Monthly Archives: January 2014

Do MBAs destroy value?

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MBA programs help students gain general human capital which may give them a feeling that they can solve problems in a broad range of contexts. Some have lamented how this can result in arrogant behaviors that make them hard to work with. Scott Adam captures this problem admirably below. It might make sense to use this to imbue students with a sense of caution as they enter the workforce.

Contributed by Russ Coff

Dogbert on Bureaucracy

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Dogbert writes a new management text and defines bureaucracy as when “a hundred people think ‘A’ but compromise on ‘B’.” One wonders how firms can create any value at all. This might spur a strategy process discussion of how satisficing results in suboptimal outcomes.

Contributed by Russ Coff

How to Build a Network Advantage

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“Network Advantage: How to Unlock Value from Your Alliances and Partnerships” is written for MBA, Masters of management, and Executive Education programs. It can be used in core strategy courses or electives on corporate strategy innovation, or strategic alliances. The book offers a step-by-step guide for how to build network advantages.

  • The impact of individual alliances, partnerships and their portfolios on the firms’ competitive advantage (Introduction, Chapters 1 & 2).
  • The role of complementarity and compatibility between partners for the formation of successful alliances and partnerships (Chapter 3)
  • Differential impact of the “hub and spoke” alliance portfolios and “integrated” portfolios on competitive advantage. These represent inter-organizational networks rich in structural holes and dense ties, respectively (Chapters 4 & 5).
  • The role of organizational status in competitive advantage (Chapters 6 & 7)
  • Should the firm build its own alliance portfolio or join another firm’s network (Chapter 8)
  • How to improve information flows inside the firm to attain competitive advantage from alliances and partnerships (Chapter 10).

Most chapters introduce tools for how to develop a collaboration strategy. These are compiled at the end of the book. A short introductory video is available on youtube:

Contributed by Andrew Shipilov

Homer’s Oddity: A Human Capital Chip

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The Simpson’s clip below illustrates how human capital can be co-specialized with other assets to create an advantage. The Intel chip, once paired with Homer, becomes a strategic asset in the pastry sciences. In this way, human capital becomes industry and firm-specific and can be a source of competitive advantage especially if rivals have no substitutes. This is also related to Lazear’s skill weights model where unique combinations of general human capital form highly idiosyncratic knowledge bases. Could Homer be a source of advantage for Dunkin Donuts? Who would reap the gains?

Contributed by Russ Coff

BIC Pens “For Her”

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This is an actual product. However, customers have thought it rather odd to market a pen specifically for women. This has led to an array of hilarious product reviews. Here is an article about the reviews (try not to fall off your chair while reading). It is an interesting case of differentiation and segmentation gone awry — definitely worthy of class discussion. Below is a segment that Ellen Degeneres did on the product (including her proposed commercial). In the end, I’m guessing that the publicity has led to some unanticipated sales…

Contributed by Phil Bromiley

Zappo’s Zaps Mgrs: A whole holacracy

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Zappos is moving to a holacracy whereby managers and job titles go by the wayside (see this CNET article among others). This is a real kick in the head to bureaucracy and hierarchy. How does this organizational design mesh with their strategy of customer service and innovation? Another nice example is Valve — see the Valve post on this site. These examples can seed a discussion of strategy, structure, and organizational design as well as a critical analysis of many practices taught in business schools. Such radical forms can be very hard to design and implement. One problem that Foss explores in a recent Organization Science paper is incentives, motivation, and the tendency of managers to meddle in tasks that they say they have delegated. Here is an entertaining Zappo’s commercial to ease into the topic (though one of the many Dilbert videos would be quite compatible as well).

Contributed by Russ Coff