Marc Andreessen: Why Software is Eating the World – WSJ.com

Interesting essay by Marc Andreesen (2011, WSJ):

This week, Hewlett-Packard (where I am on the board) announced that it is exploring jettisoning its struggling PC business in favor of investing more heavily in software, where it sees better potential for growth. Meanwhile, Google plans to buy up the cellphone handset maker Motorola Mobility. Both moves surprised the tech world. But both moves are also in line with a trend I’ve observed, one that makes me optimistic about the future growth of the American and world economies, despite the recent turmoil in the stock market.

In an interview with WSJ’s Kevin Delaney, Groupon and LinkedIn investor Marc Andreessen insists that the recent popularity of tech companies does not constitute a bubble. He also stressed that both Apple and Google are undervalued and that “the market doesn’t like tech.”In short, software is eating the world.

More than 10 years after the peak of the 1990s dot-com bubble, a dozen or so new Internet companies like Facebook and Twitter are sparking controversy in Silicon Valley, due to their rapidly growing private market valuations, and even the occasional successful IPO. With scars from the heyday of Webvan and Pets.com still fresh in the investor psyche, people are asking, “Isn’t this just a dangerous new bubble?”

Read further: Video – Groupon Investor Marc Andreessen Insists there is No Tech Bubble, Apple and Google are Undervalued – WSJ.com.

Becoming more strategic: Three tips for any executive – McKinsey Quarterly

From McKinsey Quarterly:

We are entering the age of the strategist. As our colleagues Chris Bradley, Lowell Bryan, and Sven Smit have explained in “Managing the strategy journey,” a powerful means of coping with today’s more volatile environment is increasing the time a com pany’s top team spends on strategy. Involving more senior leaders in strategic dialogue makes it easier to stay ahead of emerging opportunities, respond quickly to unexpected threats, and make timely decisions.

This is a significant change. At a good number of companies, corporate strategy has long represented the bland aggregation of strategies that individual business unit heads put forward.1 At others, it’s been the domain of a small coterie, perhaps led by a chief strategist who is protective of his or her domain—or the exclusive territory of a CEO.

Rare is the company, though, where all members of the top team have well-developed strategic muscles. Some executives reach the C-suite because of functional expertise, while others, including business unit heads and even some CEOs, are much stronger on execution than on strategic thinking. In some companies, that very issue has given rise to the position of chief strategy officer—yet even a number of executives playing this role disclosed…..

Read rest of arficle here Becoming more strategic: Three tips for any executive – McKinsey Quarterly – Strategy – Strategy in Practice.

Who You Gonna Call? Navigating the Existential Crisis

LECTURE NOTES

This PDF file contains all the slides that I will present during the course, plus some that I won’t present, but that may be discussed in class or using the board.
260Lectures Fall 11.pdf

ARTICLE: Bad Strategy Perils — McKinsey

Nice article on how the idea and terms of “strategy” are overused. Don’t fall into these traps!
Bad Strategy Perils McKQ0611.pdf

ARTICLE: Best Parent Strategy — McKinsey

The natural combination of the ideas of corporate advantage and acquisition strategy leads to the idea of “best parent firms.” See this article for elaboration; there is also an HBR article on this theme.
Best Parent Strategy McKQ00.pdf

ARTICLE: Tests of Strategy — McKinsey

Good article on key questions to ask in strategic thinking. PDF below:

PDFDownload.aspx.pdf

ANALYSIS: Why best practice isn’t the best strategy — McKinsey

Chart Focus Newsletter August 2011View on the Web: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/newsletters/chartfocus/2011_08.htm Share Why best practice isn’t the best strategy Spurious frameworks and torrents of data often obscure the basic principles of good strategy. To beat the market, companies must exploit imperfections that stop (or at least slow) its workings. Such competitive advantages are scarce and fleeting because markets drive a reversion to mean performance as middling companies emulate the best and the worst exit or undergo significant reform. Good strategies therefore emphasize difference—versus direct competitors, potential substitutes, and potential entrants—not industry-wide best practices. To learn more, read “Have you tested your strategy lately?” (January 2011).