Effectivus Product Management » mentoring http://effectivus.com Technology product development, management & marketing Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:00:20 +0000 en hourly 1 Get Lucky http://effectivus.com/2009/11/get-lucky/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss http://effectivus.com/2009/11/get-lucky/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:00:11 +0000 Chris http://effectivus.com/?p=906
  • An Application for Professor of Bubble-Bursting
  • Pricing
  • First-Mover Advantage or Winner’s Curse?
    • ]]>     DiceMy favourite columnist in The Economist, Schumpeter, had a little rant last week about “The three habits of highly irritating management gurus”.  What caught my cynical eye was towards the end of the piece when he points out how frequently corporations cited in the gurus’ books as model, end up in trouble a few years later.  He cites a piece of research[i] by Andrew Henderson of the University of Texas in which Henderson looked at the firms cited in “success studies” like “In Search of Excellence” and “Good to Great”.

    “We evaluated 287 allegedly high-performing companies in 13 major success studies.  We found that only about one in four of those firms was likely to be remarkable; the rest were indistinguishable from mediocre firms catching lucky breaks.”

    “Many of the ‘great’ companies cited are, in fact, nothing special; consequently, the researchers are simply imposing patterns on random data.  That’s not science – it’s astrology”


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    ]]>     http://effectivus.com/2009/11/get-lucky/feed/ 2     An Application for Professor of Bubble-Bursting http://effectivus.com/2009/10/an-application-for-professor-of-bubble-bursting/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss http://effectivus.com/2009/10/an-application-for-professor-of-bubble-bursting/#comments Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:57:51 +0000 Chris http://effectivus.com/?p=870
  • Get Lucky
  • Management Science or just Superstition?
  • Pricing
    • ]]>     Klingon or Strategy Professor?This evening I’m going to attend the 10 year anniversary alumni dinner of my MBA year at Cranfield University.  This is a bit of a first for me as I have rarely returned to my seats of learning, largely due to me leading student revolutions at most of them.

    Recently in The Economist (“The pedagogy of the privileged”) “Schumpeter” argues that business schools have done little to reform themselves in the light of the credit crunch.  The writer concludes:

    “Business schools need to make more room for people who are willing to bite the hands that feed them: to prick business bubbles, expose management fads and generally rough up the most feted managers.  Kings once employed jesters to bring them down to earth.  It’s time for business schools to do likewise.”

    A jester for a business school?  I’d like to apply for the fun-poking, mickey-taking, fad-busting, bubble-pricking role.  Amongst the many bubbles I’d like to burst:


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    ]]>     http://effectivus.com/2009/10/an-application-for-professor-of-bubble-bursting/feed/ 1     What did you do in the last recession, Daddy? http://effectivus.com/2009/02/what-did-you-do-in-the-last-recession-daddy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss http://effectivus.com/2009/02/what-did-you-do-in-the-last-recession-daddy/#comments Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:48:49 +0000 Chris http://effectivus.com/?p=313
  • Make the tough stuff look simple
  • Matador
  • What to do in a Recession?
    • ]]>     Matador paint and animation softwareWe were sitting on a couple of packing cases in a Chicago convention hall chatting about what we’d like to do next. Gareth had started a software company a few years before and had created a 3D animation package which ran on hardware made by the company I was working for. It had been involved in an unrelated patent battle which was finally going to put it in its grave and me into redundancy. The conversation ambled along as we killed time waiting for the shipping boxes to come out of storage so we could pack up and head off to the bar.

    Slowly our conversation drifted from the fun stuff we liked to do, to a sketch of a new product we could build.


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    ]]>     http://effectivus.com/2009/02/what-did-you-do-in-the-last-recession-daddy/feed/ 5     First-Mover Advantage or Winner’s Curse? http://effectivus.com/2009/02/first-mover-advantage-or-winner%e2%80%99s-curse/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss http://effectivus.com/2009/02/first-mover-advantage-or-winner%e2%80%99s-curse/#comments Sat, 14 Feb 2009 04:51:19 +0000 Chris http://effectivus.com/?p=335
  • What to do in a Recession?
  • The Tyranny of the Served Market
  • New Revenues from Existing Technology
    • ]]>     Silver medal “First-Mover Advantage” is a piece of received wisdom in management circles.  It is taught on MBAs and has been the attention of much academic research.  Is there really an advantage to being a first mover when bringing innovative new technology products to market?  My experience made me doubt it.  Just asking myself the question led to another, equally interesting one for those wrestling with product strategy; what are the costs of attempting to gain first mover advantage?


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    ]]>     http://effectivus.com/2009/02/first-mover-advantage-or-winner%e2%80%99s-curse/feed/ 0     What to do in a Recession? http://effectivus.com/2009/02/what-to-do-in-a-recession/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss http://effectivus.com/2009/02/what-to-do-in-a-recession/#comments Mon, 09 Feb 2009 07:31:39 +0000 Chris http://blog.effectivus.com.s58998.gridserver.com/?p=21
  • What did you do in the last recession, Daddy?
  • First-Mover Advantage or Winner’s Curse?
  • Rotten to the core?
    • ]]>     Lighting strikesRunning a business is tough at the best of times but when times become tough the job goes beyond challenging. Reading around what some expert commentators were saying about what to do in a recession, I started to realise just how challenging it was.

    I was lucky to study Economics during my MBA under Prof. Joe Nellis (Cranfield University). He’s written an article on “How to Thrive as the Economy Falters” in the September issue of “Finance & Management”.
    Read the rest of What to do in a Recession?

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    ]]>     http://effectivus.com/2009/02/what-to-do-in-a-recession/feed/ 2     mentoring http://effectivus.com/2009/01/mentoring-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss http://effectivus.com/2009/01/mentoring-2/#comments Wed, 31 Dec 2008 23:00:48 +0000 Chris http://effectivus.com/?p=605
  • Get Lucky
  • An Application for Professor of Bubble-Bursting
  • Freeman Christie
    • ]]>     For many of our clients, what they value most, is the opportunity to talk things through with someone who both understands their business and has the experience and knowledge to help. That is our forte.

    We take things one step at a time, work within your resources and capabilities, but push forward to find that elusive success.

    Related posts:

    1. Get Lucky
    2. An Application for Professor of Bubble-Bursting
    3. Freeman Christie

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