How to thrive in the subscription economy
Businessam Staff
July 21, 2017
STRATEGY Tien Tzuo, Founder & CEO, Zuora What you deliver and how you deliver it to customers has to be completely rethought. A trend began in 2007 that would soon be recognised as a once-in-a-century transformation of the way business is transacted: away from buying products towards subscribing to services. We call this new business […]
The double-edged sword of being a lean start-up
Businessam StaffJuly 20, 2017
ENTREPRENEURSHIP Vikas Aggarwal, INSEAD Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise Experimentation is vital in early-stage start-ups, but it involves a set of trade-offs that can influence a firm’s ability to adapt to future technological change. “Move fast and break things” was the oft-quoted motto of Facebook’s early days. This ethos of speed is […]
How your firm can reignite sales growth
Businessam StaffJuly 19, 2017
MARKETING Amitava Chattopadhyay, INSEAD Professor of Marketing Connecting with a fundamental consumer concern can give your brand purpose and create a platform for long-term profitable growth. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, the company’s annual losses were in excess of US$1 billion. Bankruptcy loomed on the short-term horizon. One of Jobs’ first moves […]
The teachable moments of financial crisis
Businessam StaffJuly 19, 2017
LEADERSHIP & ORGANISATIONS Henrich Greve, INSEAD Professor of Entrepreneurship Squint hard enough and you can find traces of long-ago crises in the way communities do business today. For communities, financial crises are unforgiving mirrors. When money dries up in tightly-knit communities, trust emerges as a sort of substitute currency to bolster imperilled institutions. Mistrustful communities […]
Lessons from the Merchants of Venice
Businessam StaffJuly 13, 2017
STRATEGY Giovanni Tassini, INSEAD MBA 17J, and Loic Sadoulet, INSEAD Affiliate Professor of Economics Making the most of its position as an important sea port, Venice’s remarkable economic development during the Middle Ages relied on network effects, contractual innovation, and coordination among the players involved in long-distance trade. Companies today still exploit these mechanisms to […]
Strategy making: How to tap the wisdom of the crowd
Businessam StaffJuly 13, 2017
STRATEGY Daniel Mack, PhD Candidate at INSEAD, and Gabriel Szulanski, INSEAD Professor of Strategy Even firms that typically prefer to centralise decisions needn’t miss out on the benefits of opening up their strategy making. Strategy making has traditionally been the purview of the top management team. Leaders in the inner circle of organisations pride themselves […]
How digital platforms increase inequality
Businessam StaffJuly 10, 2017
ENTREPRENEURSHIP In their 1995 book The Winner-Take-All Society, Robert H. Frank and Philip J. Cook explained how a few highly rated sportsmen win the bulk of rewards in their field. As digital platforms gain prominence, we are likely to see winner-take-all outcomes across a wider range of professions beyond sport, entertainment and the few widely […]
Identifying social norms makes for better business
Businessam StaffJuly 10, 2017
RESPONSIBILITY N. Craig Smith, INSEAD Chaired Professor of Ethics and Social Responsibility, and Markus Scholz, Endowed Chair of Corporate Governance and Business Ethics at the University of Applied Sciences for Management & Communication, Vienna The concept of Creating Shared Value (CSV) triggered a major leap in the global movement to redefine the role of business […]
When losing employees boosts innovation
Businessam StaffJuly 10, 2017
LEADERSHIP & ORGANISATIONS Andrew Shipilov, INSEAD Professor of Strategy, Frédéric Godart, INSEAD Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour, and Julien Clément, INSEAD PhD Candidate The loss of a top employee is commonly seen as a setback for companies. However, recent research suggests it can be a blessing. Why? An employee lost is a potentially vital network […]
Strategic change is all in the timing
Businessam StaffJuly 7, 2017
LEADERSHIP & ORGANISATIONS Quy Huy, INSEAD Professor of Strategic Management At the end of the 20th century, perhaps no American business leader was more admired—and emulated—than former General Electric CEO Jack Welch. He became legendary for almost single-handedly remaking the massive Boston-based conglomerate into a global leader. During his 20-year tenure, which ended in 2001, […]