Nilofer Merchant

Nilofer Merchant: July 2008 Archives

Here you’ll find a collection of blog entries published during the month of Nilofer Merchant: July 2008.

Let’s not do it again

By Nilofer Merchant on July 29, 2008

Review of web-based failures, and they had me going down memory lane. It is both funny and sad.


The 5 Structural Elements of Strategy: Decision-Making

By Nilofer Merchant on July 28, 2008

Strategy has 5 Structural Elements - power distribution, decision-making, idea generation, ideas, process and people. Miss tuning one and you’ll fail. Add items that don’t blend and you’ll fail. Decision-Making The way decisions are made in organizations determines how ideas…


The 5 Structural Elements of Strategy: Power Distribution

By Nilofer Merchant on July 23, 2008

Strategy has 5 Structural Elements - power distribution, decision-making, idea generation, ideas, process and people. Miss tuning one and you’ll fail. Add items that don’t blend and you’ll fail. Power Distribution This dictates who to involve, how much information each…


The Missing Strategic Ingredient

By Nilofer Merchant on July 21, 2008

Part of the difficulty in strategy creation is the temptation to direct rather than ask open-ended questions. When the C-suite sends a directive telling people to head in a certain direction, thinking isn’t involved. Teams start to align against that…


Strategy Failure = Strategy Creation Process Gone Awry

By Nilofer Merchant on July 18, 2008

We’ve all seen it - the company that makes a play for new customers and finds they’ve targeted incorrectly. The product launch that fizzles. A big rebranding move that ends up being underwhelming. Is strategy failure due to poor leadership,…


Don’t Miss the Middle When Formulating Strategy

By Nilofer Merchant on July 14, 2008

What purpose does middle management serve in strategy development? Misunderstandings between the C-suite and middle management lead to bad decisions, loss of time and loss of money. Many organizations have flattened management structures. Those that haven’t are working on it….