Make sure to look beyond labor costs.
The Power of Plausibility TheoryJune 1, 2004 A new form of decision analysis is helping executives reevaluate risk management.
The Supply Side of Design and DevelopmentMay 20, 2003 Not all products are created equal, so supplier integration schemes must be flexible.
What FreshDirect Learned from DellFebruary 12, 2003 And what other e-tailers might learn from make-to-order pioneers.
E-Marketplace Survival StrategiesOctober 11, 2002 Business model innovation is overrated. Customizing conventional services online offers the surer path.
Why Outsourcing Is InJuly 15, 2002 Once used largely for nonessential, tactical activities, partnering now covers core operations, transforming entire industries.
The Four Phases of Continuous SourcingApril 9, 2002 Purchasing can deliver ongoing benefits, but only if it cycles through a series of linked disciplines.
Marketing and Operations: Can This Marriage Be Saved?January 9, 2002 Marketers worry about top-line revenue, while operations people fret about cost. Differentiated Service Policies allow them to coexist.
B2B Benchmark: The State of Electronic ExchangesOctober 1, 2001 Business-to-business e-commerce is fraught with peril for buyers and sellers alike. An exclusive survey of 1,800 e-Marketplaces shows what it takes to win.
Sweeping Webvan into the Dustbin of HistoryAugust 13, 2001 "Common-goods" e-tailers are collapsing because they ignored an iron law of retailing: New formats win only by offering better prices, not better service.
Oasis in the Dot-Com Delivery DesertJuly 1, 2001 E-tail intermediaries may do what Kozmo and Webvan could not.
Operations at the Core: What Amazon Offers Category KillersMay 18, 2001 Online's biggest retailer aims to serve the offline retailers it once threatened. The shift may be Amazon's best hope for prosperity.
Beating the B2B OddsApril 1, 2001 Internet auctions create losers as well as winners. Game theory shows companies how to improve their chances.
M2M — The Next Wireless FrontierApril 1, 2001
The Last Mile to SomewhereJanuary 1, 2001 Once considered the domain of tacticians, operations now resides at the forefront of business strategy. Consider the saga of Web-based delivery services.
The Last Mile to ... Somewhere?October 17, 2000 Is Urbanfetch's demise a harbinger of doom for other Web-based delivery services? Maybe not, depending on their willingness to change and investors' willingness to wait.
The Last Mile to Nowhere: Flaws & Fallacies in Internet Home-Delivery SchemesJuly 1, 2000 Investors have risked billions on Webvan, Urbanfetch, and other same-day transporters. The economics, though, show they won't deliver for long.
Amazon Your Industry: Extracting Value from the Value ChainJanuary 1, 2000 The inefficient, tradition-bound, $4 billion trade-book industry is using the Internet to unlock an additional $2 billion-plus.
Balanced Sourcing the Honda WayOctober 1, 1998
Cost Modeling: A Foundation Purchasing SkillJanuary 1, 1998 At the heart of best practice in purchasing is a set of skills. One of the most important is the one that enables managers to understand what determines cost.
Setting Supplier Cost Targets: Getting Beyond the BasicsJanuary 1, 1997 This third article in a series on balanced purchasing focuses on target costing and recommends a five-step process to optimize the cost of product designs still in development. A hypothetical development effort for a sports watch is used to demonstrate the process. If carried out properly and at the right level of detail, target costing can insure competitiveness without jeopardizing supplier cooperation.
Balanced PurchasingJanuary 1, 1996
The Big, the Bad, and the BeautifulSize comes in three flavors — scale, scope, and network. Choose wisely from the menu.
When Will Supply Chain Management Grow Up?Answer: When companies take to heart its three underlying principles.
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